Write to Learn: Tips on How to Use Writing as a Learning Tool

Writing is one of the most useful and life changing creations humans have ever made. This newsletter will give you three strategies and insights on how to use writing as a guide to your learning.

As far back as I can remember, writing has always been a way for me to express my thoughts in a much clearer way than trying to express them verbally.

It was when I was about 6 or 7 years old that I started writing in a journal to express my feelings and creativity. To this day, I still have the journals that I wrote way back in primary school. I'm able to look back at my thought processes at that time and clearly see the progress I've made intellectually while still holding on to that creative spirit of my young self.

Writing is one of the most useful and life changing creations humans have ever made. This newsletter will give you three strategies and insights on how to use writing as a guide to your learning.

Why Writing is Important When Learning

Writing helps clear your mind. It helps you to see what thoughts are roaming around in your head. It’s also the medium we use every day when chatting with each other through WhatsApp or social media. At times we don’t even realize how powerful the act of writing can be.

Just think if humans never created writing, how would we know the great works of Plato or the religious texts of the Bible or Quran? We wouldn’t unless they were passed down through oral storytelling.

Writing not only helps us keep a record of the great thinkers of history, but helps us reinforce what we know and reflect on new things we learn.

It also helps us to understand the mistakes we’ve made or the successes we’ve had. It helps us to decipher the patterns of our lives more effectively than just thinking or speaking about our experiences without writing them down.

Writing is a self-reflective tool we can use to distance ourselves from our own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. When distancing ourselves from our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, we can learn to see areas of our life we can improve or do differently next time.

Overall, writing makes us aware of things that may have otherwise gone unseen.

How to Use Writing as a Tool for Learning

1. Take a journal with you wherever you go.

This could be a physical journal or a digital one. I write in a physical journal every day but I also keep a Google Docs specifically for writing down observations or thoughts that come to me throughout the day. My motto is,

‘When an idea strikes you, write it down before it flies away never to return.’

Because the honest truth is our memories are not perfect, so if you don’t end up writing your thoughts down while they’re still with you then they are more likely to be forgotten.

Also, if you keep two separate journals, one for daily venting and reflection, and another for just your observations and ideas, you can come back to either of them to reflect again on what you have written and potentially turn some of those ideas into practice.

2. Keep a Book Journal

I personally use an app called RemNote for all of my book notes, research, and thoughts that have sprung up from my reading sessions. When reading, what you want to try and do is elaborate on what you have read, dig deeper, or ask questions for further research.

This book journal is not just for keeping quotes from the books you read because that would only be surface level learning. It’s for expanding upon what you read and building what is called a Second Brain. This Second Brain can help you to organize and remember your thoughts, connect what you have learned with previously unconnected ideas, and then create something new.

3. Track Your Patterns

Keeping your writing in one place like a journal or app can be useful because you can go back to it any time you want. I recommend using this tool as a way to see the patterns of your life. What were you thinking or learning about a year ago today? Look at your journal and find out. Reflect and improve.

I usually revisit parts of my journals (Idea/Observation Journal and Book Journal) about once every other month or when I feel the need to. I even make comments in the margins of my own journal and can easily add more thoughts to the RemNote app without ever running out of space. By doing this, I’m in a continuous cycle of reflection and improvement and I know that if you give it a try, you’ll experience something similar.

Why not give writing to learn a try?

The only thing you will get from trying this strategy out is continuous improvement. You pretty much have nothing to lose by trying it and I hope it works for you when you do.

I will definitely write more about this topic in the future as it is one that has made such a huge impact in my life.

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I will always do my best to write helpful learning strategies every week.