Moving Beyond the Fountain Pen
Reflections on the recent Independent article, 'Why writing letters and books by hand has such profound mental health benefits'.
I have just finished reading a piece in The Independent from earlier this week. It explores the profound mental health benefits of writing letters and books by hand. The article suggests that the tactile connection between pen and paper is a unique balm for the modern mind; it argues that in our world of digital noise, the act of forming letters with ink is a radical act of self-care. The piece highlights how handwriting engages complex neurocircuitry, which helps to calm the nervous system and improve memory retention. The authors propose that the ‘slow’ pace of handwriting allows for a more contemplative state of mind, providing a sense of ‘cognitive ease’ that we often lose in our high-speed digital lives.
While I found the sentiment beautiful, it sparked a healthy debate in my own mind as I reflected on my creative journey. Throughout last year, 2025, I was immersed in a significant project: committing to a regular series of long-form articles and completing the primary work for my book. I found myself questioning the assumption that the benefit of writing lies solely in the physical act of handwriting. For me, the magic is not in the ink; it is in the intentionality of the reflection.
The Architecture of an ‘Enhanced’ Workflow
To understand why I believe the medium matters less than the method, we must look at the core concepts that drove my work throughout 2025. My process was not anchored in the slow scratch of a pen. Instead, it was built on a foundation of voice and transcription.
The core concepts we are exploring today are:
The Power of Utterance: How speaking our thoughts aloud provides a different, often more honest, level of clarity than writing.
The Velocity of Insight: Capturing ideas at the speed they occur before they are lost to the next thought.
Tool Agnostic Intimacy: The idea that we can use modern tools to get closer to our authentic selves.
In my book, Enhanced Leadership, I discuss the importance of eliminating the friction between a thought and its execution. For many of us, handwriting is the ultimate friction.
Why the Voice Beats the Pen for My Process
The article in The Independent suggests that speed is the enemy of reflection. I believe this is a misunderstanding of how the creative mind functions. My process is necessary for me because my thoughts often arrive with a velocity that a pen simply cannot capture. Last year, my primary tool was my voice. I would record my reflections, coaching insights, and book chapters as I walked or sat in quiet contemplation. These recordings were then transcribed, providing me with a raw, honest ‘brain dump’ of my current thinking.
This workflow allowed me to capture the nuance, the tone, and the immediate spark of an idea before it was dimmed by the mechanical struggle of physical writing. The cognitive and creative benefits were entirely present. I still experienced that wonderful ‘unspooling’ of the mind. The ‘heavy lifting’ happened during the review and the edit. When I sat down with those transcripts, I was forced to engage with my thoughts in a highly disciplined way. I had to organise, prune, and polish. This iterative dialogue with my spoken words provided all the mental health benefits the Independent article attributed to handwriting.
Challenging the Slow-Communication Myth
There is a common belief that we must slow down to be profound. However, in a previous article, ‘AI, but make it intimate’, I explored how we can use technology to enhance our humanity rather than replace it. Using voice-to-text tools is a perfect example of this. It allows the leader to remain in a state of flow, unencumbered by the physical limitations of the hand.
Mindfulness is about presence; I have never felt more present than when I am speaking my truth into a recorder. The mental clarity comes from the externalisation of the thought. Whether those thoughts appear in cursive or as a digital transcript, the result is the same: you have moved the internal to the external. You have created space. My digital writing habit is my primary tool for that reflection; it is my way of ensuring I am leading from a place of settled intent rather than frantic impulse.
Practical Takeaways for Leaders
For those of you in leadership positions, the discipline of regular reflection is perhaps the most undervalued tool in your arsenal.
Speak Your Strategy: Instead of staring at a blank page, record a five-minute voice note explaining your vision. Transcribe it and use that as your first draft. This captures the energy of your conviction.
Audit Your Friction: Identify where your ideas get stuck. If you find writing by hand or typing tedious, abandon them. Find the tool that allows your thoughts to flow most freely.
Refinement as Reflection: Treat the editing of your transcripts as your primary time for deep thinking. In Enhanced Leadership, I emphasize that clarity of intent is more important than the tools we use.
Practical Takeaways for Coaches
As coaches, we can help our clients find their own ‘voice’ by encouraging them to step away from traditional methods if they do not serve them.
The Verbal Journal: Suggest that clients record their post-session reflections through voice notes. This removes the ‘performance’ aspect of writing and encourages a more fluid flow of ideas.
Focus on Insight over Form: Remind your coachees that the brain values the output and the reflection, not the aesthetic of the delivery.
Iterative Review: Encourage them to review their own transcripts. The act of editing one’s own spoken thoughts is a powerful exercise in self-awareness.
Conclusion: Finding Your Own Flow
While I enjoyed the perspective offered by The Independent, my experience in 2025 proved that there is no single ‘correct’ way to harness the power of the written word. By using a workflow anchored in voice and transcripts, I was able to produce a book and a year of articles that felt more authentic to my leadership style than anything I could have produced with a pen.
I encourage you to find your own rhythm. Whether you pick up a pen or a microphone, the important thing is that you begin the process of turning your thoughts into a legacy. If you would like to explore these themes further, please visit levelupleadership.uk. There, you can find more resources and information about my book, Enhanced Leadership, which offers a deeper dive into the frameworks I used to navigate my own creative challenges last year.
Follow on LinkedIn - Spotify - YouTube - Apple
Level Up Leadership is a passion project in my spare time. I enjoy doing it, and I intend to keep these articles and podcasts free. However, the software and equipment I use isn’t free! So, if you are enjoying this content and would like to make a donation, you can do so by clicking this button. Thank you.
This article is a companion piece to follow up on a recent guest article I wrote for @aibutintimate
If you enjoyed Moving Beyond The Fountain Pen, I encourage you to read: https://aibutintimate.substack.com/p/the-unedited-self-how-to-use-ai-to