I hope you have been reviewing your spending, either every evening or every few days, to keep track of where your money goes. While it seems a new app to help you do this is launched every minute, there is a lot to be said for writing with pen and paper, even in our folded little notebooks.

 

Professor Audrey van der Meer of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has run multiple studies to show how writing by hand develops more synapse and neuron activity than typing. In short, our brains become more active and this creates more ways for us to think about what we’re doing, and then remember it.

 

There’s even a school of thought that says you don’t really know what you think about a subject until you write it down.

 

That’s what I would love for you to try this week: think out loud on paper. Try a free-writing assignment, or two, and just scribble, scrawl, doodle, note and think on to a sheet of paper what comes to mind.

 

No one is going to mark this. No one is going to know. You can save it for yourself if you want to note it down, or you can throw it away if you never want to see it again.

 

If you want to try immediately, go and find some writing materials.

 

Right now, before you read down to see the prompt. Ah–ah–ah. No cheating.

 

Anyway, we’ll delay that for a second, and give you another chance. You can also set yourself a timer, perhaps just five minutes, to really ensure the writing you do is fresh and not over-thought. That’s the point. No finely crafted essays allowed. We want to see our innermost thoughts.

 

So get a way of timing, and writing, and paper, and write down what financial peace of mind will mean to you.