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Exercise your mind as you would exercise your body. The act of writing is to your brain like walking on the treadmill is to your body. The more regularly you do it, the more benefits you receive. Schedule time for exercise every day, or every other day as time allows and your body will begin to work better, feel better, and look better. The same is true for scheduled writing time. Done regularly, writing produces multiple psychological benefits such as improved decision making, strengthened relationships, and reduced stress in your daily life.

Decision Making (pros and cons)

One of the first benefits to putting your thoughts on paper is discovering clarity. Seeing the words in writing makes them real and solvable. This technique is particularly useful when it comes to making a tough decision. How many times have you heard the advice to fold a piece of paper in half vertically and write all the pros of the decision on one side and all the cons on the other? We know this advice but rarely do people follow it. The act of writing helps you to weigh risks and benefits of decisions, and hopefully leads to making better ones.

Even if you do not have a life-changing decision to make, writing is a beneficial tool to simplify your life and stay organized. To-do lists are a prime example of this type of writing. The greatest benefit of all is the psychological boost you get when you cross an item off your list! Writing helps you to remember important appointments and events, benefiting you and your family in being where you need to be on time. Feeling overscheduled as a family? Try writing down everyone’s activities and then ranking them, giving each member at least two or three activities they get to keep; have each person rank their remaining priorities and get rid of the ones that are not necessary or less important.


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