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Apart from being a tool that helps us store and communicate important information, writing is also an easily accessible and flexible type of therapy. That’s reason enough to celebrate and start looking at writing as a catalyst to improved mental health, academic and career success.

As a student, you process copious amounts of knowledge that is produced from your studies. On top of the coursework, it’s also important to develop and maintain healthy relationships with other students and your lecturers. Most of that ‘relationship work’ will involve writing to those people. In many instances, the life of a student is centered on writing and organizing notes, irrespective of the type of qualification they are studying for. 

A regular writing habit (especially outside of academic work) helps with finding meaning in daily experiences. It also helps to observe those experiences from a renewed perspective. As a result, you will tend to see the silver lining even during your most negative and stressful moments.

Writing out your thoughts and feelings helps you have a strong handle on the following mental health challenges:

• Grief and loss

When a loved one passes away, we can find solace, reflection and acceptance by writing about their life and the lessons they taught you.

• Anxiety

Many people can attest to having a childhood filled with anxiety. Keeping a journal and publishing blogs about life and your learning can help you become better at communicating your thoughts. Consequently, you can also become more confident and sociable.

• Depression

2020 was a mentally challenging year for the world and it’s fair to say many were in a dark mental space. Having a creative outlet like writing proved to be therapeutic and a good distraction given all the was happening in the world because of the Carona Virus.

• Communication skills

Taking the plunge to publish your thoughts and knowledge can allow you to gather feedback and improve. The feedback loop can boost your confidence. It also invites people with the same perspective to reach out.

The benefits of writing your thoughts and feelings:

• Build a second brain that spans years

Imagine if you were to read through ten years’ worth of notes that you wrote, on different topics, moods and attitudes.

That collection of notes is a powerful repository of knowledge that shows different mindsets of the same person. It is the act of creating a second brain.

When you are armed with a collection of notes that span back years, you can look at your mind outside of yourself, so to speak. This gives you the ability to identify behavioural patterns that lead to how you interact with the world.

• Write for mental and emotional clarity

Every time you decide to face a blank page or screen to express yourself or make a To-Do list, you choose to sharpen your mind.

Writing helps with the thinking process. Over time, it makes it easier to remember details from lectures, meetings, articles, videos and other media.

As you develop a strong writing habit, you’ll begin to pay more attention to your behaviour and the world around you.

• Improve your creativity

When you organize information using notes, you invariably elevate your creativity in the process. The notes carry different pieces of information and that presents an opportunity to combine the ideas written in your notebook to create fresh ideas.

A systematic way to store notes encourages open-mindedness. And it puts you in a position to make connections between contrasting ideas.

A writing habit is also an opportunity to develop a consistent idea generation system.

• Learn to store (and perhaps, publish) the ideas that you learn

The reality is that in every interaction you have there is something interesting to learn. From throwaway conversations, television series episodes, movies, YouTube video right through to music.

When you have a system to save and sort that information, learning becomes easier and happens anywhere. When you are an avid note taker, you listen to people with a strong intent to understand them and learn something new.

Collecting notes is a great way to inspire curiosity.

• Maintain relationships in your life like a champ with clear communication

Another interesting reality is that when you improve your writing skills, your relationships benefit. Writing necessitates that the writer resolves any emotional chaos they may have happened inside of them in order to create words that connect with other people.

Along with a daily writing habit grows the ability to communicate thoughts in a clear manner. When you can write clearly the quality of your conversations also improves.

There is undisputed freedom and flexibility that being online has brought in our lives – from writing online exams right up to online shopping. I mean for starters; you probably would not be reading this blog post had you not been connected online. With instant messaging and notifications, endless apps across phones, tablets, and laptops, we’ve never been more connected. In one hour, you can Skype family, facetime a friend, send off a string of emails, tweet, and post a story on Instagram. It’s all so normal now and for most of us, it has become a part of our daily lives.

Although being connected is extremely pivotal for productivity, convenience and learning, one can’t help but wonder whether being constantly online and connected to almost everyone is a bit much.

According to The Social Network, a Netflix documentary that highlights the dangers of social media, we are the most connected yet loneliest generation with high statistics of depression. Mundane activities have become even harder to carry out with the growth of online activity. For example, a psychologist from the documentary states that GenZ is less comfortable with taking risks, and less likely to get a driver’s license or go on a date. The age at which young people obtain their driver’s license has become older as time goes by.

 Perhaps you don’t relate to these stats but in one way or another, the online world has dramatically changed the relationship we have with ourselves and other people. To gain some perspective, let us weigh up the pros and cons which can probably help some of you make informed decisions.

Pros

Learning and working virtually

More than ever, this year has shown that being connected through the internet is a great boost for teams who don’t need to be in the office as they can work virtually. The same can be said for students who want to learn and study online.

Instant access to information

I think most of us can agree that Google is one of the best creations yet. Being able to any kind of information within the tip of your finger is a great privilege that one shouldn’t take lightly. Apps such as YouTube have become an integral tool to teach us how to do some important DIY things as well as tutorials. We live in an era where it is nearing impossible to require labour to do things because you can just google how to do it. Even dictionaries are quickly becoming outdated because why page an entire book when you can just take out your phone and google the meaning of a word.

Being connected to friends and family

One big positive of the online world is the ability to remain connected to people you have built a relationship with. Therefore texting and video calling loved ones is a  more positive use of screens than just scrolling through Instagram or things that don’t enhance your relationships.  

In other words, it can be beneficial to use Facebook for example to catch up with a friend from across the world – as long as it’s not interfering with making in-person plans with other people.

Cons

The inability to switch off

If you are one of those people who check emails and social media in the morning before you do anything, you’re not alone. The boundaries between work, school, home and social circles have been blurred by wireless connections and mobile devices.

While being available when needed can be counted as a positive by some, the pressure to be constantly available can be quite exhausting if no boundaries are established.

Constant distractions

Arguably one of the biggest pitfalls of being online is the constant distractions of the internet. These distractions vary from a phone call during a meeting or a notification from social media that can cause curiosity and next thing you know, you’re picking up your phone and allowing yourself to be distracted.

Anti-social

According to the Netflix documentary, The Social Network, we are the most anti-social generation to date. Being online with our friends and family can create the illusion that we are “seeing” our loved ones, but maybe we really need to interrogate how often we go out for coffee, take a walk, play sports, go to the movies and the like. Loneliness is a result of the fact that screen time cannot replace investment in real and intimate relationships. Screens are taking us away from the real relationships in our lives.

Social media and anxiety

Seeing all of the great things your Facebook or Instagram friends are posting about may make you feel left out or inadequate. Additionally, you might start comparing how many “likes” or comments others get on their posts compared to your own. It might also make you compare their “progress” in life relative to yours which may lead to increased anxiety that your life is not as progressive. Above that, it might make you think of all the things that you don’t have (i.e., partner, job, qualifications, etc).

Screentime and depression

A study conducted in 2017 states that adults who watched TV or used a computer for more than 6 hours per day are more likely to experience moderate to severe depression. The reality is that looking at a screen for an excessive number of hours can worsen a person’s mood.

Creative block

If you are a creative person, creative thoughts can be compromised by excessive information. Basically, if we are inundated with too much information without time to unpack, ponder and reflect, one is less likely to be innovative. Thus, the creative block. This is why often; writers will go on a writer’s retreat and switch off from the noise of the world and look for inspiration elsewhere.

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Online fatigue is a state of mental and/or emotional exhaustion that materializes among people who spend considerable time using different digital tools – often for continuous periods of time.

The frequent use of these platforms might involve the management of your educational activities and information across different platforms and (perhaps) devices. Maintaining communication with teachers, other faculty members, and fellow learners, writing online exams, socializing with family and friends, etc.

And of course, remote working has allowed students and professionals in different industries across the world to keep safe from the dreadful Covid-19 epidemic. It’s also presented us with flexible hours, increased productivity, and time to do other things in our lives. On the other hand, it has changed the way we connect with each other, our relationship with work and has surely catapulted the use of screens to a whole new level.

It’s the nature of the beast nicknamed ‘20-Plenty’, and the digital era.

Needless to say, if not used with the objective of finding a healthy balance, technology can invade our lives in ways that undermine our well-being.

Internet connectivity, as the necessary equalizer of opportunity that it is, doesn’t have to be a threat to our minds. And in the spirit of encouraging health, here are four ways to mitigate the effects of this type of fatigue:

First, start being aware of your screen time

It’s fairly easy to power up the phone to read emails and end up surrendering to the bottomless social media feed. Done for a long time, the habit carries the potential to shift priorities and negate the depth of your personal interactions with people and the world around you. Hence it’s important to keep track of how and which platforms you spend most of your time.

It’s become essential to ask: what type of impact are my online activities having on the quality of my life?

Take-away: Track the screen-time on your phone. For iOS, you’ve got Screen Time Settings and on Android, there’s the Google’s Digital Wellbeing toolkit. And there are plenty of apps that can help in that regard as well.

Get more sleep

The experience of studying through learning management systems makes it easy to work through study material at any time of the day.

And when sleep falls off your daily routine due to academic, social, and extracurricular activities, so too does intellect and memory. Getting sufficient sleep helps with the processing of information (which, let’s face it, you have to do all the time) and restores our mental and physical abilities.

Take-away: Try cutting off the use of devices an hour or two before bedtime, and avoid bringing your phone or computer to the bedroom.

Learn again to live fully in the present

At some point or another, we’ve been guilty of pulling out our phones when we experience remarkable – and sometimes awkward – moments. It could be while having lunch with a friend we haven’t seen for a long time, at a party or other type of occasion that we feel needs to be documented.

However, there’s value in living life without yearning to record and publish everything for the world to see. You could also take it a step further and leave your phone behind, except when you’re on standby for an important call or message.

Allan Watts reminds us: “One fine day, you’ll realise that there is no way at all of having your mind anywhere else but in the present moment. Because even when you think about the past or the future you’re doing it now, don’t you?”

Take-away: Remind yourself all the time that life is transient and there’s nothing more important to fuss over than the present moment.

Look after yourself

Setting time aside for you is important. Especially because the boundaries between work and relaxation have gone blurred. Our personal and professional lives come embedded with countless hours of screen-time.

As a result, dedicating time to self-care isn’t always easy to do. And as we’ve established, most of us are witlessly busy with schoolwork and are absorbed with technology to set aside time for ourselves. So quality me-time is normally pushed to last on the agenda. The other thing, we may feel guilty about prioritising the time needed to take decent care of ourselves.

Take-away: Eat wholesome meals, exercise frequently, travel, revisit a hobby, and say no to commitments that leave you burnt out. When your mind, emotions and overall health are in sound balance, it frees up energy to ace your studies and feel on top of the world while doing it.

Final thought

Taking time to establish a balance between being a digital native and diligently attending to ‘offline duties’ will help you stay grounded and healthy as you build your career.

You are sitting at your table and you feel a gradual sense of mental paralysis coming over you. Your ability to think straight appears to be suspended. You start panicking a bit and you feel heart palpitations, slight shortness of breath, your mouth feels dry and your hands are getting sweaty. The thing you were just busy with suddenly feels like an impossible task and you cannot build the steps in your mind to go from A to B, even though it’s something simple that you’ve done countless times before. You look around you to check whether anyone has noticed that you are losing it.