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elfsMany of you who lifehack on paper, who use a Moleskine or Miquelrius or even a Hipster PDA, know that something is wrong with your method. You might have all the usual skills, adapted post-it tabs and bookdarts and maybe even used an xacto knife to carve out your own sections, but there's still something about your personal to-do system that bothers you a lot.
Admit it: your handwriting sucks.
Do something about it.
Find a hand you like. Seriously, find someone else you want to imitate. If you want to go all out, you can buy Write Now!, which is what I used. You can go to their website and download a few excerpts which show the hand they encourage their students to learn. You can find more excerpts elsewhere, too. You can't improve if you don't have good examples. Heck, maybe you have a favorite font you'd want to imitate. Print out sample sentences in it and practice following them.
Hold your pen loosely in your hand. Hold it as you normally would, but as you're writing once in a while pause and tap your pointer finger against the top of the pen to remind yourself to loosen up. Don't death-grip your pen.
Keep the paper at a comfortable angle, not straight-on. We all know how paper naturally seems to fall at an angle while we're working; figure out what angle works best for you and stay with it.
I spent ten minutes a day every morning for about two weeks, and the improvement was pretty good. I can read my own handwriting now, which is the goal I set out for myself. Some people recommend using lined paper, but I remember something from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: writing is just drawing. Words are made up of lines. Get used to doing it on plain paper. I recently switched to a "sketchpad" Moleskine and had a big leap: my handwriting improved, and the lack of lines gave me freedom to explore drawing and digramming. The lines just got in the way.
After that, continue to be mindful of how you write, and never accept illegibility again.
Admit it: your handwriting sucks.
Do something about it.
Find a hand you like. Seriously, find someone else you want to imitate. If you want to go all out, you can buy Write Now!, which is what I used. You can go to their website and download a few excerpts which show the hand they encourage their students to learn. You can find more excerpts elsewhere, too. You can't improve if you don't have good examples. Heck, maybe you have a favorite font you'd want to imitate. Print out sample sentences in it and practice following them.
Hold your pen loosely in your hand. Hold it as you normally would, but as you're writing once in a while pause and tap your pointer finger against the top of the pen to remind yourself to loosen up. Don't death-grip your pen.
Keep the paper at a comfortable angle, not straight-on. We all know how paper naturally seems to fall at an angle while we're working; figure out what angle works best for you and stay with it.
I spent ten minutes a day every morning for about two weeks, and the improvement was pretty good. I can read my own handwriting now, which is the goal I set out for myself. Some people recommend using lined paper, but I remember something from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: writing is just drawing. Words are made up of lines. Get used to doing it on plain paper. I recently switched to a "sketchpad" Moleskine and had a big leap: my handwriting improved, and the lack of lines gave me freedom to explore drawing and digramming. The lines just got in the way.
After that, continue to be mindful of how you write, and never accept illegibility again.
