Cross-Post — This article was initially posted to LinkedIn on August 15, 2022
Want to stay mentally sharp as you get older? Sure, you can do your crossword puzzles and brain games and read lots of books, but I recommend this:
Write. Every day. As if it were your job.
Here’s why.
Writing forces you to think, and it forces you to think logically. You’ll have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or if it’s something persuasive you’ll want to have a logical path that flows from initial statement to detailed reasoning to a summary or conclusion.
This will exercise the frontal lobe in your brain which is primarily responsible for planning, organizing, logical thinking, reasoning, and managing emotions. All good stuff to keep improving or at minimum keeping in good working order as you get older.
You could either do a complete brain dump and just write down what you’re thinking as a stream of consciousness, or you could go back to review and edit what you wrote.
I like editors a lot, for two reasons:
1) They’re thorough. They go through their initial steps and corroborate for accuracy, detail, spelling, etc.
2) They’re measured. They remove anything that shouldn’t be there. They determine when to release it, how to release it, and even to whom it should be released. Sometimes they pull the plug on what they wrote and determine it should never see the light of day. I do this every day with emails and social media posts and my blog.
Sometimes the best thing to say is very little or nothing at all. But at least you went through the exercise to draft it. Especially if you’re writing while angry. (Pro-tip: NEVER EVER EVER release that email you wrote while angry. Save the draft and re-read it once you’ve leveled off. Then decide if it’s still worth sending or not.)
Whenever possible, I evaluate the writing of job candidates. I want to know if he/she can think critically and logically. I also want to know if they can form an opinion and be persuasive. And finally I want to know if they can spell correctly and articulate their thoughts and that they’re not going to embarrass me and our team by launching an error-ridden message.
Nothing shows a lack of give-a-shit and a lack of attentiveness like a poorly-crafted message. It means you didn’t take the time to read your own message. If YOU’RE not going to read it why should anyone else?
(*caveat: mistakes happen. I get it. Misspellings and word omissions. Our brains aren’t perfect. But don’t be lazy or a continual offender.)
So where do you write? You could post short messages on Twitter or slightly longer ones on LinkedIn. Nothing forces clarity like a short word count. You just write a personal journal that you save in a password-protected Word document, or publish a blog if you want others to read it and provide their comments. Or just practice with the emails you’re already writing every day. Proofread them, improve them, re-write them if needed. Make that your exercise.
Whatever it is, just be sure to write every day. Your brain will be much happier for it.