Journals, planners, and more

For learning, I think the act of writing by hand forces more engagement with the material precisely because it's more work; you have to restructure an idea to write it down by hand vs the ability to cut and paste on a computer. The idea passes through you to the paper because there's no other way for it to get there. Computers are terrible in terms of allowing you to keep too much, too fast rather than forcing an immediate sifting. (I'd be curious to know about testing manual typing versus computer typing. I feel like the engagement would be higher for manual type.)

For writing a novel out long hand? No. I've started that several times in my life, and never finished it. And journaling introduces another wrinkle, because let me tell you, I wish I had found Dreamwidth when it started and not just a couple of years ago. I have lost SO MANY notebooks in that time. Not that anything is ever permanent, but I'm much more confident that I'll still be able to find a thing on Dreamwidth in a couple years than in any of the notebooks I keep right now. Plus it's searchable! (That said, I am glad I added written journaling back to the mix. It really does help wake the mind up somehow.)