I learned something about myself last night.  Rather, I remembered something about myself.  When I was in high school, I always had issues typing essays.  I’d write draft after draft and take home C after C on my papers.  It was frustrating, but I managed to keep my grades up through endless re-writes and the unearned goodwill of several teachers.  It wasn’t until my junior year when I discovered a very interesting thing.

If I wrote the rough draft by hand, it was almost perfect the first run through.

I don’t know why, but there was something about writing my papers longhand that appealed to the creative parts of my brain.  I’d spend hours perfecting an essay on the computer only to have a lackluster paper when I was done.  After I figured things out a bit, I’d spend substantially less time writing out a rough draft in pencil and polishing things up when I finally typed it in later.

This realization was a life saver!

Last night, I came face-to-face with this idea once again.  I spent about 3 hours agonizing over a cover letter for a position I wanted to apply for.  At the end of this trying time period I was still left with a hideous piece of writing on the screen.  I wasn’t happy, and I walked away in disgust to let my mind relax.  I came back after lunch and, rather than keep staring at the blinking cursor, pulled out a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.

What followed next can only be described as magic.  The words began to flow, my mental thesaurus kicked into high gear, and I drafted one of the best cover letter introductions I think I’ve ever written.  The act of re-typing the letter in to the computer just made my shining piece of literary mastery all the more exciting.

As well-versed in technology as I consider myself, I realize now that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with utilizing old school tools to get a job done.  In some cases, as with my writing, it even makes things easier.  The computer is great for laying a document out, but nothing surpasses a good old pencil and paper in my mind.

What old school tools can you recycle in your business?  Are you so dependent on technology and newer tools that your work (either in quality or timeliness) has suffered?