A few weeks ago, Minnesota-based architect Amber Sausen was scrolling through her old iPhone photos when she found herself momentarily perplexed: “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t remember taking that at all. Huh. What was I thinking? What was I trying to memorialize in this photograph?’”
But Sausen, an avid sketcher, says she’s never had such difficulty recalling the circumstances surrounding a particular drawing. “I can open up a sketchbook from when I was in school and I can remember it exactly: ‘Oh, it was really hot in the sun, but it was cool in the shade, and I was coming down with a cold….’”
And while not everyone may boast Sausen’s impressive level of recall, she’s not alone in experiencing a powerful link between drawing and memory. Research in recent years has found that drawing, more than writing or other retention strategies, is a highly effective means of boosting memory.

I’m sure this idea won’t surprise most notebook fans! It makes sense that the attention required to record something by hand would help seal the experience in ones memory better than just snapping a photo. Many of my notebook pages give me an immediate recall of the circumstances sketched or described… though every once in a while I find a page that I don’t remember drawing or writing at all!

Read more: Drawing Can Help You Boost Your Memory—Here’s How – Artsy