Becoming a lefty

My writing process for blog posts always starts on paper. It is a draft, which I write quickly as I can, and then edit as I type it up. I find it really helpful having these two stages; it helps me catch silly mistakes and it also helps me to get the point quickly without repeating myself too much.

Not having access to my right hand though this week has certainly had an impact on my blogging! Typing with just left hand is slow and my left-handed handwriting needs some work.

I was doing some research into how people train themselves to become ambidextrous. Unsurprisingly it is quite hard work! From a young age your brain essentially hardwires itself to work with either the right for the left-hand. When it comes to trying to break this pattern the brain need to create a new connections.

The advice I read suggested that I start off by simply doing simple tasks which do not require a great deal of precision such as brushing teeth, then working up to tracing objects and finally writing.

Unfortunately I have been thrown in at the deep end, I am trying to write and type, I think I’m getting somewhere but it is definitely a slow process! For getting text into a computer, voice dictation has improved alot over the last few years, I still have to correct a couple of silly mistakes however that just isn’t going to fly for writing code!

One of the best bits of advice I was given for writing was simply to get a pen that doesn’t smudge. There is wisdom there!