There is one simple thing I should do more often: write more notes. I don’t mean emails or instant messages; I mean good old fashion hand written notes. Notes that say, “Thank you.” Notes that say, “Congratulations.” Notes that simply say, “I was thinking about you.” Notes that say, “I care enough to write a note.”
This is not a new idea for me. I have a drawer full of preprinted “James Law Firm” note cards that have my name on them. I bought them several years ago. They share space with the note cards I had printed up when I was president of the Pulaski County Bar Association, and the ones that I had printed up when I was president of the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I always intend to write more notes, I just never seem to get around to it.
I’ve placed cards in a couple of different brief cases so I could write on them when I’m stuck in court or somewhere else and have time to kill. Why not write notes instead of playing games on my phone? Even with the preparation and the desire, I still rarely get around to writing a note.
Maybe it’s simply a sign of the times, and the inherent value I find in handwriting notes is old fashion and outdated. Why are handwritten notes any better than a quick email or text message that says the exact same thing? The electronic version of written communication can be just as meaningful and it saves paper and postage.
It seems that it’s very rare that children these days write notes. In fact, I haven’t seen my College Freshman write a note since we made him sit down and write thank you letters for the graduation money he received last year. Is note writing a lost art or simply obsolete? Forget note writing: When was the last time you wrote a letter by hand to someone that was over a paragraph long?
I just had a young associate walk into my office and proclaim that he had not written a note to someone in the last ten years. He went on to tell me that he had heard that schools were taking handwriting out of the curriculum. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, I don’t know how I feel about it. What I do know is that there are a lot of folks out there that still think note writing is important and that it should be done.
In the end, who doesn’t like getting a written note? I have a box of them I have received in the credenza behind my desk. For some reason, I feel that they are worth keeping, even though I don’t do the same when someone thanks me via email. Maybe that magnifies the point I may be trying to make: Written notes and letters are nice and should be done at least on occasion.
So, if you do nothing else this week, sit down and write a note or letter to someone and tell him or her something nice. The rarity of the note will, by itself, add value to the gesture. Who doesn’t like a nice note now and then? It’s a simple way to brighten someone’s day, and everybody likes to have their day brightened, even those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a co-founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway and Fayetteville, Arkansas. His primary area of practice is criminal defense. He can be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com