If I need to write a paper, I find it easiest to first start my drafts on lined notebook paper. Out loud, or in my head, I pretend I am dictating and write down what I say/think. I find this more productive than using the computer because I find myself stumbling head over heels when I type at a computer. Plus, writing by hand is slower – so it encourages a disciplined approach to writing.

It’s that way for me not only with numbers, but with pretty much anything I lay eyes on – articles, movies, addresses… my partner calls me “the human PDA”.

But I get what you mean that its a blessing as well as a bane. Since I will never watch horror movies again if I want to be able to sleep at night.

On the Infomercials, I did find a coping mechanism that works for me – if I catch something that I want to “forget”, I stare at an adjacent blank wall or a generic detail (say a window or the floor) for a few seconds until the “blank” picture over-writes what I wanted to forget/ignore.

The inverse is also true, if I hear something that that I want to remember without any equipment to write it down, I “pin” it to a visual detail in the room, or imagine it written on the wall, and when I recall the visual memory it comes with what I heard. Works 80% of the time.

(P/S: as you can tell from techniques above, I’m a very strong Kinesthetic/Tactile and Visual).

Mikey D,
I would love to see more on this as well.

It’s amazing how something like how you process information could make you produtive assuming you play to your strengths. In my case, i am not very productive at all.

Do you have a lot of deja vu moments? I mean with very specific details down to the background music/noises, etc. I don’t get it doing normal stuff like driving to work every day, but I get a lot of moments where I swear I’ve done things before.

I really do wish there was something out there to help people like us. If I do find something I will let you know.

I get so frustrated at all the online organization and productivity apps (especially since I found this site through Lifehacker and try to get into things I find on there) but I wind up ignoring so many after trying them once or twice because they don’t work for me. I got so excited after reading this post that I spent about 3 hours researching this and had a million “Oh, THAT’S why I do things like that!” moments.

I feel your pain! I work on many different things throughout the day and it can get confusing. I almost always have trouble focusing on one thing at a time. I had always thought of myself as more of a visual person, but after reading this article and taking the quiz I have found myslef to be almost 100% kinesthetic.

I am also looking for something to help me organize the many projects that I am working on. If I find anything I will post again.

The more I read about it, the more it makes sense. I notice my mind wanders a lot if I get bored focusing on doing one thing. Can anyone recommend some tools that track progress if you work on multiple things at once or remind you to get back to doing a task you started and wandered from? It isn’t that I have a problem necessarily remembering to do things, just that I work on multiple things at once and jump from project to project or take breaks to read webpages frequently and then I become a bit unproductive. I get frustrated really easily if I have to keep looking at one thing constantly.

Also, I have no drawers on my desk at home; everything is visible and papers that need to be filed are in colored folders in a cascading file folder stand so each tab is visible.

Great post and great comments!

There’s a lot of pressure to get things off of tabletops, shelves, etc., but I think better when I can see everything.

Don’t feel defensive about your messy desk; it shows a mind at work. My only problem about it was other people. I was really lucky to have an office.

The ability to create these shapes as models on a whiteboard with the kinesthetic element of drawing and connecting elements in a dynamic way is my way of understanding and solving problems. There’s a physical involvement in the visualization.

Maybe the visual mode has two aspects: abstract and physical. I don’t need to see someone when they’re talking (the physical aspect) but I do like to shape what they’re saying (the abstract aspect.) I have always thought of myself as more abstract-oriented than practical.

Which make me wonder – instead of the two separate modes of Visual and Kinesthetic, I wonder if it would make more sense to combine the two modes and call them Shaping; and separate them as, say, Physical Shaping (seeing speakers, walking with them) and Abstract Shaping (drawing Mind Maps, or using whiteboards and diagrams).

I haven’t thought this through, but I think perhaps that the auditory mode is inherently different from the other two, which have more of a connection …

I have a different perspective to offer here. I was born totally blind due to an eye injury before birth. However, I am a highly visual, moderately kinesthetic person. That doesn’t seem quite right, does it? My mind is wired to “picture” things in great detail like Braille letters, a person’s hand (since I rarely touch faces), and the location or shape of objects. I always want to know what color things are. I need Braille charts and raised drawings to understand new concepts.

What’s odd about this is that most tools made for blind people these days are auditory. A tape recorder, audio books, a screenreader speech program, and talking appliances are touted as the ultimate solution for blind people. It’s a sort of myth that if you lose one sense, the others are sharpened. In truth, those of us who are visual fall even further behind blind people who are auditory learners unless we have a dedicated parent or teacher who helps us learn to cope. I was blessed with both.

Your posts have helped me clarify and explain some of what I have done to adapt over time. I paid someone to help me take written notes in college since the lecture would often go over my head. Unlike many of my peers, I use Braille heavily, both on note cards and as a special PDA called a Braille notetaker. I write everything in the PDA and even use a scanner to put things like recipes into Braille. I also found that I can put Braille on post-it notes. I like doing this with complicated projects that have many steps. I have a wide closet door, and I put the post-its on that so I can move them around so I can “see” how the project flows. I use different sizes to indicate major objectives and subgoals. Finally, I use the colored flags in Outlook to mark various types of items and have subtle sounds that play for each type of flag as I move through my task list or in-box. This means I can know how important something is or what the next action is quickly without waiting for my screenreader to speak the whole item.

I’m curious about how other people with disabilities adapt their productivity to work with their learning style. Have you run across any posts about this?

Thanks again for sharing some great ideas. I love your blog and have it in my RSS reader.