311: Overcome Writer’s Block: Personalized Writing Strategies Based on Your Learning Style

311: Overcome Writer's Block: Personalized Writing Strategies Based on Your Learning Style

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Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: [00:00:00] Grad school, along with many other academic and professional spaces, wasn't built for first gen and BIPOC folks like us. And yet here you are, navigating it all, often without the adequate support you deserve. That's why I created Office Hours with me, Doktora Yvette, a budget friendly, high impact coaching and consulting space designed specifically for first gen, BIPOC, and or neurodivergent grad students, postdocs, and early career professionals.

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Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You're staring at a blank document. Your cursor is blinking like it's taunting you, and it's reminding you of the shame you're feeling for once again, letting another day go by without you writing. Your dissertation chapter deadline is looming, or that book idea that you've carried in the back of your head for years sits heavy on you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You have the research, you have the notes, you have the knowledge, [00:02:00] and yet you can't make the words make sense on the page. What if I told you that the problem isn't a reflection of your lack of discipline, or intelligence, or legitimacy as a scholar or writer? What if in actuality, the real issue is that you've been trying to write using strategies that simply don't match how your brain naturally processes information?

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: That's what we're going to talk about today.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Welcome

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: to the award winning Grad School Femtoring Podcast, the place for first gen BIPOCs to listen in on inclusive grad school stories and learn about personal development and productivity tips. This is Dr. Yvette Martinez-Vu, a certified coach, [00:03:00] consultant, and author, and I will be serving as your femtor, providing you with insider knowledge to help you reach your personal and professional goals.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Yvette. Today we are talking about all things, writing strategies, and specifically strategies that apply to your learning style. So I'm going to be talking about visual, auditory, read, write, and kinesthetic approaches to getting unstuck in your writing. And I'm going to get started by going into what the different learning styles are. If you're new to hearing about learning styles, I highly [00:04:00] recommend you also check out episode 198, where I talk about three ways to start active reading in grad school, because I also talk about learning styles there.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And I'm also going to include a free learning style quiz. It's not mine. It's a different one that I've pulled from online that I've taken myself that you can use to help you to identify what your learning style is. But for now, let me just give you a brief overview of what they are. So for visual learners, this is someone who processes information best through images, diagrams, or seeing spatial relationships.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You might be a visual learner if you find yourself saying, I see what you mean. Or if you find yourself doodling or drawing out concepts to try to understand them better.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Next, there are auditory learners. And there's a good chance you might be an auditory learner because you're [00:05:00] listening to this podcast, but auditory learners are those who prefer to hear information and process it better through hearing it, either through a conversation or by listening to something.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: If you find yourself repeating instructions out loud, or even if you say, Oh yeah, that sounds right. You might be an auditory learner, and yes, you guessed it, I am an auditory learner, too. I wish I knew that when I was in college in grad school. I wish I knew that in K through 12. I didn't find out until after I was done, and oof, what it have saved me a lot of time and energy and tears to have accommodated myself in that way.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So, If you're an auditory learner, welcome to the club. Now, next is the Read Write Learners. I'm envious of y'all. Read Write Learners are the ones that connect most with the written word. So, you're probably [00:06:00] someone who takes a lot of detailed notes, you probably have a lot of notebooks that you've written in, you probably prefer to learn with written instructions, and you're likely processing information by writing it down and reading it back to yourself. Not out loud, but in your head.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Next are my kinesthetic learners. And I will say this probably among my clients. I have the most, I would say between auditory and kinesthetic learners. And so my kinesthetic learners are those that learn through movement and through hands on experiences.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So you might be someone who finds yourself needing to move a lot. Maybe you're someone who fidgets while you're thinking. Maybe you like to be doing something with your body while you're brainstorming. Maybe you like to mess around a lot with physical [00:07:00] objects to help you to, better understand visual concepts.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So if you're someone that's constantly needing to move to think, then you probably are a kinesthetic learner.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Now, how do we apply this to our writing? Well, first, let's talk about some common writing challenges, and then we'll talk about ways to overcome these challenges based on your learning style. So starting out with probably the single most common writing block that comes up for my clients and that is perfectionism.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I have an entire episode about perfectionism, and I will also reference that in the show notes, but for now, uh, please know it's really, really common and that you might be dealing with perfectionism if you feel this pressure to have every single line [00:08:00] that you type sound for lack of a better word, perfect.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You want it to sound a certain way. You want it to sound maybe with an academic tone, or maybe using your disciplinary jargon, or maybe you're trying to make it sound like another writer who you look up to, and so you find yourself like, editing the words before you even get them out. if you over edit your writing, you are probably struggling with perfectionism.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Or if you're so frozen that you can't even get words on a page, you might also be struggling with perfectionism.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: The second thing that comes up is analysis paralysis, and this is when you have almost too much information. And I find that this comes up a lot where folks will lean into the procrastivity, where instead of doing the writing, they're doing all the things instead of the writing.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So they're gathering more notes, they're doing more reading, and then all of a sudden they have so so [00:09:00] much information that they don't even know what to do with it and they get overwhelmed by it. So this actually comes up a lot among my social scientists who they all have to have their lit review chapter.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And I have a couple of higher education clients right now and I find it so interesting how this comes up so often with the lit review of having just too much information and then on top of having too much information, then still feeling like it's not enough and continuing to gather even more. So that is a big problem that too much information analysis paralysis can come up a lot.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Now, the next thing that I notice a lot is this fear. of criticism and this voice in the back of your head that's very negative. In fact, some people have started to internalize their toxic advisor's [00:10:00] voice in their head. So every time they start to write, they are already anticipating the negative feedback that their advisor is going to give them and it makes them not even want to bother.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So this fear of criticism, it is so incredibly exhausting and it can keep you frozen for a while and one of the things that can be helpful is to try to push back against that negative voice or to try to tame it and or to try to replace it with a different voice. Hopefully it's your voice, but if not, sometimes it's the voice of someone else who's reminding you that it's okay for the draft to have errors.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: A draft just has to exist, especially that first draft. It just has to exist. And if it has errors, that's okay. Criticism is there for a reason. It's there to [00:11:00] enhance your writing and. That's why you go through revisions. So fear of criticism, that's a big one.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And then the last thing I'm going to mention, that's another really, really big one for the folks I work with who have very, very full lives.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: They are caregivers, they might have multiple jobs, they have a lot of familial responsibilities. It's the issue of time management and not being able to find the time to work on their writing. So this comes up a lot because like I said, the people that I work with, they're the folks that find themselves. where life happens to them more than their peers in their cohort in their program and if that's the case for you, that means you have to be even more intentional about carving out time for your writing and about honoring that time and holding that time as sacred no matter [00:12:00] what happens because it's so easy for things to come up for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So I've mentioned a couple of the common writing blocks or writing challenges that may be coming up for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Now let's talk about the actual writing strategies, starting with writing strategies for visual learners. If you're a visual learner and you can't get yourself to put words on a page, consider starting out with some mind mapping.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Nowadays, there are so many really neat tools to create mind maps. There are apps like Mindmeister and X Mind and miro.com, M.I.R.O. And they let you create expandable maps that can help you to visually see relationships between different ideas, concepts, frameworks, and that [00:13:00] could be helpful for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Another thing is to just lean into the fact that you like visuals and lean into color coding, for instance. So if you're taking notes, whether it's notes on a notebook, or if it's notes on some sort of online software, make sure that you are color coding your material. You could even check out some Notion templates. If you're someone who uses Notion, Notion has a lot of really neat features and a lot of flexibility to mess around with visuals in there.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So make sure that you lean into that, to have certain color coding for different types of sections within your writing. So blue can be representing your theoretical concepts. Green could be related to anything tied to your methods. Yellow could be tied to your analysis. Pink could be any issues that you're noticing or gaps that you need to fill [00:14:00] later, etc.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Another strategy that you can test out is to create a visual outline. And by this, I mean, you want something that can represent spatially what your argument looks like. And again, I'm going to mention Miro. I'm mentioning Miro because I have personal experience with it. And I really like it. It's really neat.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I use it to help me to visualize concepts in my business and even my business planning. And in your case, you can use it for your book or your dissertation. Then there's also another website that I know a lot of folks in industry use called Jamboard. And I know this from my friends who are in industry, they use Jamboard to help to brainstorm. with others too, and it allows you to add movable sticky notes and rearrange ideas. And so just kind of mess around with visual [00:15:00] tools to help you to understand your concepts through a different learning modality. And then the last thing I'm going to mention is that you can always create flow charts.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And that's kind of neat. There's websites like Lucidchart and also Draw. io where you can break down any complex ideas through the use of flowcharts. So you can start to see, visually see some gaps in your work by creating a flowchart for it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And I want to mention a quick example about So, one of my dissertation committee members must have been a visual learner because let me tell you what he did one time to help me with revising a dissertation chapter.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I came into his office hours and in his office he had this huge rectangular table and so what he did was. I have. I emailed him my draft. He went [00:16:00] to the office next door, printed my 50 page chapter, literally printed 50 pages. And he put them all down on that huge table one by one by one. And actually, you know, it's just a bunch of pages on a table.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I was shocked. And he started to label each of the pages based on the main ideas that came up per page or per section. He started moving it around for me. And he's like, can you see how it actually makes more sense in your structure for you to start out with this and then move this over here? And by the end of it, I had a completely new restructured chapter and I knew what revisions I needed to make.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And he did this visually. So, all this to say, there's so many different ways for you to pursue your writing in a way that works for you. That was really neat. It worked well for him. [00:17:00] It worked well for me too, but I will admit I am a combination of a visual and an auditory learner. So that's why it helped me.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Hi Femtees, I'm gently interrupting the show to let you know that you can be a sponsor for the Grad School Femtouring Podcast. Whether you're a small business owner, a book author, or part of an educational startup looking to reach a loyal audience, this is your chance to showcase your work. My listeners are first gen BIPOC college students, grad students and early career professionals who value mentorship, education, and empowerment. If it sounds like a fit, head to the show notes to learn more about sponsoring an episode.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Now I'm going to transition to talking about writing strategies for auditory learners, whoo whoo!

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So if you're an auditory learner like me, and you're dealing with some writing blocks, [00:18:00] let's see if any of these help you. The first is to lean in to the audio by doing voice recordings or using speech to text tools to help you to document ideas in a way where you're not feeling blocked by this idea of like, oh, now I have to type this or, oh, now I have to think on a page.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You can use tools like Otter. ai so that you can automatically transcribe what you're saying. I also use, a software called Descript to create transcripts of anything that I record. It's a really, really neat software. I use it for so many things. I absolutely love it. And in fact, if you're gonna get Descript and you're gonna pay for it, let me know, cause I can give you a code.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I believe it gives you a discount, so let me know. But in any case. you can use tools to help you to take those recordings and transcribe them. Also, I [00:19:00] believe that Otter. ai has a free option, so there's a certain amount of minutes that you can get for free to transcribe. And some people also use Rev.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I remember I used Rev. many, many years ago to transcribe material, I believe it's Rev. com. And that worked okay too, but now I'm more familiar with Otter, and I'm more familiar with Descript. But in any case, lean into the audio, and nowadays there are speech to text tools in so many different places from your phone, to Google Docs, to Microsoft Word, etc.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: The next thing I'm going to say is if you already have words on a page and yet you're stuck, especially if you're stuck in the revision mode, I highly recommend reading your drafts aloud. This is going to help you to catch issues with flow, with repetition, lack of clarity, because you can hear it as you say it out loud.[00:20:00]

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So make sure you read it to yourself. There's also Apps like Natural Reader and I believe Speechify that will read text back to you and oh my gosh, I'm going to share one more thing and I'm just geeking out because clearly I have too much fun with tools and apps is I just found out about a Google learning language model called Notebook LM, where you can input information like notes or readings, and then it can generate a podcast episode for you so that you can hear an AI generated set of voices having a discussion about the data that you inputted.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So I'm new to it. I'm still learning. And you know, I'm, I'm always a bit cautious with my use of AI. But keep in mind, there's just so much that you can do nowadays to accommodate yourself if you're an auditory learner. [00:21:00]

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: The other thing I want to say for my auditory learners is to take advantage of the fact that you learn and process information by speaking and join discussion groups or meet up with peers or folks in your cohort or even your writing group buddies if they're open to talking about concepts out loud, because if you're someone who verbally processes information, it's going to help you to have a conversation with someone.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You can even have a conversation over Zoom and record it or, have a conversation over Zoom and generate AI notes so that you have that documentation of what you gained from that session. The last thing I'm going to say for my auditory learners is to take advantage of the fact that you work well with different types of sounds and mess around with ambient sounds, mess around with things like brown noise [00:22:00] or even, binaural beats, you can mess around with that. So just take advantage of the fact that you can use this background audio to help you to focus more. There's even apps like Brain. fm that provide you with different types of background noises, ambient sounds to, for different effects, for focus, for sleep, etc. I personally haven't used it. I have wanted to, but I haven't quite convinced myself to make that purchase, but I've heard really great things about brain. fm.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And then I just want to leave you with one example for my auditory learners, where I had one client who, when this person came to me, they had been blocked for a very, very long time in their writing.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I don't even know how long at the very least months [00:23:00] since they had put something on the page and what came up for this person is that they come from a lineage and an ancestry that prioritizes orally learning and oral history. And they kept trying to force themselves to type everything out.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And it wasn't until they gave themselves permission to dictate their dissertation. And not just that. But also write it in a more conversational tone with less jargon without feeling like they have to sound like all the other academics that they were reading. And it was when they realized that they are writing their dissertation, not just for their committee members, but for their family and for their community.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: That's when they started to build momentum. And so I just want to remind you that that sometimes all you need is to give yourself permission to write in a modality that serves [00:24:00] you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Okay, so now I'm going to transition to talking about writing strategies for my read write learners. Let's start with leaning into the fact that you like to read and write by creating templates.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So here's the thing. A lot of people get stuck at the task initiation stage because they're stuck with a blank page and they don't know what to do with it. And so if you're a ReadWrite learner and you have no problem with just opening up a page and writing, but you're stuck because you have a blank page, why not generate a template for yourself of, you know, whatever it is that you set up for all of your writing.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You can use Overleaf, you can use Google Docs, they have tabs that you can use, they have table of contents you can use, you can even start with an outline on a Google Doc. And so this is going to give you some sort of template or structure [00:25:00] to follow so that you don't get so caught up with the fact that it's a blank page.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And you can just kind of lean into whatever it is that you're working on. The second thing I want to mention is that if you are feeling that perfectionism creep up. Remind yourself that it's okay to have a shitty first draft and so giving yourself permission, whether you want to call it that or you want to call it your draft zero, I would always call it my zero draft.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: It was a draft that was so terrible that I didn't even name it my first draft. It didn't even get to have that title because it was just so terrible. And so if you do that, if you give yourself permission to write terribly, to make a mess knowing you're going to clean it up later. You can even pair it with an app like the Forest app.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You can start to see how often you're working on it, how many time sessions you've worked on it, and instead of focusing on getting it to sound a certain way, you can focus on just progress. [00:26:00] And getting more timers done and putting more words on the page and building that momentum. That forest app is actually kind of neat because even though I, I think I used it once or twice, but I never built the habit.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I know several people who still use it to this day. And it's pretty cool to literally get to see you building a forest and seeing the progress of what you've been working on. I think that's pretty cool.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And the next thing I'm going to say for my ReadWrite learners is to lean into the writing. So lean into journaling. You can even use a software like First Draft Pro. I just started using it to help me with writing my email newsletters. And it's pretty cool because it just gives you a different way to view your writing. Or you can do the handwriting on a Moleskine notebook, for instance, with your favorite pen. Just a way for you to. [00:27:00] Give yourself this opportunity to process how you're feeling and process some of the obstacles that are coming up for you. Give yourself time to kind of let it, let it go on the page before you actually start writing your book or your dissertation.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And then the last thing is just a reminder that If you're a ReadWrite learner, having an outline can be really helpful. And there are even websites like Workflowy. Yes, it's called Workflow with a Y at the end. And it, it, nowadays there's just so many tools and that can also be overwhelming in and of itself. So don't get. Don't get overwhelmed by all the tools instead focus on one or two that I mentioned that you want to test out and that's no more than that or you don't even have to test any new things.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: If I mentioned something that you already use and it works, lean into that. But in any case, you can create very nicely nested, [00:28:00] hierarchical outlines, expandable outlines with lots of sub points. And so I know folks that this is how they write their chapters. It's just with an outline and then expanding, expanding, expanding until eventually the outline.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Is done. In fact, that's actually how my 11 year old recently wrote his first five page research paper, and that is how he did it. He focused on the outline, expanding on the notes from the outline, and little by little, the outline eventually turned into a paper. So, lean into that.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And, you know, one example I want to highlight for my read, write learners is that I've actually found. I found that this has worked for several of my clients where merely journaling about their writing blocks and journaling about the very uncomfortable emotions that they're feeling about the writing has helped [00:29:00] them to get started. So if there's any one thing that I might recommend, you could start out by doing the journaling, especially when you're not feeling like writing or you're not feeling so great, lean into just opening up a document.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Starting to type and sometimes even just that the habit of opening up a page and writing will help make the transition from journaling to actually writing your material a little bit easier.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: All right. So the last part that I'm going to talk about are strategies for my kinesthetic learners. And this one's going to be fun.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I feel like I have a lot more strategies for kinesthetic learners, and I don't even know how that happened. But in any case, if you're a mix of the kinesthetic and others listen in, and even if you're not, You know, it doesn't hurt to test some different things out and see what works for [00:30:00] you. So the first thing I'm going to mention, and I'm going to say that this strategy I got from one of my clients this week who leaned into her kinaesthetic ways.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So she was reflecting back and telling me, you know what? Historically, whiteboards have worked, and I don't know why, I mean she knew why she hadn't pulled out the whiteboard, it was a space issue, but she can overcome that space issue. But in any case, she was saying that there's something about being able to just put it all out on a whiteboard and then make sense of it that worked for her.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: If you're someone that in the past you've enjoyed using whiteboards, go ahead and get yourself a whiteboard. If you don't want to deal with a big whiteboard, if you don't have space for it, there's also a lot of digital whiteboards. You can create a whiteboard with Microsoft whiteboard. I believe you can create a whiteboard on zoom.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: [00:31:00] I might be wrong. You can create a whiteboard on the Miro app. I know that for a fact because I use Miro. And so. Yeah, you just mess around with it. Give yourself permission to just write, erase, rewrite, etc. Draw, doodle, whatever works for you so you can get all your ideas out in a way where you get to lean into the physical movement and touch that works for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Next, I'm going to say, of course, kinesthetic, you like to move, lean into moving, take walking breaks, take movement breaks and pair that with voice notes, or you could even type up notes on your notes app that you can later put into a document. So make sure that you just give yourself permission to move around as you do your thinking, which can result in writing as well.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Similarly, you can lean [00:32:00] into. handwriting. If you're like, Ooh, I like to just mess around with my hands, handwriting, doodling, finding ways to get some movement out, whether it's with your whole body or just with your hands. Some people even get special keyboards. I believe there's like ergonomic keyboards that you can use to help you out. Or you can mess around with different types of note taking. Some folks like to use the Cornell note taking system and something about handwriting their Cornell notes works for them. So just mess around with that, with the handwriting or even testing out a different keyboard. Some people like the very clicky, loud keyboards.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I don't, they drive me nuts, but whatever works for you, right? And then another strategy, and this one's kind of fun, is to give yourself an opportunity to [00:33:00] create a physical model that represents whatever it is that you're working on. You can do this with clay. You can do this with Lego. You can do this with Play Doh.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: In fact, I give my child options to work on different types of assignments. And it all depends on what he's feeling like doing. So he has the option to, for instance, record himself or write a paper or create like a clay model of something that's tied to whatever it is we're learning for that week and there's been several occasions where he's chosen the clay option to get his hands doing stuff.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And the Lego thing too. We're a Lego family, by the way, so I am biased. Our home is a Lego museum. And when we moved abroad and moved back, we lost a bunch of mementos because they got [00:34:00] full of rain and mold and it was heartbreaking, but you know what? What we didn't lose that stayed put All of our Legos.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So anyway, we love Legos in this house, but there's actually a What is it called? Oh, yeah, it's called the Lego serious play. It's a facilitation method that a lot of different organizations use. There's even people who are certified in this methodology so there are folks that do this professionally and work with groups and teams to help them improve their thinking. their communication, and their problem solving. So, don't take this lightly. I know it might feel like, oh, am I just like playing and wasting my time? No, it can actually help you to tap into different ways of thinking. So, keep that in mind.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Now, a couple more things I'm gonna mention for my kinesthetic learners. If you find yourself feeling like you can't focus in one [00:35:00] location, what might work for you is just moving your location, so leaning into switching locations and working in different positions and in different environments that might work for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So if you're working in different positions, you can maybe go from sitting to standing, you know, getting yourself a standing desk, or even there are some there, they look like trays that you can add to a desk so you can stand instead, or you could if you want to lean into movement, you could get a wiggle mat so you can move around in your seat while you're working.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I even had a client who embraced the movement and got a chair that had a yoga ball on it to help her, it helped with back issues and it helped with posture and it helped with movement. So again, leaning into different type of position or even just flat out changing your [00:36:00] environment instead of working from home, going to the library or instead of working from home, going and going to a shared workspace.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Okay, last thing I'm going to say is tied to this idea of needing to touch things. So needing to move, needing to touch. Don't hesitate to try out like using stress balls as you're thinking. You can use one hand to handwrite and another hand to just, play with a stress ball or getting yourself fidgets or getting yourself some clay or playdough or putty, something to help you to lean into the touch and the movement and the fidgeting so that you can think better.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I highly, highly recommend it, not even just for my kinesthetic learners, but also for some of my neurodivergent folks, because y'all know we love to just stim and mess around with fidgets. So [00:37:00] lean into that. All right, that is it for today's episode. I covered a lot of strategies for different types of learning styles.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I hope there was at least one or two things that you got from today that you're willing to try out. Please know that if you're dealing with writing struggles, it doesn't mean that you are a bad writer. It might just mean that you just need to test out a different strategy and modality that works for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I truly believe that this is all an iterative process and that we just get to test out and find what works and remove what doesn't and keep doing this over time. And eventually you're going to figure out a system that works for you. So before I let you go, I'm going to leave you with one last message, which is, don't forget your identities matter.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Your growth matters, your sustainable productivity matters, and your [00:38:00] holistic success matters. Join us again for more Femtoring next week. And as always, I'll talk to you all next time.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Thanks so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, here are three ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. The second way is to get your copy of my free resource kit linked in my show notes. This kit includes tools, worksheets, and podcast playlists on all things grad school, productivity, and personal development.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: The third way to support my show is to follow me on social media. You can find me on Instagram with the handle at gradschoolfemtoring and on LinkedIn by searching my name. Thanks again for listening. And until next time.