This page outlines immediate ways to focus on your well-being in your college experience, from productivity apps to ways to discuss academic accommodations with professors.
Schedule a meeting with your professor.
- Send an email or go to office hours.
- Meet early in the semester – do not wait until you need help.
Tell your professor you are a student with a disability, discuss your specific disability if you are comfortable, and describe your academic accommodations. Consider discussing the following:
- Any questions or concerns about the course
- How your disability may impact you during and after class
- Recommendations for how they can effectively support you
- How you can communicate with them
- A plan for the semester
Continue communicating with your professor throughout the semester
- Ask questions and be open to questions from your professor
Take breaks when you need them
Don’t overwork yourself by continuing to study at crazy, unmanageable hours. Structure your work so that you have breaks in between to catch your breath and focus on something else so that you don’t experience burnout. Be kind to yourself as you find the balance that works best for you.
Reach out to the people around you for support
College can be a very isolating time as you leave family and friends from childhood behind. However, those people are still there to talk to, just as much as there are new faces on-campus to befriend. Reach out to mentors, counselors, and professors for extra help as well.
Take advantage of the resources at your disposal
As is explained in this web page, there are countless resources both on and off-campus to help you on your journey through college. Whether the issues are academic, emotional, or a bit of both, there are many places you can go to find the specific support that you need.
Take care of your physical health
The mind and body work together to support your well-being. Set a sleep schedule, take walks around campus, drink water, ensure you’re eating filling meals, practice proper hygiene, and take technology breaks to keep your body healthy enough to support your mind.
This app is perfect for ensuring you study for stretches of time without getting distracted. Once you begin a timer on the app, you start growing a little virtual tree as time goes on; however, if you exit the app, the tree dies. The company also grows actual trees across the world, so it generally provides extra motivation to stay on one task without getting distracted by your phone.
In the case that you are having difficulty relieving stress or falling asleep, Calm provides many different audios to guide meditations and breathing exercises, as well as calming stories to listen to before bed.
Routinery makes creating a routine simple by setting mini timers to follow as you move through a daily regimen. For example, you can begin a morning routine that will start a 1 minute timer to make your bed, then a 1 minute timer to drink water, then 2 minutes to brush your teeth, and so on. It encourages you to stay on track throughout your daily processes.
Structured makes it easy to record your tasks, whether they are repeated or individual for the day. You can make a schedule with all the reminders you need, and sync it across your devices to stay on top of everything.
Todoist encourages organization, making listing out tasks much easier and more comprehensive. List tasks by day, add subtasks, and more with the app to feel more in control of the work you have.
If you would like to join the DSU, the best way to do so is to contact them by email at dsu@oxy.edu, or through Instagram at the handle @oxydsu. For clarification, the Disabled Students Union is a student-run club separate from Disability Services, which is an official office of Occidental.