Lately, I’ve been motivating myself to work even harder now that it’s almost a year since I’ve been diagnosed with a learning disability. Last semester was hard, knowing that I did not fit this mold I was used to, but using my new found knowledge I was able to add whole +1.2 grade points to my GPA. I was not going to let my learning disability stare me down and hinder me from the success I knew I deserved, but rather allow myself to push myself even harder. Throughout this year I have a compiled a list of a few tricks that help me succeed in college even despite my learning disability. 01) Keep a Planner In any way you do this will eventually help you stay organized. Whether that means through your computer, through a book, through print off calendars, any way you imagine will help. As a normal person, there is a lot of different things floating around your head you need to remember- things you need to complete for class, important dates, days and times of your extracurriculars, things you need to get done for your parents, the list gets on and on. Being aware of my learning disability now, I realized that a lot what made me forget things was my low processing skills, which is why a planner is now definitely a part of my survival kit.
02) Set Goals They can be daily goals like I am going to the gym today. Or big ones, like I want to get a B in this class for the semester. Hang it up with a pretty design to know there is a reason why you are reading this pointless book about science or one of Shakespeare’s long, confusing plays. For me, I lose a lot of motivation when I don’t understand what’s going on, but keeping my goals in the back of my mind allows me to work even harder on the things I don’t get.
03) Exercise Exercise is ultimately a good solution for any problem since it is scientifically proven to release endorphins that are basically like a natural happy drug for your body. Whenever I am stressed about a huge paper that is due soon I try to go for a run before sitting down and writing it out. During the run, I like to think about how I want to set up the paper. It’s a good time to get out of your head and truly think, even if it’s not about school.
04) Take Breaks Breaks are reasonable, logical. No one can just sit there staring at a book, taking notes for hours on end. I mean just naturally they’ll check their phone for the time and shortly they’ll be browsing through Instagram or Snapchatting. And sometimes when the pressures on it feel like there are no times to even take a break, but sometimes your best work is when you come back and relook the paper over again or reread a Chemistry passage you didn’t understand earlier.
05) Go to the Think Tank Use your recourses that can be found easily accessible on campus. We have the Think Tank in order for you get help in a very specific class like Spanish or Math. But there’s also one of my favorite things the Think Tank offers, Academic Skills Workshops. It’s insanely awesome advantage to go in there and have someone help you organize your school life. They help figure out what piece of homework you should prioritize and gives you helpful tips on how to study for upcoming exams.
06) Keep “To Do Lists” To Do Lists are beautiful because it’s one place to keep everything that is circulating through your mind on what you need to do for that day. It can be weekly, daily, or just categorized To Do lists. It’s helpful to know what is expected so nothing goes missing, nothing goes undone. This is my favorite way to keep myself organized because I know I would miss something if I didn’t keep track.
07) Breathe I know there are times in life where everything just keeps piling on, and once you do get a chance to breathe you check D2L and your teacher just posted another assignment. But you need to take time to treat yourself and breathe. Things are usually not as hard as they seem. I suggest you breathe the next time you feel like crying because of school and that fact that you seem too tired to run this race because of your learning disability. A learning disability should not hinder you from success, breathe and take time to figure out how to figure things out.