Student Blog
Life Hacks

My Room and the Person-Environment-Occupation Model ⟩
September 20, 2013, by Clarissa

Life Hacks Living in LA School/Life Balance

This past week was so eventful with fun, fieldwork, and organizing my room! The Occupational Therapy and Science Council held a pool party at one of our classmate’s beautiful apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles, the Medici, with yummy food and good company! I also had my first day at my Level I fieldwork this week at a school-based pediatric setting, which was really cool. My clinical instructor was so great and I’m excited to go back!

Surprisingly, though, room organizing was the highlight of my week. I’ve been living out of a suitcase after returning to LA post-Level II fieldwork. Standing in that inferno of clothes and papers, I was thinking about the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) Model that I learned about in my Mental Health immersion last year and, yes, I started OT-ing myself. My occupation is being an OT student, my person factors included my decreased motivation to study whenever I looked at my room, and my environment was a chaos of my personal belongings (minus the one clear walkway from my door to my bed). To improve my occupational performance as a student, I went to work and I am now SO EXCITED that I like being in my room again! My bookshelf is also the new apple of my eye. The moral of the story here: stay balanced and make time for the little things.

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Deep Thoughts About the Interwebs ⟩
February 28, 2013, by Ricky

Life Hacks Living in LA

Thursday, last week: I get out of class at 8:40pm, as I usually do on Thursdays (my long day). I hurry home, do a quick 30min workout, shower, and eat. Next, I fire up my laptop and prepare for my weekly quiz, due before Friday’s 9am class. No, I am not procrastinating — this is really the only chance I have to complete it and I know that I will have plenty of time to do it . . . unless the internet doesn’t cooperate. So it’s a little past 11pm, and I am having internet connection problems. I troubleshoot for a few minutes (to no avail) until I notice my landlady is in the kitchen downstairs. I coincidentally decide I could use a glass of water. In the kitchen, I greet my host and casually add the “by-the-way, have you noticed anything about the internet?” She looks a little embarrassed as she searches for a way to explain that the internet goes out from time to time. Before she’s finished apologizing, my creative OT abilities kick-in and I’m thinking of ways to do the assignment that needs to be completed like-right-now. I quickly remember that I had seen a coffee shop on yelp that was open pretty late.

We didn’t have internet for a few days. It was bittersweet. Some of my productivity was lost, but at the same time, I benefitted from having less distractions. The whole experience got me thinking about how much we rely on the internet. I’ve always wondered why municipalities didn’t make an effort to offer internet for free. I mean, we all use the internet so much, it should be public access, right? I was chatting with my barber the other day, and he was complaining about how the last few times he needed to apply for any of his permits, he was sent away and told to do it online. I guess the answer is the same as all others these days: money. But I think it’s still fun to ponder, even without sequestrations and such, if money was not an issue, would free internet help or hinder? Will more of us waste our productive time glued to computer screens streaming Gangnam Style, moreso than spending time contributing to our society? Hmm, good questions. I don’t know the answer, but I do know there is always a place nearby that offers free wifi. 😊 If you’re in Boyle Heights try Primera Taza, oh and get a Taza de Mocha (Mexican chocolate latte . . . mmm).

If you’re near Little Tokyo, try Tom n Toms, they’re open tilll 2 am and have plenty of study space.

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Sleepy head ⟩
February 20, 2013, by Alisa

Life Hacks School/Life Balance

I haven’t been getting good sleep, and partly because I get woken up in the middle of the night. I’m holding the duty phone as a resident advisor, and I’m worried that the phone will ring in the middle of the night. It affects me in that I don’t want to wake up in the morning. The hardest part of waking up is getting up. Today, my alarm clock went off at 7:45, but I didn’t actually get up into 8:16. I set a new record, where I got ready in 6 minutes just in time to catch the tram. It helped that I had my clothes all laid out the night before. I usually catch up on sleep on the weekend, but sleep is something that I’ll be more conscious now. On average my body needs at least 7 hours to be able to fully function. In my undergraduate career I have pulled one all-nighter, and in grad school about once a semester. It’s just me having poor time management skills since I often get distracted by all the wonderful opportunities at USC. Sometimes there just not time in the day to accomplish everything that I wanted to. Yesterday, Kal Penn was speaking on-campus. Today, I’m attending an event at USC where Landon Donovan will be speaking! I’m looking forward to that.

I can’t believe I’m leaving for Thailand in a week! It seems that there is so much more to do between now and when I leave, but I tell myself I’ll get through it. I set smaller goals for myself and tackle them one at a time. Of course, I reward myself for accomplishing those tasks. For my externship in Thailand, I’ll be shadowing my aunt who owns a health spa and is involved in many charitable organizations. I’ll be learning about corporate social responsibility and leadership in the health and wellness industry. I’ll also get to spend more time with my beloved grandmother as well.

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Socially Occupied Beings ⟩
January 30, 2013, by Alisa

Life Hacks School/Life Balance

Getting back into the swing of things can be rough. I feel that I’m still getting used to it.  At times I feel that I have many roles and responsibilities, and I just need a time to breathe. After reading Mary Lawlor’s “The significance of being occupied: The social construction of childhood occupations” in class, I begin to view myself as a “socially occupied being.” It made me consider the things that I’m involved in. Almost everything that I engage in has a social component. I remember one time my friend jokingly said, “Are you in school to socialize, or to study?” My theory is that 5 years from now, am I going to more likely remember the time when I did things myself, or the experiences shared with others? Sometimes the motivation to study by myself is just not there, and I end of procrastinating. In other areas of my life, such as exercising, I find that I’m more motivated to work out if it’s done in a group setting. For the past 2 years, I’ve gotten the work out plan at the school gym, which means that I get to take various group workout classes. Some of my personal favorites are yoga and Zumba, where we also danced to Gangnam Style. How trendy, right? I’m getting a little bit better. Recently I attended a wedding where the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids and the groomsmen surprised the guests with Gangnam Style as well. It was awesome. What about you? How do you occupy your time? Do you consider yourself a “socially occupied being”?

Lawlor, M. C. (2003). The significance of being occupied: The social construction of childhood occupations. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 57(4), 424-434. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.57.4.424 Show abstract

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Data Phone! ⟩
January 24, 2013, by Ricky

Life Hacks

Oh my goonies! So up until two weeks ago I had a classic, no-nonsense (and no data) flip-phone. The main reason for holding-out on the data was that I just couldn’t afford it. Sure I could save up for the phone, but what about the monthly $30 perpetuity? These are things an ex-accountant thinks about. So I reasoned, ‘what’s the point — besides, it is a phone after-all . . . a device that can make and receive telephone calls, right?’ Boy, was I wrong. The productivity that these little “miracle boxes” afford, indisputably trumps the cost. These things are no longer phones — how many people do you even catch anymore using their phones to make a long-winded phone-call? No, they are much more than that. That is, if you use them for the power of good. I can totally see how data phones can readily become a distraction, but if you consider it a tool versus a toy, then it can make you better. Life is fast these days — especially for a working graduate student. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve missed opportunities because I was the last one to check the email, or because I didn’t have my calendar memorized or in my pocket. Productivity tools like the list app called WorkFlowyare making me more efficient. Oh, and one more thing about apps, Google Maps (end of apps discussion). Yep, things are going well for me and my data phone. If I ever had to go back to the trusty ‘ol flip-phone, I think I could pull it off, but I just don’t want to.

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