Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of students were forced into doing school online from home with no advance notice. It’s been a hard transition for some. Taking classes online is very different from being in a class with teachers and students.
Because of my chronic illness, I’ve been doing school online for the past 2 years. Through my experience, there some strategies I have found essential to my online success. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I hope these tips will help you too…
1. Make A Plan
Depending on what your online school looks like, you may have set tasks for the day/week. If you don’t, I recommend prioritizing and planning out your time. Different projects and tasks require different levels of focus and concentration. If you have flexibility, schedule the harder things in the morning when your mind is fresh. This will help you to be more productive and get those harder things done more quickly. Planning ahead will help you stay motivated and on track. It’s also helpful to check tasks off as you go. It makes you feel like you’re getting something accomplished. Using a bullet journal or a planner is a great way to keep track of what you need to get done.
2. Establish a routine.
When you’re at home, it’s easy to sleep in and do school work whenever you want simply because you can. But if you establish a routine and give your day some structure it will help you stay focused and provide structure. I like to follow a similar schedule to when I was in school. I wake up at 9:00 am. For me, it’s hard for me to get up earlier due to my POTS and because of the blood pooling issues it takes about an hour for my heart rate to regulate. At 10am I start school and work until 12:30 when I take a break to exercise and eat lunch. I’m back at my desk at 1:30 and work until around 4:00. I take little breaks during the afternoon. Having a routine helps you stay focused and makes your day feel a little more normal.
3. Create a Designated Work Space
If you’re trying to do schoolwork on the couch or in your bed it’s hard to be productive because we associate these areas with relaxing or sleeping. Instead, set up a designated desk or table where you only do your schoolwork at. Keep all your supplies handy so that everything you need is right there and available and you can focus on your work.
4. Take Breaks
Take breaks throughout the day. Get up, stretch, move, maybe get a breath of fresh air from outside. This gives your brain a small mental break. When you go back to your school work, you’ll be more productive and have clearer thoughts. This is especially helpful if you’re having a hard time understanding something. Sometimes you just need to take a break and when you come back to it – it will make more sense.
5. Exercise.
Fitting in some exercise on one of your breaks will also help with focus and productivity. A short walk outside or a creative at home workout will help to clear and refresh your brain making it easier to think. This is especially helpful when you’re feeling stuck on something.
6. Be Creative.
Get creative with note taking. It’s more fun to study and review your notes if you make them fun to look at. Use creative fonts for titles and subtitles. Use different colored pencils or pens to make different sections stand out. Highlight important areas of your notes so their easier to find. Add visuals that connect to your written notes. Here are some of my favorite note taking supplies.
7. Get Dressed
When you’re at home all day, it’s easy to want to stay in your pajamas. I always feel more productive if I get dressed, even if it is just a sweatshirt and leggings.
8. Remove Distractions
It’s easy to get distracted when you’re doing online school at home. Especially if you have brothers and/or sisters at home. Both of my parents work from home, so that’s distracting too. My mom is on a lot of zoom calls during the day and she tends to talk really loud! I use noise cancelling headphones to block out the noise distractions. You’ll also want to put anything away that may be a physical distraction – like your phone. Removing your distractions will help keep you on track and you’ll accomplish more school work.
9. Use the work hard play hard mentality.
You know that awesome feeling when you’ve had a really productive day and got so much accomplished? At the end of the day you can relax without stressing about school. Try to mimic that with online don’t procrastinate everything to the end of the day, work hard during the day so you can relax at night and know you have accomplished everything you needed to.
10. Stay Motivated.
You need to be your own motivator when you’re doing online school. Finding new ways to learn, take fun notes, and plan small breaks in your day will help to keep your day interesting which will in turn help to keep you motivated.
Have you or your kids been doing school online? What helps you stay productive, motivated and on track? I’d love to hear your tips!
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