Hi everyone, welcome to another post.
So a lot has happened since Tuesday, namely college has officially closed! For some people that will be a "Hell yeah, freedom!" or a "Thank God my exams have been cancelled" but for those of us who actually like college this is a serious "I understand why this needed to happen but...HOLY HECK THIS SUCKS!" moment. Fear not dear internet friends, there is a solution: teachers continuing teaching online. Yes, my college has adopted the approach of using emails, moodle and google classroom to enable studies to continue and I can honestly say that I am so grateful!
Pre-warning: this blog post is mostly going to be informative so if that isn't your thing, I understand, I hope you stay safe and I'll see you guys in tomorrow's post.
With that said, the studying itself is up to you, which can be a bit of a problem if, like me, the idea of being cooped up with the same people for who knows how long drives you mad. There are solutions, all of these may not necessarily work for you and that's okay, everyone works in a different way and as we are still in the early stages of social distancing/self isolation, I can't guarantee how long they will work for but I can say that hopefully this will give you some...well hope.
My first tip is to get organised and try to stick to your routine as much as possible. Yesterday I found a grid, which let me split up my day into 4 chunks so that I can be productive whilst giving myself a bit of a break. I planned studying to be in regular college hours so that way I can keep in the routine of being at college despite the fact that I am not "physically at college", it also helps make sure I don't fall behind in set work. I then filled in regular college timetable gaps with homework, any time left over I assigned to being creative or chilling out with a book/film/online theatre production.
My next tip is to arrange group chats with peers if you are able to. I study History and English so I created group chats for anyone who is studying the same courses as me, this way we can discuss topics, come together if we need help with any of the work, chat and generally keep each other company. Creating these group chats also means that people can come and go as they please. If you were wondering if they work, absolutely yes.
Take breaks when you would usually take breaks. For me this meant stopping at 12pm to eat lunch, I also ended up participating in @sarahcrossanwriter 's Instagram lesson. She is planning on live-streaming most days at 12 noon and offers writing/poetry workshops and sets challenges. This week's challenge is to memorise a rap/poem or monologue, post a performance video and tag her in it. In case you were wondering, I plan on learning a monologue from "Othello" off by heart so if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, keep an eye out for that monstrosity :)
Another thing I did during my break was go for a half an hour walk, if you are on full lock-down I appreciate that this is not possible and I genuinely hope things get better for you. I am lucky enough to not be on full lock-down yet and to live in a rural area with lots of access to the countryside, which means that I am able to exercise whilst still being able to participate in social distancing. Exercise is really good for mental health so I recommend doing some if you are able to, even if it means following along to a home exercise video.
If your studies rely on emails for communication, check your emails regularly! Whilst I was studying today, I set aside a tab so I could receive a notification whenever emails came in. This also meant that it was easier for me to contact my teacher to explain that my work would be submitted an hour or two later than the deadline. Keeping communication open, especially with teachers, is really important! During college hours this means that I have the opportunity to ask questions or just ask for book/further materials recommendations. That being said, teachers are always open for you to ask for extra resources that support their subject but not necessarily the course you are studying, I asked for recommendations for books about literary criticism and poetry and my teacher was kind enough to give me some exciting suggestions.
Music really helps if you are studying alone or helps if your house is noisy. If it's requested, I'll do a whole post about music because my music tastes are a bit all over the place lol.
Another thing which is really good for concentration is a PAID app called "Forest" (this is not sponsored, the app is just useful). Basically you set a timer for how long you want to study for, plant a tree in the app and your tree grows during the set time. If you leave the app, the tree dies and you end up with a dead tree in your forest so the goal is to fill your forest with lots of fully grown trees. If you are a bit sceptical, fair enough, I was too but then I became really attached to my trees and felt really sad if they died. So far I have 2 fully grown trees and 2 dead ones. You can also change the type of tree you plant and earn more virtual coins to buy trees by participating in sessions. In case you were wondering, this isn't one of those apps you can just use for studying, I used it to stop myself looking at every single notification whilst trying to chill out and read.
Stay as productive/busy/occupied as possible. You may be the type of person who can not do much and stay chill during this really uncertain period, I respect that! I just happen not to be one of those people. I generally do well at staying calm during a crisis/strange time so long as I keep myself busy and give myself less time to think about what's going on. To be honest, I keep an eye on the news as a way of seeing how I can help protect myself and others from the virus as well as waiting to hear when this will all be over because this will end eventually. Back to the point, when I'm not studying, I'm doing something that I enjoy to both keep myself happy and distracted.
One final thing I want to talk about. Communication. I know, recently I have gone on about it a lot but it's just so important! I contact people when I feel able to and I respond to messages as soon as possible not just because I am a bit of an extrovert but because I want to help keep communication open/help others feel less alone. By responding when I feel able to, I give myself the chance to have some space alone if I don't have the energy or want a break from social media.
Bit of a longer post today. Thank you so much for reading, stay safe, stay as positive as possible and I'll see you soon
-Amello
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