A Student’s Survival Guide to Online Learning and Lockdown: Seven ideas to (hopefully) make life a little easier!
Coronavirus has changed the way the world works in practically every sphere of life - and student life and academia are no exception. Student life can be difficult at the best of times, and it is especially difficult now, so we want to provide some advice that we’ve found useful and has helped us cope with all of the uncertainty!
Create a timetable and stick to it!
Wake up at a regular time each day. It’s very easy to sleep in late or stay up later than expected. Set an alarm, wake up, and prepare for your day. Keeping a timetable or even just creating a “To-Do List” can be a great motivator.
2. Look after your living space!
Keep your space tidy and work with your housemates to keep shared spaces like kitchens and lounges tidy too. A tidy desk (or kitchen/lounge/bedroom) is a tidy mind. Also, you can try to separate your living space into zones and try not to stay in your bedroom for the whole day, even if all of your classes are online. If you work in a different area than where you sleep and eat in a different area than where you work, it can provide some much-needed variation in your day.
3. Eat regular meals
When you’re stuck at home for most of the day, it’s very easy to snack and forget to plan regular meals. Some days, this can be exactly what you need, but scheduling regular meals can really help to structure your day - plus, cooking can be fun and give you something to do!
4. Dress up for class
Online classes where you can turn off your camera mean you can usually get away with attending class wearing pyjamas. But getting dressed can make you feel so much more productive and ready to face the day.
5. Find a hobby
Studying can be exhausting, so it’s really important that you have something you enjoy doing in order to kick back and relax. There are so many hobbies you can do at home, like cooking, exercise, art, literature, gaming - there are also loads of online resources, freely available to anyone with an internet connection, that can help get you started if you want to try something new! There are online events that are open to the public, some of which are free to attend - these can often be found through social media.
6. Stay connected
Living in lockdown is isolating, and attending online classes is exhausting, but there are so many ways to stay in touch with people. You can keep in touch with people online. Video chats and calls are always an option, but if you’ve had enough of video calls, you can always try something a little more old-fashioned - postcards and letters can be a fun way to reach out to friends.
7. Don’t be too hard on yourself
No one said this was going to be easy, and it’s completely fine to have off days. The important thing is that you aren’t too hard on yourself when you don’t feel like you have achieved as much as you hoped. The current situation is incredibly stressful, and we can’t all be expected to make the most of the situation all the time, so if you have a bad day, or a bad couple of days where you don’t get much done and you aren’t feeling like the best version of yourself, just give it another try tomorrow. There’s always someone available to talk to as well, and there’s no need to suffer in silence (we encourage you to email salfraedingar@hi.is for advice and assistance).