Back in high school, I remember being told by my chemistry teacher that university requires a huge amount of self-motivation and focus. Material would no longer be taught in “units” culminating in easily digestible tests to ensure we had a thorough understanding before the final exam. No one would be checking our attendance or homework. University would be all about self-directed learning. “Adapt or be left behind,” I remember her saying.
While I highly doubt this is what my chemistry teacher meant, it is clear to me that the theme of this school year has indeed been adaptability. In mere months, we have made the switch to an entirely online learning model. With lectures being “asynchronous” and office hours being “virtual,” my schedule last semester was the most flexible it had ever been. That change had some pretty major side effects. For example, it taught me how to structure my time. I have always been more productive on days with early-morning lectures, because afterwards I would head straight to the library. Getting an early start to the day has played a crucial role in maintaining my productivity, and without morning lectures to depend on, I knew I would have to motivate myself some other way. Thus, last semester I deliberately scheduled all of my commitments for the morning. Between volunteering and TAing, I had 9am commitments lined up Monday to Thursday. Thankfully, this tactic worked well. I seldom struggled to start schoolwork after my morning obligations. As such, I will continue to implement this strategy this semester.
The next obstacle I had to face as a by-product of the pandemic was learning how to work at home. This is something with which I, historically, have never had much success. For the last several years, any waking hours not spent in a lecture or lab, have been spent either in Douglas or Bracken libraries. People are generally surprised to hear that I struggle with productivity, I assume because I was always on campus. But make no mistake, my constant presence on campus was very much intentional. By doing so, I was compelled to stay focused on schoolwork. Before March 2020, I never used my apartment as a place to work. Thus, COVID-19 threw me for a loop. All of a sudden, I was being forced to operate exclusively from home. The first several weeks were painful. I have listed below some tips and tricks which helped make the transition to working at home easier. However, there was still a large adjustment period. In reality, working from home was something I just had to give myself time to get used to. In fact, I am still getting used to it today.
- Ensure your desk is clear
- Use earplugs
- Set phone to silent
- Prepare your lunch the day before
The first three tips are pretty self-explanatory, so let’s skip to tip #4. At face value, it seems kind of silly to make a sandwich or portion out some leftovers and then throw them back in the fridge for lunch the next day, but hear me out. Normally, on campus, lunch was a very uneventful 30 – 45 minutes. I would stop whatever I was doing, pull out my lunch, mess around on my phone while I ate, and then get back to work. However, when I began to work from home, lunch became a 1.5 – 2 hour production. No longer did a simple sandwich suffice. In order to procrastinate, I would cook a hot meal. I quickly realized this was unsustainable during the work week. As such, I reverted back to making my lunch the night before, as if I was going to be spending all day on campus. I urge you to try this if you also find lunchtime to be a source of procrastination. While taking breaks throughout the day is important to maintain your productivity, when those breaks become the length of a cinematic feature (as mine did), you may be crossing into dangerous territory where breaks are now impeding your ability to work.
These were just some of the changes I had to make last semester in order to accommodate a new style of learning. Prioritizing school during a pandemic has been incredibly strange and more cognitively demanding than I could have imagined. Nevertheless, we are doing it. We are adapting! I will never underestimate my abilities to adapt ever again. You shouldn’t either!