Tips for doing school or college work from home

With COVID-19/Coronavirus taking control of most of our lives, the thoughts of studying at home can be daunting and worrying. Nevertheless, it is so important to keep up with school and college work in these uncertain times. With this in mind, I thought I’d write up some tips and tricks for staying on top of work and study at home. As I am a final year university student I know how stressful it is at the moment and how lost you can feel when it comes adjusting to doing all of your schoolwork and college work from home. Hopefully these tips will point you in the right direction!

1. Stay connected

As a lot of our classes have been moved online, there is still an opportunity to talk to teachers and lecturers that way. For some of us, that is through video-calls, chat rooms or email. It is so important to keep in contact with teachers and classmates so you do not miss out on any information given about your subjects and modules. Do not be afraid to ask questions for further explanation or for extra help as schooling from home is new to everybody.

You can also try calling friends that you have class with to discuss topics or upcoming essays and assignments that are due to catch up with them while staying on top of work.

2. Stick to your timetable

Basing your day on your school or college timetable is the best way to stay on top of your work and stay productive. Wake up at the normal time you would during the weekdays and take breaks when you would in school or at college. Keeping a routine is a great way to stay focused and not treat these weeks like the summer holidays.

3. Study space

Set aside a separate part of the house to study in if you can. A spare bedroom would be ideal or a desk in your living-room or bedroom. Try not to study on your bed, on the couch or at the dinner table as it is more likely that you will get easily distracted here as these places are normally used for relaxing. A quiet area away from the rest of your family would be the best idea.

Use your chosen study space every time you are doing work because changing where you work can lead to more distractions and time wasting. It also means it’s easier to relax in the evenings when you physically move away from your study space.

4. Revision and homework

Even though we are studying at home, it is important to keep up to date with revision and homework. This could be simply reading articles and making notes on them for a college module or doing your schoolwork during the normal school hours and doing assigned homework ‘after school’ as you would if you were attending school normally. This will help keep on top of your work and you don’t have to stress out about falling behind.

5. Try not to get overwhelmed

As we all know, these are worrying and stressful times, and we don’t know when everything will go back to normal in our lives. Take the time to relax – while social distancing! – by reading a book, watching a good Netflix movie, spending time with pets or taking up a new hobby (Youtube is very useful for this). School work and college work is important but your mental health is worth so much more. This too shall pass.