A Month of Online Learning

Last month, I started my fourth and final year of university. However, this year is a lot different than any other year I've experienced. Due to the circumstances of the world right now, all of my classes have been moved online for this semester. This has meant that I've had to sit at my laptop for hours on end attending various zoom calls and watching lectures online. I've found it a little difficult to adjust to this way of learning so I thought I'd share, on my blog, some of the things I've taken from learning from home as well as some of my thoughts in general about it all.

 

Finding a work/life balance is tough 

I’ve found myself sometimes working from 9.30am till 9.30pm and beyond which isn’t great. I’ve also had those days where I've got no motivation to do anything and so get very little done during the day because I keep telling myself "I’m at home all the time so I’ve got time to do it later". It's just so easy to become consumed with getting everything done and it's difficult to switch off from either doing or thinking about classes/tasks. When you're doing everything from home, it can be hard knowing when to stop without a set structure to the day. I’d like to find a happy middle ground but at the moment I'm still finding it difficult switching between "work" and "chill" mode.

All the work can feel a little overwhelming at times

As well as having all of the usual readings/tasks and things that need to get done, there's also the added element of having to watch (or remember to watch) pre-recorded lectures. Also having to remember when the live lectures/seminars are due to take place. It can all end up feeling like a lot more work overall.  I’ve also found that it takes me almost twice as long to get through lectures when I watch them at home as opposed to when I actually sat in uni for them. - part of that is because I can go back and note down every single thing that’s said if I need to but another part is due to me tuning out and having to go back and rewatch parts I’ve missed because it’s so easy to lose focus when you’ve been starting at a screen for so long. 

Create a semi-structured schedule for yourself

One thing I've been missing since working from home has been having a set schedule of when things are or when to get things done. Recently I've tried to make some form of schedule for myself so that I know when I need to do things for and also so that I don't spend too much time on just the one class and less on another. So far the only thing I've been consistent with in my scheduling has been the times where I wake up, have breakfast and get lunch - everything else has still been a little all over the place😄. I'm hoping that by scheduling everything a little, this will help me to know when to stop at the end of the day so that I can have some chill time for myself before the next day begins. I've said create a "semi-structure" because I also think it's important to allow flexibility so that you don't get too hung up on trying to finish something by a specific time (because I know that's what I'm like😄).

Able to just get straight on with any work

A good thing about doing uni from home has been that since I don’t need to spend a lot of my time commuting, I’m able to get straight to work on whatever needs done. As soon as a lecture is finished, I can get to work straight away on anything that needs done whereas if I was actually in the uni, time would be spent having to travel to the various buildings as well as getting a train there and back. 

Talk to your friends

I've found learning from home has been quite an isolating and, at times, lonely experience. It's so easy to become consumed by the workload and to feel that you're all alone with everything - especially when you can't physically meet up and talk to people. In the beginning, I kept everything to myself because I didn't want to add my stress onto someone else but then I remembered that saying "a problem shared is a problem halved" and so I messaged my friends who are on my uni course and it was the best thing to do. I found that we were all feeling the same and even just sharing our feelings on it all made me feel a lot less alone with things. I try to zoom with them every week or so because it's also good to speak things aloud and just have a general chat and a laugh.

Making ‘To-Do Lists’ has really helped 

To make sure I’m keeping track of everything that needs done, I write down every thing I need to do and when I need to do it for. There’s something so satisfying about scoring out tasks once you’ve finished them! I’ve got a whole notebooks just for writing out my to-do lists.  I make daily as well as weekly to-do lists just to keep on top of everything.

Have you had to learn from home at any point this year?

Bye for now, xo