It’s Corona time, baby! And guess what? You and I are stuck at home trying to find the limits of piecewise functions through a computer screen.
It’s a blessing to still be able to learn, no matter how strange and complex the situation is. If you are complaining about the new online system, please stop. Some people don’t have a single chance at education, with or without the pandemic.
That said, it’s extremely difficult. It’s completely okay to admit that and seek help. So, thank you for being humble enough to be here. Truly. Thank you for just admitting to yourself that you are struggling or might struggle in the future and that you need resources like this to help you. The first step to solve any problem is to identify and admit that there is a problem.
When I watched my first lecture videos for AP literature, I cried. It felt like the information went in one ear and out the other. I had so many questions about the content, the assignments, and the topic itself…and nobody was there to answer them.
I got into this really dark mental space. I remember it being extremely negative and hopeless in my mind, something like “oh, this year is gonna be terrible and I already know it. I’m not going to understand anything. I don’t know how they expect us to do this alone.”
That, my friend, is the height of negative self-talk. This is the kind of internal dialogue that I want you to get rid of right now.
That doesn’t mean you tell yourself that it’s going to be all rainbows and unicorns, no. If anything, you have to admit that it’s tough and unexpected. Yet, you will get through it. Victorious.
If you make up your mind that no matter what happens, you’re going to learn, then the battle is halfway won. Our mindset is often the biggest obstacle standing in our way. The other 50% of the challenge is figuring out exactly what you need to do to corroborate your mental decision.
Most schools where I live are proceeding online, at least for the first semester of the year. Even if you have some kind of hybrid system where you live, it is still of utmost importance that you do these things when you have the opportunity.
Below are the top 10 tips that I found extremely helpful for online school this year. I would love to say that I just knew exactly what to do and how to do it, but that’s not the truth. I struggled and labored, too. My hope, today, is to alleviate you that pain.
You can get a free checklist here to help you actually do these things after you have read them.
The Basics:
- Wake Up at Your Regular Time
Here’s the thing: you cannot trick the human body. If you are used to waking up at 6:30 a.m. for school during a normal year, then all of a sudden decide to wake up 5 minutes before class right now (8:30), your body is going to be confused.
When the body is confused, it tries to reprogram itself and return back to homeostasis ASAP. When that happens, it will not function optimally for you (because it’s too busy trying to fix the damage you caused it). That means you will be tired, exhausted, and grouchy for no reason.
Aside from that, waking up at a set time will give you structure and create discipline in your very rubbery, self-run school day. If you wake up an extra hour or two before class starts, you will have an extra hour or two to get assignments done! Can you imagine?!
Okay, it sounds great in theory, but how do I actually get the motivation to get up that early if I don’t need to? Well, my friend, go read this post and come back. Essentially, you need two things: 1) know your motive and the bigger picture for why you want to do this (if it’s not meaningful and appealing enough, you won’t do anything) and 2) take frequent breaks and make sure you are rested internally (and externally) before you do anything.
Waking up earlier will free you so much time, considering there is no commute time and most of us don’t have to leave our homes.
2. Get Dressed
Are you serious? You’re putting this in an academic article? I can’t believe you. Yes, my friend, I am.
Nothing is more ridiculous than going into a live session and seeing a classmate in a baggy hoodie and messy hair. Don’t mind me for saying this, but that’s only cute when you’re hanging out with your puppies at home. When there is 36 of us in one Zoom session, there needs to be a basic level of professionalism.
You don’t have to wear a fancy blouse or trousers and a bow tie everyday, but at least put in some effort. Wear a clean t-shirt, some jeans, a watch/jewelry, and actually brush your teeth. You don’t need a full face of makeup everyday, just look like you tried.
Don’t get me wrong, I care nothing about your outward appearance, and I definitely hope you don’t care about mine. I’m not telling you to judge people by their clothes or their style or any of that. I’m simply saying to put in a little effort to look good every day. Why if no one’s gonna judge me?
Good question. There is a scientific correlation between what you wear and how you feel about yourself, hence where the statement “dress for success” comes from. If you want further scientific data, I encourage you to head over to the Scientific American and read the study by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Your looks do matter. Not for other people to judge you, but for yourself. When you look put together (and not like you just rolled out of bed and snoozed three alarm clocks), you feel better. Thus, you could PERFORM better.
3. Turn on Your Camera
I don’t care if you use Zoom, Google Meets, or Loom, always turn on your camera. Yes, even if you are not required to do so.
Just think about it. In a typical school year, you would have had to see all of your teachers and classmates face to face. You couldn’t avoid it. You had to be doing the right thing, not out of the goodness of your sweet little student heart, but because there were serious consequences if you didn’t.
Now, though, you could be yelling at your siblings and eating mac and cheese and no one would know. Very few of us actually have enough integrity to sit still and not browse through Instagram in the middle of a class session, when nobody could see or hear what we’re doing.
No shame, my friend. I, too, would do that in the middle of a “class” because in my innocent little subconscious mind, there is no class. Your brain can’t just be told that class is going on and you can’t go on your phone or eat brunch when you are alone in your room and no one could see you or hear you whatsoever.
This is the greatest test of willpower these days. JK. All you need to do is TURN ON YOUR CAMERA, so that you are held to some kind of social standards. Don’t be shy. Don’t hesitate to unmute your mic and ask questions. Don’t be awkward and silent.
Own the fact that this is the closest thing you have to real education right now, so make the best of it and dare to use anything that can hold you accountable.
4. Eat Breakfast
Here is the thing, folks: the brain is the most metabolically active organ of the body. It is only 4% of the body’s mass, yet uses 25% of its energy stores. Thinking hard burns more calories than a walk or a light jog. If you don’t believe me, go read this article by Scientific American in the Journal of Neuroscience.
It is ignorant to assume you can have an output for which you have no input- meaning: to get something out, you must put something in.
You can’t expect quality thinking and learning to occur without the basic fuel that neurons use to actually fire and do the learning. At the bare minimum, you need a source of healthy carbohydrates, fats, and protein.
Please understand that this article is not about nutrition advice. Rather, it is looking at nutrition from an academic lens. You need some source of healthy carbs (fruits/veggies/grains) before you start sitting down for a two-hour study session. Why? Because the brain utilizes sugar for thinking more than any other macromolecule.
So, even if you aren’t hungry or you’re short on time, at least grab a piece of fruit or a granola bar. You don’t have to cook a cuisine-worthy breakfast everyday, and it doesn’t have to be the healthiest option, but you must eat something. If you care nothing about your physical health, then fine. But, if you are here for academic advice, then this is the most basic, foundational step there is.
Thank you and you’re welcome.
5. Turn Off Your Phone
By this point you are probably ready to exit out of this site. I feel you, though. I love texting my besties and checking up on the whole world every 5 minutes. However, this is the most dangerous habit for your academic growth, especially during this online school season.
Now more than ever, you have to be aware of what you’re doing with your time; you have to make the proper adjustments and plans to make sure you get all your work done on time. There is no teacher or professor to stand over your head and tell you “do this and put your phone down”.
If you don’t understand how molecular geometry affects bond polarity in hybridization, then guess what? You’re going to have to find that out. On your own.
The action of seeking out that information is not scary. What’s actually scary is delving into the world of snapchat and having no measure of time and not getting your work done.
My friend, you know yourself more than I can sit here and tell you. You know whether your phone stands in your way or not. If you can only reference it once in a while and not camp on it, then great, skip this step.
For the rest of us human beings, that little thing of aluminum alloys and carbon graphite is really distracting. Simply, turn it off, or put it on airplane mode or do not disturb. Or throw it in another room.
If you need to use it for work or google searches during your school day, then block the apps and sites that you don’t need and that might distract you. There are many apps that you could use to block other apps for a set amount of time, like: Moment, BreakFree, AppDetox, Flipid, and Stay on Task.
You don’t have weak willpower if you have a problem with this step. You just don’t know how to adjust your environment to serve you.
“Oh, I’m so bad with my phone. I’m so bad with my time. Ugh.” NO YOU AREN’T. You just don’t use practical methods that will help you eliminate those tendencies. If that sounds like foreign language to you, then I suggest you stop here, go to Productivity 101, and read steps 3 and 4.
We’re all tempted; nobody’s exempt. It becomes a problem only when you choose to do nothing about it and give into the temptation, and quite frankly, there are many solutions (like the ones mentioned above) for those who seek them.
The Advanced:
- Make a Digital File for Each Class
Okay, so now that you’re up early, got dressed, had breakfast, turned off your phone, and turned on your camera for class, what can you do to actually succeed virtually?
Well, my friend, nothing but the power of digital organization can redeem you during this time. You have to be orderly even if it’s not your natural tendency to be so. Yes, I know many people can thrive off of chaos. Yet, what I see more often than not, is that those people take forever to locate their items, thus wasting so much time.
Since most of our assignments are digital now, and all of our “turn in boxes” are virtual, you must transform files, folders, planners, calendars, and reminders to match the style of the work.
Usually, students would carry around folders, binders, or planners. Unless you want to print out every assignment and scan every document, you need to create a digital version of your organization system now.
Start with the most basic step, that most of you probably already do anyways: create a file on your google drive or file explorer for each class. Place sub-files (folders) inside of each class for any major projects (or multiple-step assignments) that you know you will be doing throughout the school year.
In addition, you should always place loose documents, images, or pdf. readings inside of their given folder category under each respective class. This way, there are no complications with locating your work and trying to store it.
To be honest, I don’t like working digitally. I feel like I can have a better grip on physical objects. Yet, here we all are, sucked into the black hole of cyber space. I am thankful, however, that there are great methods to go about it. And so should you.
2. Annotate Your Syllabus
If there is one digital document that you must print, highlight, star, and mark up everywhere, it is your syllabus. These things are the vertebrae of your school year.
After you have read it, you should have absolutely no confusion about your teacher’s grading system, the weight of each category on your overall grade, and the type of work you’ll be doing all year.
Another thing you must be aware of is the major projects, essays, or exams that you will do, and that will most likely make up a huge percentage of your grade.
For instance, each of my AP classes this year has an AP exam that will take place in May at a different time. I write the exact time, place, and location of each exam in my planner from the first week of September.
Why? Because the AP exam is arguably the biggest 3-4 hour beast of the year for each class. Second comes summative assessments, essays, presentations, or projects.
Write the due dates for those, too. I also recommend you set up alarms or reminders about a week prior to the due date to see how far you’ve come and how you should go about it from there.
The remainder of the overall grade comes from formative assessments and classwork/homework. In most cases, these categories contribute the least to the overall grade. So, it is better to focus your time and energy on the formative assessments and anything that weighs more than 50% of your grade.
If you are in a time crunch and you have to choose between completing a study guide or a homework packet (often 20-30% of overall grade) and working on an essay or presentation (often 70-80% of overall grade), then go with the latter.
It only makes sense that you do. Why waste time on something that’s contributing the least to your desired outcome? Now, you should absolutely do your homework, practice problems, and daily activities. Yet, you also need to recognize when it’s not necessary to focus your energy on those things.
3. Connect with Classmates
For the most part, we can’t see each other right now. We can’t hangout or host study parties (yes, that’s a thing in my world). If you are a very social, extroverted person, it’s probably very hard on you right now.
That’s why you must connect with classmates. Find at least three people from each class on social media, send them a quick text (introduce yourself) and ask for their phone number.
When you don’t understand something on a homework assignment or when you’re confused on what the teacher means, these people are going to be your best help.
Make a network of people that you can help and that can help you back. This goes for both school and everything in life. I don’t think it’s possible to do anything big on our own, actually. Relationships and people are the cornerstone of a solid life.
Do not hesitate to reach out and offer a friendship, virtually or otherwise. Your classmates need you just as much as you need them.
Can’t find the derivative of tan(x)? Ask Kylie or Tim or Louis!
4. Set a Timer
When you’re all set to go and everything is perfect for you to start working, but you don’t, what do you do? This is the age old question of how to stop procrastination…
I say: stop making it so complex and daunting. Don’t think about it like “oh my gosh I have to finish this 6 page novel outline in one sitting.” Trust me, I’ve done it before, and it’s not fun.
Instead, set a timer for 10 minutes. Tell yourself that you will stop working after those 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes. If you focus for that long, then you can be done!
What ends up happening is that you either get into the zone once you’ve started or you have reached a point where you can push further without being as miserable as you were when you started.
You just have to overcome that initial hump of actually focusing and doing something. The rest is not going to be downhill (if you really don’t like the work), but it is wayyyy more manageable.
This is based on the concept of activation energy, which you can refer to in this post on how to stick with habits until you see results. Along with that, it also incorporates the Pomodoro technique, a timing method by which you overcome procrastination. If you have time, I highly recommend you watch this 5 minute video by Med School Insiders on the subject.
This is probably the most effective technique I’ve ever used in countering the initial stubbornness of not wanting to do anything. I use a pomodoro timer, which you can get here. Give it a try. Just 10 minutes. And if you still don’t feel like you want to do it after that, then you can stop.
But at least you got started and got a little bit of work done. Drop the “all or nothing” mentality. Some work, no matter how little, is always better than no work.
5. Stop Working After the “School Day”
This is probably the biggest mistake I see my friends doing right now. Since you can theoretically start working whenever and stop whenever, people drag the school day into ungodly hours.
If your school day would have ended at 3:30 p.m. on a normal year, then that’s when you should end your online school day. Don’t drag your school life over to other hours of the day.
I understand that sometimes you have to do extra work, especially for AP classes or college classes that you know you don’t do so well on. Yet, here is the catch: if you don’t limit yourself to only a set amount of hours to get all your school work and learning done, then your brain will assume freedom of prolonging the time spent on the tasks and not be effecient.
If you don’t maximize the time you have from the start of the school day to the end, you will not maximize the time you use from your own personal life. Don’t cocktail it all together. Please.
If you didn’t understand something during the school day, you won’t understand it if you jumble it with the time you have for other things. When school is over, IT IS OVER.
Find other things to do. Take up a new skill, hobby, or invest in a close relationship. You are actually not doing yourself a service when you’re still stressing about how to write a DBQ for APUSH at 9 pm. Been there, done that, and it’s useless.
The truth is that when you focus on other things you enjoy, the pressure slowly decreases and you give your brain an opportunity to connect the dots and subconsciously learn the information you have been shoving in there all day.
That’s why athletes and students who do extra-curriculars have the highest grades and test scores. Their brain has time to digest the information they learned at school when they engage other parts of their brain in activities that they enjoy.
Students who are not involved in anything outside of school or in their own life, often lack passion and are more stressed about their classes and don’t understand the subjects as well.
There is an evident correlation between athletic participation/involvement in extra-curriculars and academic performance. This is a national trend. See for yourself:
BONUS TIP:
Introduce Yourself to Your Teachers
You see, your teachers are struggling as well. They don’t know who you are and how they can best help you. So, the best thing you can do for them (and yourself) is let them know who you are.
Stick around for a few minutes after a virtual class. Introduce yourself to your teacher and maybe learn a few things about them as well. Let them know who you are, what you’re willing to do as a student in their class, and how they can best help you.
When teachers know who you are, they are more likely to sympathize with you and give you extra help on any given assignment. This is a crucial bonus tip, especially if you add it to all the ones above. If you don’t want to video chat with a teacher, then you can send them an email with the same exact ideas.
You would make things so much easier on your teachers. Not only are you giving them an aspect of real school that’s lost virtually, but you’re building a relationship that can maybe last for longer than that school year. People like straightforward people. People also like clear, intentional, goal-oriented people. Show that and reap the benefits.
If all of this sounds unrealistic or overwhelming, you can get the free checklist below to help you put this knowledge to action in a simple way throughout your day.