Lately, I haven't been doing anything exciting like a hike or sightseeing because we are still battling the pandemic, and it's also very cold here in Maryland. February has always been my least favorite month because it's after the holidays and because it's almost always cold even when I'm in Greece. In normal times, I would be going to classes, martial arts practices, and my internship, but the pandemic has kept me home, and that made it hard to stay on a schedule.
This blog will give you some tips if you're also struggling.
I also needed an excuse to share this beautiful picture that I took while I was driving back from an errand. (I practiced safety; there were no cars around me, so I stopped the car and captured this gorgeous sunset.) And because I loved literature class and analyzing texts, poems, pictures, etc., look at how the sunset paints both the sky but also the road in hues of orange. It shows how natural beauty reflects everywhere, even in manmade creations. Hope you find it as inspirational as I do.
Now back to the tips:
The number one most helpful thing that has helped me stay sane is waking up with an alarm at the same time every day. And no, I don't have a reason to wake up but trust me, every time I've overslept, I feel like I've wasted all day. Try this and stick to it. It will be miserable at first, but if you persist, you'll see the benefits.
Make a workout schedule and write down what time you will work out each day so that even though you don't have to go to the gym physically, you still have a specific time for training. Another helpful thing is that is if you're working out from Youtube videos, you can select the videos you want to do later in the day after you wake up and load them in different tabs on Chrome. Then when you're ready to workout, you won't waste time looking for videos.
Decide before you go to sleep what you want to eat the next day so that you can plan to get groceries if you don't have something and, of course, not waste time during the day trying to decide what to cook.
If you have a school assignment, work project, etc., and you find yourself procrastinating, open the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, whatever file you'll be using for the project and write your name and the title after you eat breakfast, then keep it open on your computer. Every time you go back to your P.C., you will be reminded that you need to finish it, which may decrease procrastination.
Finally, on the weekend, write down little things that you don't have to do/aren't urgent, but you would like to do, such as tidy-up your closet, doing a deep clean of the house, giving yourself an at-home spa day (face masks, skincare routines, etc.), calling people you haven't found the time to talk to in a while, doing a personal project like participate in a writing contest, learning a new recipe, etc. Then, add one of those things on each weekday so that you fill your days' tasks. Without realizing it, you will have created a schedule/routine and not only fill your days and not lose your mind but also complete tasks that you normally wouldn't have time to do.
Hope this helps students who are home doing online classes or anyone else who has some extra time/ is bored because of the virtual working environment.
P.S. There are definitely some weeks where I have tons of interviews, class assignments, work for my internship, etc., and don't have the extra free time, but for the weeks that I do, instead of wasting the extra time, I figured that a set schedule keeps me on track.
E.K.
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