By Mrs. Lisa Marie Ferry
Dean of Students
Today, I am going to share some great strategies for staying organized with your online learning while dealing with all the distractions of being at home.
I have a lot of experience with online learning. I have not only had to teach online classes now and prior to teaching at MMI, but also I was also an online student for a while. So, from experience on both ends, here are some strategies:
Just like physically going to school, you must set a schedule for yourself in order to succeed. Most importantly and I know some of you are going to growl at this one, start in the morning.
Now, this strategy still lets you sleep a little later, but come on, you are still doing the school thing and if you compare it to going to school, you are definitely sleeping later.
Here is a sample schedule that you can use as is or slightly tweak:
- 8:30 AM Get Up. If you are one of those people who hit the snooze 3 or 4 times, set it for an earlier time, so you are up at 8:30am.
- 8:30-9:00 AM Personal care and breakfast
- 9:00-12:00 PM Subject of the day and homework. Make a workspace and call it your own. Whether it is your desk in your room, a table in the basement, this will always be your workspace. Your bed is not a workspace. Everything takes much longer when you are super comfy on your bed. Studies have shown that doing work on your bed tricks your brain into thinking that this is the place to do work and therefore, can cause sleeping problems because your brain is in an active mode.
- 12 PM Lunch (Food is important)
- 12:30-4:00 PM FREE TIME! Yes, I said free time and also this would be a great opportunity to get outside for some air!!
- 4:00 PM-6:00 PM Do school odds and ends. This means whatever you did not finish in the morning you will do now. If you did it all and double check, guess what…FREE TIME!
- 6:00 PM Dinner
- 6:30 PM until 10ish Free time or School odds and ends.
Now, as we know, sometimes you will need to use this time to finish schoolwork (could only be an hour) because earlier in the day, you watched a documentary and did only some of the work for that class. Sometimes in a day, you will have double free time. Just like a physical school schedule, this will fluctuate.
- 10:00 PM GO TO BED
Now, I put 10:00 PM to go to bed. This time can vary, but YOUR BODY NEEDS SLEEP and we are still in school, not summer. I would not stay up after 12am or the next day, you will quickly fall off your schedule, fall behind and be totally stressed and negative. No Negative Nellies.
On the flip side, if you sleep in until 11:00am, 12:00pm or later, half your day is wasted and it will feel like you do not have enough time to do anything, thus creating unnecessary stress and anxiety.
- Setting a schedule organizes your mind
- You are less stressed because your head knows what you have to do and when
- KIC (Keep It Consistent!) Do not deviate from your schedule because “you don’t feel like it”.
- NO distractions during school time (if you can help it). I know some of you have siblings at home, so do your best not to be one of those distractions.
- Turn off the video games
- Close the tabs on your computer that are not school related
- Put your phone in another room and off
- Just get the school work done using your mastered time management skills
- Remember, if you have distractions, it will take you 2-4 times longer to complete your schoolwork. Believe me I have seen it with my own kids. Example, Amber.
- No distractions =More free time!
That is it in a nutshell. Honestly, it does work. If you have to change things around as far as a schedule, CONTACT ME! I can help you create one that works for you!
Always remember, we are here to help you succeed!
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