Staying On Track Online: How Students Can Stay Organized and Avoid Distractions
Remote Learning has been rough.
One minute, you were going to school, as usual. The next, your house was turned into an all-in-one living/working/schooling headquarters! Hey, it’s been tough on everybody––parents and teachers, included.
For students, this situation has forced them to take on more responsibility in organizing their entire school lives:
- You’re not getting the in-person support from teachers.
- You’re not collaborating with friends on campus.
- You have to be the ones to keep track of assignments, schedule out your weeks, check your online portals, and get stuff done in time.
- You have to be able to keep the distractions of social media, YouTube and Netflix in check.
For some of you, this all comes as second-nature.
For others… well… it’s a set of skills you may need to develop. These involve our mind’s Executive Functions––things like planning ahead, foreseeing consequences, managing time, and monitoring our mental energy. By the way, adults struggle with these challenges, too!
So what can you do to support yourself with organizing homework and projects. and avoid distractions?
Whether you’re a student or an adult, here are four strategies to help you stay on track:
1 – Create a “home office” other than your bedroom
For some students, trying to do work and avoid distractions in their own bedroom is like trying to rake leaves in a hurricane. If there’s an option in your home for a designated workspace, you should use it! You can create and personalize this area––make the desk a place you enjoy coming to. Put up some pictures. Get a comfy desk chair.
Maybe this is a spare room or a nook off the kitchen. Ideally, it’s out of the way and provides noise protection from the rest of the house. Most importantly, it allows you to make the active choice to go there, set goals (see tip #3) and get to work.
2 – Use an actual hands-on calendar
Digital calendars on our phones and computers are great, and some students might prefer to use these. For others, however, these sort-of blend into the rest of their online lives and become ineffective. For them, it might be helpful to have a physical calendar to keep on their desks or on the wall. The oversized ones that take up an entire desk surface can be especially effective. You can marker in (Sharpies are great!) any new assignments, short or long-term, on to the due date squares.
For extra organization, use different colors to represent individual classes. Having this visual in view serves as an ever-present reminder about what needs to get done.
3 – Set short and long-term goals/reward oneself
First, students need to learn how to chunk out their tasks into manageable increments. Don’t try to do a 4-page research paper on Women’s Suffrage in a night! Chop up assignments into 15, 30, or 60 minute increments.
For example, say to yourself, “Today, I’m just going to spend a half-hour looking for online articles. Tomorrow, I’ll spend 30 minutes doing an outline. The next day, I’ll write my introduction and thesis.” Or, these three tasks could be done in one day, but with half-hour breaks in between. And in those break times, reward yourself with a snack, watch a Netflix episode, or FaceTime with a friend.
4 – Get to know the online portal
Online class portals like Google Classroom, Schoology and Moodle are making remote learning manageable for teachers and students. But while they offer fantastic communication and organization opportunities, they can also be overwhelming! Students sometimes have trouble locating all of the assignments and resources that a teacher posts!
If this is true for you, ask the teacher for a formal tour of the digital classroom so you can be sure how to find everything and stay up to date on assignments and “handouts.” Ask them about it daily, if you have to. Message them if you can’t locate something.
If you can learn how to support your own organization and distraction challenges, this will be a huge benefit to you in college and your work life.
All right, go get that Home Office ready!
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