Academic Success from Home

Noah Gist, ‘20, Counseling Center Intern

It’s hard enough to stay on track with all of our academic work under normal circumstances, but now with all of us being at home, it’s probably harder still for us to stay focused on everything. But like most everything, it’s not impossible to stay productive while we’re all working from home. With this I just wanted to go through some helpful tips to keep moving forward and do the best you can.

Make your own dedicated workspace. It might be tricky to operate without a specific working desk like we all had in our dorms or in the library, but carve out a space for you specifically for work and work only. Much like keeping your bed specifically for sleeping, it’ll help keep your brain trained that that space is just for work, and when you’re not there you’re not working. Try to stay off the couch when you’re working and find a real surface to spread out on to maximize your productivity. On the topic of your workspace, when you’re working, stay off social media. It’s great fun to distract yourself, but it’s hard enough to get focused, so try to keep yourself from losing it when you get there. Keep your workspace for working, and browse to your heart’s content when you’re anywhere else.

Try to keep a routine. Make sure you’re getting dressed, eating breakfast, and brushing your teeth every morning. It may not seem like much or a real necessity when you wake up to change into different clothes, but it’ll get yourself out of your sleeping mindset and more towards a productive state of mind if you change even into something casual to get the work of the day done. You’d never think you’d miss morning classes or make yourself get up early when you don’t necessarily have to, but it’s still good to keep that routine so you don’t fall off the wagon. Block out your time so you can spend your time between meals and classes effectively, and make sure you’re not straining yourself. Find that balance between work and relaxation and things will go that much smoother. Knowing when to start, how long to go for, and when to draw the line and stop for the day is a healthy balance to find out for yourself.

Along with the work, make sure you have time to wind down. Maybe break a sweat with some home exercises, or reach out and check in with a friend (you can’t do too much of either these days). Regardless of what you do, make sure you enjoy your time. It’s hard right now, but the time will come when we can do everything we used to do, and we’ll be sure to enjoy it that much more when we can.

For more direct help from the school (should you need it), the Student Success Center is still open, and can be reached at StudentSuccess@lemoyne.edu , tutoring can be scheduled with this link https://lemoyne.mywconline.com/  , and the writing center can be reached at writingcenter@lemoyne.edu to make appointments.