Surviving Online
Written by Dante Zanini-Sassani
SURVIVING ONLINE
Doing online school will almost certainly make you feel like you’re drowning in school work, losing sleep, losing motivation, and worst of all, being stuck at home with your family. Well I know a few tips to help you get on top of this whole online learning thing.
A balanced work diet
Now before you stop reading, let me just say, this is a metaphor, this does not relate to food at all, and although a balanced diet could help, but that’s not the point, the point is you need to balance out your workload with something else, or something you enjoy, like a side project. For example if you have an essay coming up and you’re full of energy, but completely unmotivated, try starting a side project, do it for five minutes, then pop back to your essay, that way you can have a balanced schedule between distraction, fun, and school. For example; learning a language, it’s a cool side hobby, it takes less than 5 minutes a day, it’s diverse, and is almost guaranteed to help you in the future. A great place to start is Duolingo, it’s easy, fun, and only takes a few minutes a day, now despite all the memes, the Duolingo bird won’t come and eat your family if you miss a few days, unless of course you’d like that, and in that case I’m sure you could ask for a special request. [www.duolingo.com]
Unleash your inner artist
If you’re absolutely stumped and can’t find the motivation to do any work at all, why not try unleash the creative genius hidden inside of you, if you’ve ever even taken the slightest interest in art, start painting, or even digital drawing, maybe even graphic design, anything works, and if you don’t have the resources at home, no worries, a great free app you can get online for Mac and PC is Krita, it’s free to download and can do nearly everything adobe photoshop can, it’s a great place to start. Another thing you can try is writing, maybe start a book series, just put the pencil on the paper (or fingers on the keyboard) and go, write about life, write about death, write a diary if you want, and if you really can’t think of anything, I’ll link a Pinterest page with some great writing prompts down below. The best thing about writing is that you can start anywhere and finish anywhere, because you control the story, it’s your story, you’re in power, it’s like all the characters are just your little pawns in a very obscure game of chess. [https://krita.org] [https://www.pinterest.com.au/aemandarin/writing-prompts/]
Eat, hydrate, and relax-ate
[This is a reminder to check up on yourself, breathe, in and out, have you eaten something in a while? Maybe it’s time for a snack, and while you’re at it grab some water, hydrate, stay safe, and have a good day, now back to the article]
Despite how annoying it is, having your health teachers babble on about mindfulness and relaxation, it actually really does help, Smiling Mind, Headspace, both great apps to help with mindfulness, it can clear your head and help you when you’re stressed. Another thing you can do is take a more artistic approach and use Weave Silk, it’s this website that is extremely relaxing, you just choose a colour and move your mouse around, then bam, art, it’s really fun and so calming, and so easy to use. And if you want to take a more physical approach you can try some online yoga, Estuary Yoga Space has some amazing free online videos going through some simple yoga classes, they’re so beneficial and very calming. Finally, you can take the easy road and just relax, watch some Youtube/Netflix, scroll through a subreddit, look on Pinterest for a bit, or best of all, just take a quick nap, but don’t forget to set an alarm, you don’t wanna throw your sleep schedule out of whack. [https://www.smilingmind.com.au] [https://www.headspace.com] [http://weavesilk.com] [https://www.estuaryyoga.com.au/practiceonline]
Glue on some headphones
A great tip I use daily when I can’t get motivated, or even if i’m just bored, I just grab some superglue, and attach these bad boys to my ears, kidding, but seriously, listening to music is an amazing thing, i could do it for hours, music can distract you for a bit, or even help you work harder. A great type of music for studying is lo-fi music, it’s really helpful and stops you from getting distracted, not to mention how calming it is, Chilled Cow is a Youtube channel with hours upon hours worth of lo-fi music, not to mention, they have a nonstop livestream with lo-fi music. An alternative to lo-fi music specifically is just your own music, whatever music you specifically enjoy, just to play in the background, or to vibe to while working, and if you’re really bored, make your own music, get out that Garage Band and start making some bops, or you can even just get out your phone and sing a cover, or dare i say it, an original. And if you still aren’t convinced by music, may I suggest this amazing new technology called; podcasts!! Podcasts are a great source of information, enjoyment, and really all it takes is 2 ears, you can find podcasts on Spotify, Youtube, anywhere, and you can find them on literally anything and everything, so just take your pick, and enjoy. [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow] [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/best-podcasts] [https://open.spotify.com/genre/podcasts-page]
That’s all the tips I could think of, so I hope this helps! I hope your holidays are/were amazing, and good luck for term 4!!!!