Although it has only been two weeks since school began, the stress has certainly begun to set in for SHS students. For those in a virtual setting, learning has been especially difficult with the presence of more distractions, so here are some tips to survive online school.

1. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT

A lot of us think that we can listen to our teachers speaking through the computer screen while scrolling through our favorite Instagram accounts, and that would have been amazing, right? Imagine studying for your test AND watching Netflix, but that isn’t the case. 

According to an article written for Psychology Today, “we don’t actually multitask…human brain ‘task switches’ constantly between the two different demands vying for its attention. And it doesn’t switch all that well.” But, if it’s still too hard for your beloved phone and you to be separate, then let me introduce you to the villain of this love story- Forest, which is a browser extension that encourages the user to focus on work, instead of browsing websites.

2. I LOVE MY EYES BUT ALSO MY PHONE AND MY LAPTOP, HELP.

Okay, fine, I am guilty of this, too. We all are. We love being on our phones all the time, it’s just in our nature at this point, but with the increased screen time spent on devices, it is getting harder to protect our eyesight from the radiation and damage. But, there are some things one can do to help the situation. 

Firstly, you can “follow the 20-20-20 rule;take a 20-second break to view something 20 feet away every 20 minutes,” as directed by the American Optometric Association. To make this easier for our highly functioning brains, you can install an extension called Eyecare, which basically notifies you to follow the 20-20-20 rule in multiple manners. Happy eyesight protecting!

3. GETTING YOUR LIFE TOGETHER ft. PLANNERS AND BULLET JOURNALS

I know for a fact that us teenagers are way too forgetful, especially when it comes to due dates and deadlines, so getting yourself organized is the simplest way you can make your lives easier. You can use a planner, which is available in stores and online or you could use a planner app. You can use a bullet journal, too, if you feel a little more creative. The purpose of both of them is essentially to set up a calendar-like system which helps you keep track of the quizzes, due dates, events, and your friend’s birthdays, all of which you probably don’t actually remember.

4. FIND A STUDY SPOT PLEASE (no, your unmade bed doesn’t count)

Our brains love associating things, we unknowingly do it all the time. Similarly, our brain associates places with certain types of feelings and this can be unintentionally harmful, especially when we don’t have a specific study spot. For the majority of us who are attending calls from our bed’s comfort, our brains can start linking the cozy feelings and sleepiness of the bed to our schooldays, or it could start linking the studying and productive times with the bed. 

In the first case, eventually, we would start feeling sleepy and drowsy when attending school virtually. In the second case, however, we could find it hard to sleep on our beds during the night because we would have linked that place to working. In both cases, the idea of studying and sleeping should not be mixed and this can happen with other places, too, like the kitchen or the TV room. So, do yourself a favor and set up a study spot where you can get your homework done and attend meetings. It could be a small desk far away from your bed, your house library, or an extra room, just make sure you keep it organized.

This is all I have for now, but keep a look on the Leaf’s website, shs.leaf.org for more information regarding productivity, online schools, and more! Happy studying (or not).