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Take working at home seriously. To do so, you must take learning seriously. Serious refers to thoughtful and careful consideration of content, concepts, and contexts of course material. It requires intense focus and effort. To begin with, find a place that is your work space. A place where you can consistently work and study. Ask yourself the following and answer them in the space provided:

Where can I do my best work?

Where can I be comfortable enough to focus and get my work done, but not so comfortable that I will get too relaxed and lose focus?

How much space do I need to study and complete my work?

What materials do I need to study and complete my work?

What are my three to five biggest distractions when I am studying and completing my work?

How can I minimize my biggest distractions?

These are just a few questions to ask and consider. You must assess the time, space, and place you have available and make it as optimal for learning as possible. Sometimes, the most challenging part for those who live at home, especially if you are a first-generation college student is communicating to your friends and family that college is not high school. The expectations are different, so things you may have been able to do and still be successful while in high school may not be ideal for a college student.

Use a planner and calendar to stay organized. Many devices come with these functions built in to the device. So, when you enroll in your courses, insert your course schedule into your planner and calendar. This will identify class time in your schedule. Remember to include commute time in your schedule, whether you are walking, driving, or taking public transportation. It is important to include commute time because it factors in to the amount of time you have to use throughout the day, week, month, and semester. Also, schedule in studying/ homework time. Make this part of your schedule early. Remember, the expectation is that you will have two hours of work outside of class for every hour that you are in class per week. Schedule this into your daily, weekly, monthly, and semester calendar.

Include due dates for assignments, quizzes, exams, and projects in your calendar as soon as you get them as well. It is a good idea to put at least two reminders in your calendar about a week or two out from the due date or exam date so you are not rushing at the last minute. In the table below, shade the boxes for set times such as class schedule, work schedule, and sleep schedule. Shade half the box for half past the hour and similarly for quarter and three-quarter past the hour. The objective here is to get a visual representation of what your day and week looks like. Now, what is your sleep schedule? Shade in your sleep schedule. If you are on a sports team, student leadership, theater, dance, band, etc. that have standard practice or meeting times, shade those times out as well. How much white space do you have left? When will you eat? When will you study? When will you stream your favorite shows? When will you hangout with your friends? Once you get a visual idea of how much disposable time you have, hopefully, you will get a better sense of how to manage your time.

Another important part of working at home whether you are taking an online course or not is scheduling class-time and study time. If you are taking an online course, treat the online course with the same amount of respect that you would give an in-class course. In fact, more discipline is required when working at home, because you are enforcing the time commitment and responsibilities you have accepted. For example, be on time and stay for the duration of the course as you would in a traditional course. In addition, designate specific days and times to listening to the lectures and doing the work if the course is asynchronous. Asynchronous refers to courses that do not meet in real time with the students. Recorded lectures and assignments are completed independently from a specific class meeting time. Create a schedule for listening to lectures and completing assignments as if you were in class. This will provide you with structure, consistency, and organization. Remember, most of the learning will take place outside of the classroom, so even if you are enrolled in an online course, you will be doing much of the work on your own time. As a result, you must be self-disciplined. Schedule daily and weekly study time in your planner and stick to your plan as much as possible. Use apps on your smartphone such as Forest that shuts off your notifications while helping you keep time and stay focused on the task at hand. In the meantime, the more you stay focused you plant and grow trees in the forest. Take school seriously, and do not treat class time and study time as free time when enrolled in online or hybrid classes. To be clear, life happens! Things come up and change your schedule. Unavoidable circumstances that require your immediate attention. That is only natural. It is ok. Do what you must. Key here is to make sure you adjust your schedule accordingly in the short-term to ensure that you make-up for the class or study time that you missed. This includes going out and hanging out. Students should take time for themselves, go out, and hang out. However, you must make the adjustment in your schedule. If you make plans on Wednesday to go out on Saturday, make adjustments in your schedule for the rest of the week to makeup for the study time on Saturday that you will miss.

It is your responsibility to stay current on your readings, assignments, and studying. Again, the key here is organization. Create a system for class and reading notes for each class. Remember to put the date at the beginning of each set of notes. When taking notes by hand, it is always a good idea to type, or rewrite, the notes within 24 hours of taking the notes. This will help move the information from short-term memory to long-term memory. In addition, if the notes are messy and sloppy, typing them up later will make them easier to read and understand in the future. Creating folders for each class on your computer, flash drive, or cloud, will assist with organization and locating information down the line. Plan Study Breaks To be clear, reading, studying, and writing does not require hours upon hours of sitting in one place hyper-focused on course material. It is more than acceptable to take periodic breaks. (See Tip 1.1) Take the breaks so you can maintain your hyper-focus.

breaks is it helps you remember. The mind is more likely to remember the first and last things that you cover. As a result, the more beginnings and endings you have, the more information you are likely to remember when studying. When writing, thoughts and ideas generally flow intermittently. When you have exhausted that stream of thought on that topic, step away for a moment. Take a brief break and transition to the next point. Allow your mind time to relax and shift.

When it is time to complete assignments, ensure that you are clear on the directions. Ask questions and seek clarification before your work time. This will allow you to be clear on the assignment before you are ready to sit down and work. It is not an efficient and productive use of time if during your work time, you spend time emailing your instructor or contacting classmates for clarification. If this is what needs to happen, then do what you need to do to ensure that you understand the assignment. To the best of your ability, however, try to be clear on the assignment before you sit down to work.

During work time, the best thing you can do is do your own work. The point here is not to instill fear about the consequences of cheating, or plagiarism. As scholars (and that’s what we are, growing and developing scholars) you would not do such a thing. The consequences for turning in work that you did not do, but pass it off as your own is met with serious consequences detailed in the Student Handbook. As scholars, as learners, do your own work, because it is in the process of completing your own work that you are studying and learning. (See Tip 1.2) Again, it is not about finishing the assignment per se. The goal here is to maximize learning. Essentially, do your own work. Struggle through the material yourself. Make your own mistakes and learn from them.

Further assistance in the learning process comes with staying in communication with your instructor and your peers. For quick questions, feel free to ask the instructor briefly after class. For questions that may require longer responses, take advantage of office hours. Use office hours to gain further understanding of course material and assignments. (See Tip 1.3) Also, stay in communication with your peers. Interact with individuals in your class. Form study groups. Use Facetime, Zoom, Google Hangout, etc. Essentially, use the technology that is available to you. You can create a GroupChat for those of you in the course to ask each other questions for clarity on assignments when at home, but of equal importance is discuss the course material with each other outside of class time. Challenge each other. Push each other. Grow together as scholars (because that’s what we are, growing and developing scholars). Group conversations is another form of studying. However, to make it more meaningful and higher quality conversation, read critically, think about the course material, and ask question of and to the material. Then, bring those comments and questions to the conversation.