Many people think the best thing in the world is to be able to learn and study at home. Indeed this is true, it’s great to be able to lie in your bedroom, in your favourite chair or look at your very special view and study. Times can be best suited to your current lifestyle and working practise but sometimes, very occasionally, you can feel isolated and alone. You can also have great feelings of loneliness and even though you have lots of people around you, you end up feeling you are the only person in your World and the only one going through the hard trials of study.
1. Have a routine
Choose a time when you can study without being interrupted. Make sure you factor this into your daily routine. You know when you will take a shower, have your breakfast, sleep and brush your teeth so make learning and studying part of your daily routine so that you arrive at your desk feeling focused and motivated.
2. Socialise Regularly
Everyone knows that studying and learning at home can leave you feeling alone or isolated. It means that you can start to feel depressed and make excuses not to study. This is why it is important to see and speak to lots of different people. Mix up your social patterns. Sometimes speak to family; other times make it with friends and then make sure you speak to other like minded people who are either studying at home or are on your course. This way you can speak about your Learning Programmes as well as speak to others socially. It’s important to engage with lots of different people and laugh and smile. Never under estimate the power of social connections in your daily life. They are more important than you think.
3. Exercise
Its been quoted many times that physical exercise is good for the brain. It pushes the blood through the body and the brain and you feel alert and awake. Try to exercise every morning before you start your study, even if it is only for fifteen minutes of a brisk walk. Make sure, also, that you don’t sit hunched over your computer all day. You should try to move a little; stretch your shoulders and neck and just move from time to time so you don’t cease up.
3. Drink
Make sure you keep regularly hydrated. This can be water, juice, teas or anything that you really enjoy. Do try, however, to limit your alcohol intake generally, but definitely when you are studying. It really does slow the brain down and not to be recommended if you are working on important projects or studying for exams.
5. Nutrition
This is a much needed source of energy and you should be looking for food (such as carbohydrates) which have a slow release of energies. Stay away from sugars and sweets. They only offer a quick fix and can leave you feeling sluggish not long afterwards. If you are hungry snack on a banana, a handful of nuts, yoghurt with some blackberries thrown in, apple slices or maybe peanut butter on toast. Whilst we all love chocolate and sugary cakes, it doesn’t help with the learning!
6. Social Media
This is another great way to keep in touch with people and what is going on in the world. It can make you feel connected and involved. Try not, however, to spend too many hours on mediums such as Instagram; Facebook or other Social Media where you can get sucked in and you end up spending all of your precious studying time commenting on silly pictures; waiting for replies from people you don’t know and generally just becoming a Drongo.
7. English Learning Platforms
Whilst you have probably enrolled on a great learning programme and have regular contact with your Tutor and fellow students, it can also be a good idea to look for other outside learning platforms. These websites allow you to interact with other students as well as look at other techniques to learn. They can also give you further advice and resources which were not previously known to you. It is also a better way to make friends as you will be “meeting” students who are also learning from home and so they will know what you are feeling. Better to have interaction with people found on Platforms with the same interests and goals as you rather than random people who just want to engage in negative banter. It’s also a great way to improve your English without realising it; and you can even take a daily English test online to see if your English is genuinely improving.
8 . Limit your Learning each day
Don’t sit down early in the morning and still expect to be enjoying it at the end of the day. You will be bone weary and brain weary. Just do it in good bite size chunks of maybe two hours at a time; take a break; have a drink and something to eat and then consider doing a bit more. Never let learning become the Master and you the Slave. You are supposed to enjoy it.
9. Study Buddy
Find someone else on your course and arrange to check in with them daily to see how they have found the studying. You may find that your study worries are also theirs and talking it through will make it seem less of a worry. Remember a trouble shared is a troubled halved. And they may even have the answer for you…
10. Enjoy the solitude
Wordsworth wrote his very famous Poem Daffodils and it speaks of loneliness but also the joy of it. Read it and judge for yourself.