Despite the quarantine exacerbating our collective feelings of isolation and lack of motivation, these feelings are universal and we all struggle with them. Frequently in the college experience, students cite feeling lonely, unmotivated, and stuck. I know as someone who has struggled with ADHD, I’ve worked out some realistic strategies to keep getting work done that needs to get done, despite feeling like a lump of uselessness.
My go-to is always music. Depending on what mood I know I need to be in to get work done, I set the vibe! When I wade into dense economics materials, I like to play classical cello or piano to make me feel super studious. When it comes to my more open-ended classes, I tend to hype myself up with some loud pop punk to get me into the mindset for delving into my theory-of-writing essays. No matter what class, or how dull the material, I guarantee you I can find a vibe/mood to get you feeling somewhat productive. At HC UMass Amherst, I know we have some fire playlists curated for our close-knit group of girls that anyone can access!
Sometimes even my blasting music isn’t enough though to drag me out of bed and up to my desk. On those really tough days I try and just give myself an hour. I tell myself to just start working/making a snack/writing articles for an hour – that’s all I have to do. If I’m still exhausted afterwards, I’ll stop. Setting a time limit for myself can be really comforting, and once you start a task, the hurdle of beginning has been surmounted. Just the feeling of getting an hour’s worth of work done can jumpstart a better day than bingeing Netflix all day.
On the other hand from that miniscule strategy, I like to plan ahead for tough days ahead while quarantining. A favorite pastime of mine is baking, despite my occasional mishaps. Baking is something that takes little skill (if I can do it, you can!) and has a tangible result! I made banana bread the other day in preparation for a tough week with midterms, and the smell of freshly baked bread (and sharing it with my roommates) was enough to drag me through the monotony. Despite it being a little…dense…I dumped enough chocolate chips in the pan to make it worth it! Another great thing about baking is that you can put your own spin on it. I like to let a little creativity out in adding an extra banana here, or putting a dash of coconut oil here to make it just right.
We all have struggled with the mandatory isolation in this quarantine and the collective stress, and to cope we’ve all developed strategies to handle school/work/life. I hope you enjoyed mine!