Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 26

Thread: How to Stay on Track? Online Course Edition

  1. #1
    Cinna Rollz Cinnamoroll's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    3,360
    Pronouns
    she/her
    Userbars
    103
    Thanks
    9,383
    Thanked
    9,327/2,803
    DL/UL
    92/0
    Mentioned
    693 times
    Time Online
    83d 2h 19m
    Avg. Time Online
    37m

    How to Stay on Track? Online Course Edition

    Howdy y’all!

    Looking for your tried and true tips, tricks and suggestions for how to stay on track, disciplined and/or motivated for post secondary classes that are online only!
    I started uni recently, and I am doing my program 100% online as I also work full time. My schooling will compliment my career, but I’m worried I’m going to struggle trying to balance my work and school load.

    I have all of my discussions, assignments due dates and exams marked out in my calendar. But what I am already struggling with is how to make sure I’m able to keep up with my learning and to devote my time between my 4 classes.

    Help ya girl out






    (you need an account to see links)





    Art Credits:
    issa poot/bffs/be evil by my bb (you need an account to see links)
    custom popsicle userbar: (you need an account to see links)
    custom cinnamoroll ub: (you need an account to see links)
    cinna ryu sprite: (you need an account to see links)
    custom SDV pfp: (you need an account to see links)




  2. The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to Cinnamoroll For This Useful Post:

    Cat Purrson (05-10-2022),Excalibur (01-24-2023),Kisses (12-24-2023),Menine (02-12-2023),♥ pillowfighter ♥ (08-07-2022),Sephora (05-10-2022),Zenitsu (08-08-2022)

  3. #2
    housez's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2019
    Posts
    123
    Userbars
    5
    Thanks
    280
    Thanked
    649/93
    Mentioned
    21 times
    Time Online
    70d 21h 4m
    Avg. Time Online
    59m
    Quote Originally Posted by Cinnamoroll View Post
    Howdy y’all!

    Looking for your tried and true tips, tricks and suggestions for how to stay on track, disciplined and/or motivated for post secondary classes that are online only!
    I started uni recently, and I am doing my program 100% online as I also work full time. My schooling will compliment my career, but I’m worried I’m going to struggle trying to balance my work and school load.

    I have all of my discussions, assignments due dates and exams marked out in my calendar. But what I am already struggling with is how to make sure I’m able to keep up with my learning and to devote my time between my 4 classes.

    Help ya girl out
    Tons of experience with this. I did a post bacc for about 3 yrs and then my masters all while working full and part time respectively. You need to find what works best with you so take my advice with a grain of salt because the only person who knows you best is you. I cant focus for shit during long periods of time so I learned to do everything in chunks. Read a page or 2, take a 5 min break, read another 2 pages, take a break and so on. I used to be that person that waited last minute to do everything but that was not gonna fly with my work schedule and i could not afford to fail any of my classes. I took 5 courses and worked full time and volunteered every saturday morning as a teacher and managed to pull off a 4.0 for 4 quarters straight. I dont know what subject you are learning, but if the material overlaps great, use it as a 1 up to get ahead on other classes. most importantly, take time to create non negotiables for yourself, things you NEED to do maintain a healthy mental state, physical state, relax, whatever it is, if its running, playing neo for 30-1hr or whatever. mine was dodgeball (healthy projection of frustration and anger haha but in good fun haha) but you know try to Keep yourself accountable,its ok to lose track here and then but make dont over do it and punish yourself for it. Its highly stressful yes, but be good to yourself in the end.

    my schedule ran 9-5 and right after id go to a local starbucks/coffeeshop for a few hours because I wasnt a person who studied at home. I would I try my best to separate my work and leave my apartment to be only for rest and food. Thats amazing you are being proactive to put things in your calendar so thats awesome!

    some others thing to think about is, i worked best in groups so if you are like me, reach out to your classmates via zoom/canvas/discord or whatever portal you have for your classes to create study groups. They can also help in keeping each other accountable too and even share quiz answers or what not. feel free to contact me if you are on a pre-med track or just for any advice i have a ton of resources and stuff to help out.
    Last edited by housez; 05-11-2022 at 09:18 PM.

  4. The Following User Says Thank You to housez For This Useful Post:

    Kisses (12-24-2023)

  5. #3
    Cinna Rollz Cinnamoroll's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    3,360
    Pronouns
    she/her
    Userbars
    103
    Thanks
    9,383
    Thanked
    9,327/2,803
    DL/UL
    92/0
    Mentioned
    693 times
    Time Online
    83d 2h 19m
    Avg. Time Online
    37m
    Quote Originally Posted by housez View Post
    Tons of experience with this. I did a post bacc for about 3 yrs and then my masters all while working full and part time respectively. You need to find what works best with you so take my advice with a grain of salt because the only person who knows you best is you. I cant focus for shit during long periods of time so I learned to do everything in chunks. Read a page or 2, take a 5 min break, read another 2 pages, take a break and so on. I used to be that person that waited last minute to do everything but that was not gonna fly with my work schedule and i could not afford to fail any of my classes. I took 5 courses and worked full time and volunteered every saturday morning as a teacher and managed to pull off a 4.0 for 4 quarters straight. I dont know what subject you are learning, but if the material overlaps great, use it as a 1 up to get ahead on other classes. most importantly, take time to create non negotiables for yourself, things you NEED to do maintain a healthy mental state, physical state, relax, whatever it is, if its running, playing neo for 30-1hr or whatever. mine was dodgeball (healthy projection of frustration and anger haha but in good fun haha) but you know try to Keep yourself accountable,its ok to lose track here and then but make dont over do it and punish yourself for it. Its highly stressful yes, but be good to yourself in the end.

    my schedule ran 9-5 and right after id go to a local starbucks/coffeeshop for a few hours because I wasnt a person who studied at home. I would I try my best to separate my work and leave my apartment to be only for rest and food. Thats amazing you are being proactive to put things in your calendar so thats awesome!

    some others thing to think about is, i worked best in groups so if you are like me, reach out to your classmates via zoom/canvas/discord or whatever portal you have for your classes to create study groups. They can also help in keeping each other accountable too and even share quiz answers or what not. feel free to contact me if you are on a pre-med track or just for any advice i have a ton of resources and stuff to help out.
    Thank you for some great insight!

    I work full time, similar to 9-5 but my hours a little more flexible, so some days are earlier. I do agree that I think I would study better outside of my house, as there are a lot of distractions at home. We use Canvas, and we have a group project coming up. I have started to keep in touch with a classmate over text/email. I am doing early childhood education, so a lot of this I already know or will be expanding knowledge on in school, as I do work in the field already!

    Great points on making sure you block out time for non-negotiables. I am so bad for not taking enough time for my own rest or mental health.






    (you need an account to see links)





    Art Credits:
    issa poot/bffs/be evil by my bb (you need an account to see links)
    custom popsicle userbar: (you need an account to see links)
    custom cinnamoroll ub: (you need an account to see links)
    cinna ryu sprite: (you need an account to see links)
    custom SDV pfp: (you need an account to see links)




  6. The Following User Says Thank You to Cinnamoroll For This Useful Post:

    Kisses (12-24-2023)

  7. #4
    housez's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2019
    Posts
    123
    Userbars
    5
    Thanks
    280
    Thanked
    649/93
    Mentioned
    21 times
    Time Online
    70d 21h 4m
    Avg. Time Online
    59m
    Quote Originally Posted by Cinnamoroll View Post
    Thank you for some great insight!

    I work full time, similar to 9-5 but my hours a little more flexible, so some days are earlier. I do agree that I think I would study better outside of my house, as there are a lot of distractions at home. We use Canvas, and we have a group project coming up. I have started to keep in touch with a classmate over text/email. I am doing early childhood education, so a lot of this I already know or will be expanding knowledge on in school, as I do work in the field already!

    Great points on making sure you block out time for non-negotiables. I am so bad for not taking enough time for my own rest or mental health.
    Yes! its super super important. I am part of MiMentor if you want to check it out and we sometimes have seminars on how to handle stress/work load etc from time to time. If I see any I'll pm you the flyer. And yaasss groups are amazing just because yall share and know the struggle.

  8. The Following User Says Thank You to housez For This Useful Post:

    Kisses (12-24-2023)

  9. #5
    Cinna Rollz Cinnamoroll's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    3,360
    Pronouns
    she/her
    Userbars
    103
    Thanks
    9,383
    Thanked
    9,327/2,803
    DL/UL
    92/0
    Mentioned
    693 times
    Time Online
    83d 2h 19m
    Avg. Time Online
    37m
    I just came here to update that I finished my first semester! My GPA is likely to be at least 3.5 once final grades come in.

    I definitely struggled with staying on track at times, so I let adhd procrastination get to me. But I perform well under pressure so I easily made up for it 😅






    (you need an account to see links)





    Art Credits:
    issa poot/bffs/be evil by my bb (you need an account to see links)
    custom popsicle userbar: (you need an account to see links)
    custom cinnamoroll ub: (you need an account to see links)
    cinna ryu sprite: (you need an account to see links)
    custom SDV pfp: (you need an account to see links)




  10. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Cinnamoroll For This Useful Post:

    DarkSkies (08-07-2022),goodnightmoon (08-07-2022),Kisses (12-24-2023),♥ pillowfighter ♥ (08-07-2022),sugarbee (08-08-2022)

  11. #6
    pillowfighter's Avatar
    Joined
    Feb 2022
    Posts
    510
    Pronouns
    she/her
    Userbars
    42
    Thanks
    1,097
    Thanked
    721/300
    DL/UL
    4/0
    Mentioned
    61 times
    Time Online
    17d 22h 14m
    Avg. Time Online
    32m
    Quote Originally Posted by Cinnamoroll View Post
    I just came here to update that I finished my first semester! My GPA is likely to be at least 3.5 once final grades come in.

    I definitely struggled with staying on track at times, so I let adhd procrastination get to me. But I perform well under pressure so I easily made up for it 😅
    YOU ARE A STAAAAAARRR!!!!
    Congratulations! So incredibly proud of you! I hope you get a little bit of downtime now!!! 💖💖
    Procrastination can be so hard but you pushed through!

    pancake the ryu



    thank you honeycomb for the pancake doodle and hearts for the sleepy pumpkin!



  12. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to pillowfighter For This Useful Post:

    Cinnamoroll (08-07-2022),Kisses (12-24-2023)

  13. #7
    goodnightmoon's Avatar
    Joined
    Jun 2022
    Posts
    163
    Pronouns
    she/her/hers
    Userbars
    22
    Thanks
    297
    Thanked
    400/150
    DL/UL
    1/0
    Mentioned
    27 times
    Time Online
    31d 17h 32m
    Avg. Time Online
    1h 10m
    Hey! I'm in the same boat, working full time while also attending an online master's program, which i'm attempting to finish in two semesters quicker than recommended. I feel you entirely.

    Here's what works for me:

    1. Isolating myself - on my "dedicated school time" my phone is put away (on loud, my partner has a unique ringtone so i know if it's him calling), and all distractions are eliminated. No tv. I use neopets on a specific browser and i close that browser entirely. I also sit at a specific spot - a desk - instead of the couch or bed, which i clear before working.

    2. Focus music. I have used one playlist on spotify for ANY TIME i do anything school-related. I feel like I've low-key Pavlovian conditioned myself to get into school mode when this playlist comes on. For me, it's the "all-nighter" playlist on spotify. everyone's different. no lyrics to think about though haha.

    3. Make a schedule. Everyone differs in how they like to approach tasks. I ALWAYS start with my hardest/most complicated/lengthiest course. Why? Because I for me, I'd rather use my best/geared-up focus time at the beginning to tackle what will take me the longest, so that I'm not struggling at the last minute and turning in subpar work. In budgeting, it's called the avalanche effect (paying off largest debt first and working down to smallest), though some work better via snowball effect (smallest debt aka easiest assignment first and working your way to hardest). HOWEVER- i find that I'd rather be doing an assignment i'm knowledgeable about and more comfortable with at 11pm when i'm tired and have worked 2394 days in a row than one that makes my brain hurt.

    4. Sometimes, I leave. I have to get out of the house when i'm feeling foggy. Sometimes that means going to my favorite quiet coffee shop in the corner and plugging in my headphones to the aforementioned playlist. Sometimes that means i need a 20 minute walk. sometimes it's putting things away for the entire evening, because i'm getting nowhere. where i'm at in my depression cycle depends on what kind of break i need at that time.

    5. Fuck the house/chores*. I talked with my therapist about this at length because a messy house stresses me out. Laundry will be there to fold and IS NOT on a schedule. you know what is on a schedule? your assignments. yes- it's easier to work with a clear space. but you have to triage your tasks, and honestly, folding clothes is less of a priority than your 30% weighted paper. (*i'd like to note that, after me ignoring the house/half-assing cleaning for long enough, my partner picked up my slack and now does 90% of the housework. i am hashtag blessed and thankful. but therefore please take this pointer with a grain of salt coming from my end)

    6. Enjoy it. Try to remember WHY you're doing this and don't get too caught up in the tiny details. Make what you're learning applicable to your life, your job, and your future, because hey- might as well! it makes learning the concepts so much easier when you can apply them in various ways.

    7. ENJOY YOURSELF. Let yourself take breaks. Your mental health HAS to come before everything or you will not succeed. Self care is more important. If you have to call out with a fake migraine one day, do it. If you have to take a zero day, do it. TAKE CARE OF YOU!


    best of luck to you! you'll kill it, it just takes some learning/adapting. there are only 24 hours in a day and there's only so much you can do with them, so learning to work smarter/not harder is crucial.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Cinnamoroll View Post
    I just came here to update that I finished my first semester! My GPA is likely to be at least 3.5 once final grades come in.

    I definitely struggled with staying on track at times, so I let adhd procrastination get to me. But I perform well under pressure so I easily made up for it 😅

    I realized that my advice was a little too late!!! I'm so glad to hear that! Congratulations on your first semester!!!

  14. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to goodnightmoon For This Useful Post:

    Cinnamoroll (08-07-2022),Kisses (12-24-2023)

  15. #8
    DarkSkies's Avatar
    Joined
    Sep 2021
    Posts
    3,048
    Pronouns
    She
    Userbars
    99
    Thanks
    7,785
    Thanked
    5,816/2,267
    DL/UL
    31/0
    Mentioned
    404 times
    Time Online
    83d 7h 50m
    Avg. Time Online
    2h 9m
    Congratulations Cinna!! You're having a good start you can do it! Pressure sometimes gets the best out of us.

    You can also try to schedule little things everyday so you don't feel very stressed later.








    ~~ Shooting stars ~~

    Many thanks to:

    @(you need an account to see links) for the Wolf Ryu and @(you need an account to see links) for the Kousetsu puppy <)
    @(you need an account to see links) for my howling wolf and @(you need an account to see links) for my wolf pumpkin <3
    @(you need an account to see links) for my custom userbars and @(you need an account to see links) for the lovely popsicle/lycanroc bar ^^
    @(you need an account to see links) for my star puppy and @(you need an account to see links) for my Rockruff avatar :3


  16. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to DarkSkies For This Useful Post:

    Cinnamoroll (08-07-2022),Kisses (12-24-2023)

  17. #9
    sugarbee's Avatar
    Joined
    Sep 2021
    Posts
    102
    Pronouns
    she/her
    Userbars
    8
    Thanks
    177
    Thanked
    277/86
    DL/UL
    9/0
    Mentioned
    40 times
    Time Online
    5d 7h 13m
    Avg. Time Online
    8m
    Quote Originally Posted by Cinnamoroll View Post
    I just came here to update that I finished my first semester! My GPA is likely to be at least 3.5 once final grades come in.

    I definitely struggled with staying on track at times, so I let adhd procrastination get to me. But I perform well under pressure so I easily made up for it 😅
    Congratulations! I also deal with ADHD procrastination + online school stuff, it can be really stressful. 3.5 is really good! Especially considering the fact that you're working at the same time!

    You can call me Bee 💛


    Peep (September 21st, 2021)

    Custom Userbar by Lyrichord
    Custom Bee Ryu by GreatWhiteNorth
    (you need an account to see links)


  18. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to sugarbee For This Useful Post:

    Cinnamoroll (08-14-2022),Kisses (12-24-2023)

  19. #10
    Cinna Rollz Cinnamoroll's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    3,360
    Pronouns
    she/her
    Userbars
    103
    Thanks
    9,383
    Thanked
    9,327/2,803
    DL/UL
    92/0
    Mentioned
    693 times
    Time Online
    83d 2h 19m
    Avg. Time Online
    37m
    I forgot to update this!

    Semester one: I finished with a GPA of 3.77 and made dean’s list!
    Semester two: just ended, and my GPA is somewhere around 3.75 I think? I’ll find out in a few days!

    It’s been a BUSY school year so far but I’ve somehow managed to keep it together?!

    My biggest caveat is ADHD procrastination. I learn all of the material but don’t start assignments til shortly before they’re due. Yet somehow I still nearly ace all of them? Magic, I tell ya.






    (you need an account to see links)





    Art Credits:
    issa poot/bffs/be evil by my bb (you need an account to see links)
    custom popsicle userbar: (you need an account to see links)
    custom cinnamoroll ub: (you need an account to see links)
    cinna ryu sprite: (you need an account to see links)
    custom SDV pfp: (you need an account to see links)




  20. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Cinnamoroll For This Useful Post:

    DarkSkies (12-19-2022),goodnightmoon (01-24-2023),Kisses (12-24-2023),Lyrichord (12-19-2022),Sephora (12-19-2022)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •