During this crazy pandemic, our lovely normal, physical life has made room for a nothing-near-normal, online life. The random ‘omg am I not muted?’ panic attacks, the ‘why does Teams hate me?’ frustrations, but also the ‘I just really want to have class on campus and see my friends’ sadness, it’s all part of this new life. Of course, we do all of this for a good reason and we follow the corona guidelines set by our government. That’s why I’m here with 5 tips to help you survive your online life. Because if we all join in and endure these guidelines a little longer, the sooner we can see our beloved campus again.

Schedule fun meetings

Nowadays, every online meeting has a purpose and there is very little room for a fun chat or a joke. I’m sure that this makes you miss your friends even more. A school or workday is just not the same without them. So, my tip for you is to schedule some non-work-related meetings during the day! Just to catch up, to complain about that one annoying person, or to eat your lunch together. This way you can de-stress a little and it might even make your life feel a little more normal.

Turn on your camera

I know that this is a challenge. It is so easy to enter a meeting and immediately mute yourself and turn your camera off. Definitely when it’s 9 in the morning and you are pretending not to still be in bed. But turning on your camera isn’t that bad at all. It reduces the feeling of isolation, it will make you more engaged and facial expressions are also great when everyone’s muted. So, it can be scary to be the first, but dare to be!

Reduce your screen time

When you’ve been working the whole day, all you want to do is lay down and scroll mindlessly through your phone. But maybe, after staring at your laptop the whole day, it’s nice to do something that is not connected to a screen. Less screen time actually could prevent headaches, increases your focus and improves your sleep! Here is some inspiration for non-screen-activities.

Schedule breaks

Okay, maybe this is an obvious one. But it’s super important to plan some breaks during the day. With no travel - or quality time during a workday, the meetings can sometimes pile up so much that you don’t even get time to eat your lunch in peace. Even though you might have something you really need to work on, try to schedule some breaks! It will help you be more creative, process information and be more productive. So, hang up the teams call and take a break, maybe even use my previous tips :).
(And tune in to HUB radio while you’re at it!)

Set a clear ‘end’ time

A campus, a gym, a day-care or a restaurant. Your room or house has probably been functioning as one or more of these things for the last months. All of the sudden, our lives are being led from one place. This can be very convenient when it comes to travelling, but it also brings along some unfortunate side-effects. You never leave work for example. You eat, sleep and live at your workplace. Sounds kind of sad right? That’s why my tip is: set a clear end-time and stick with it! When you agree with yourself that your day ends at 17:00, close your laptop at 17:00 and don’t work any longer. This way, you can ‘leave’ work or school and not worry about it anymore.

I hope I was able to help you a little with these tips. Working online can be difficult, but if we stay kind to each other and ourselves, we can get through these times together. Stay safe and I hope to see you soon on campus!