By Rafael Robledo

For this week’s topic I will be discussing some of the steps that I have been implementing in order to stay productive while at home. Staying productive was a challenge for me at the start of the transition to online classes because I wasn’t being as active as I usually am. 

Firstly, and probably one of the most important things is setting up a sleep schedule! This is because a sleep schedule helps you manage your time and you end up feeling more accomplished at the end of the day. So far, I have started to wake up early in the morning on my own accord and I have been feeling more energized and motivated when I start my day. In the first week of me transitioning to online, I didn’t have a sleep schedule and I ended up sleeping from around 8am to 3pm. I didn’t feel as energized especially since I slept during the day and was awake all night. I really do recommend setting up a sleep schedule in order to feel better overall.

This might sound ridiculous, but after doing my morning routine, I change into the clothing that I would go out in. That means not wearing pajamas and instead putting on your regular “school” attire. For some reason, after I do this, it puts me in the old mindset that I will go out and start my day. I personally feel way more motivated and inclined to do work compared to when I stay in bed and still have on my pajamas. 

I noticed that I enjoy starting off the day by doing some work or homework. Since I like to start my day early, towards the end of the day, I feel that I have more time for my hobbies for myself to enjoy. I also end up feeling more accomplished and happy at the end when I get to see what I ended up finishing.

Something new that I started doing is meditating in the middle of the day. This is nice since I can take a mental break from what I was doing and simply relax. I still use the same playlist Serenity which I created a while back and I still enjoy it to meditate to and relax. If you feel stressed out, I really do recommend to take a nice break and simply relax your mind. This has helped me to think clearer afterwards and gets me more in-tuned with myself to tackle the hardest challenges.

The end of the day is reserved for me, myself and I! That means that it’s the time when I get to play video games, hangout with friends online, read, ect. I have noticed that at the end of the day I have more time to myself which thus far, I have really enjoyed. 

During this time of “staying home”, I feel like I have discovered more about myself and feel like I have grown more as a person in this time where we are all locked up inside our rooms. For this reason I am sharing how my daily schedule is to help others out who might feel like they don’t like the change. Who knows maybe during this time you might find something new about yourself that you didn’t know resided in you!