As the University continues to take steps to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, there are many resources that remain available to support graduate students as they work remotely and transition to working from home.
Create or continue your routines
During the time you are working from home, many of your normal routines will be impacted. However, many experts suggest that maintaining a routine is important. Try these 5 tips for creating a daily routine and tips for building daily and weekly routines as shelter-in-place continues.
Eat well and hydrate
Homewood Health suggests to try to maintain healthy eating patterns and stay hydrated. Avoid high sugar snacks and beverages to avoid swings in mood and energy levels.
If you're limiting trips to the grocery store, you can also attempt a pantry challenge to make meal plans based on what you have on hand.
Parenting
For graduate student parents, we know many childcare routines and activities are impacted during this time. Consider some tips for parents working from home, and check out these online resources:
- CEMC at Home: includes games, videos and other materials to help kids with their math and computer science studies
- CBC Curio.ca: Online streaming platform, currently with complimentary access, with collections of educational videos.
- Khan Academy: A non-profit providing free education through fun lessons, like “Imagineering in a Box.
- Scholastic Learn at Home: Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing.
- Storytime online: Most days at 3pm, author Mac Barnett reads his books on Instagram Live, and author Monique Gray Smith also reads her books and shares the videos on Instagram Live.
Set up an ergonomic workspace
Even if you are working at your kitchen table, there are strategies you can implement to create a more ergonomic set up. Review the ergonomics information provided by Safety Office, including an Office Ergonomics workshop on LEARN.
Stay connected
There are lots of free online tools available to help you stay connected while social distancing, try out a new tool for your next meeting:
Stay active
Whether you are at your desk or kitchen table, sneak in some (free!) yoga:
- Try a free online desk yoga session.
- Join local yoga student Modo Yoga for their Instagram live yoga classes every day at 10:00am, 2:00pm and 6:00pm.
Even if you don't have fitness equipment at home, there are options to stay active:
Continue moving and stretching:
- Try some desk stretches that you can do quickly and easily wherever you're working.
Take time to focus on your mental health
You may be avoiding a stressful commute when working from home, but remote work can come with challenges of its own. There are many free, online resources to help:
Take breaks
Elise Vist, a Writing and Multimodal Communication Specialist, offered a tip for grad students, "the best academic writers write CONSISTENTLY rather than A LOT. 15, 30, 60, 120 minutes a day - whatever you can do -- is better than 8 hours one day and a week of exhaustion!"
Try out these options to take a break and maintain social distancing:
Continue your career development
The COVID-19 pandemic likely disrupted your usual routine, including your career develop, networking, job search and conference plans. However, there are still ways that you engage in career development during this time:
