There are a ton of benefits to online school, but sometimes, it doesn’t seem that way. There can be a ton of frustrating things about doing school online that can seem to outweigh the benefits. If any of these things seem frustrating to you, you’re in the right place, because we’re going to show you how you can fix them.

The Workload

Sometimes, online school gives you next to nothing for the workload, and that’s great. Other times, you can get way more than you really want (which, generally, is none). Because you don’t spend as much time in class, some teachers assign more homework to make up for the reduction in class time–much more than you might have had doing brick-and-mortar school.This can pretty quickly lead to burnout, and that’s no good. 

I’ve got some friends who’ve had these issues as they’ve transitioned from brick-and-mortar school to virtual school due to COVID-19. Their teachers assigned them more work because they’re not in class as long, and because they don’t have much to do with the COVID-19 issues going on. It’s pretty quickly led to them being burned out on homework, stressed out about it, and overall not happy–which generally makes them take longer to complete their work than normal.

When it takes them longer than they want to finish their homework–because they’re burned out, stressed out, etc.–it generally makes them even more burned out and stressed out, which turns into a vicious downward spiral that will really only be fixed when school is over for the semester. I’ve felt like this, too, and it’s totally normal. Luckily, there are some things that we can do about it.

Solutions:

The first thing you can do is to increase your productivity. It makes sense, right? If you spend less time on school work, you won’t be burned out as quickly and you’ll have more time for other, more enjoyable things to counteract any burnout or stress you might have. So what can you do to increase your productivity?

We’ve got a ton of productivity tips (plus some other goodies) lined up for you right here, but before we go through that, we’ve got some other tips for you.

• Reduce your stress. Another thing that makes sense, doesn’t it? If you’re stressed out, you’re probably going to want to do school work even less than normal, which will just increase burnout, which will increase stress, which will increase burnout, etc. etc. etc.
  
  One of the simplest ways to reduce stress includes just doing something fun, something that will relieve stress. Do whatever makes you happy, or calm, or both. That could be exercising, reading, playing video games, watching your favorite TV show–whatever.
  
  Another way to relieve stress is to meditate or do breathing exercises. You could also exercise.
  
• Create a schedule. Creating a schedule can allow you to plan out your day and know when something is due, what time some event is, etc. This is important because it helps you have a reminder of when things need to be done, but it also helps to increase your mental capabilities.
  
  Rather than having the events float around in your head so that you have to worry about them and when they are due, you can put them on paper. This gets them out of your head and onto the paper instead, clearing up some more headspace for you to focus on school work.
  
  Among the other goodies that come with the productivity tips we have for you are some schedulers/planners and to-do lists for you to use to clear up some mental RAM. And the good thing about these things is that they’re free.
• Create a to-do list. For the same reason as the schedule, it can clear up some mental RAM. It can also help you to keep track of everything easier.

The Effects on Social Life

Online school can be especially taxing on your social life. You don’t get to see your friends in person everyday at school to talk to them. And if they’re as swamped as you are with your school work, you might not even be able to talk to them very often at all.

When I first joined my online school it was tough for me. I didn’t really get to see my friends in person anymore. Which meant I didn’t get to talk to them much anymore as well. So, I felt lonely, which made me find ways to communicate with them and make new friends.

Of course, if you’re anti-social, you probably don’t have much to worry about being in online school.

Solutions:

• Scheduling online events. Take the time to ask your friends if they are free at a specific time to create a little get-together online. You could just have a loli-gagging event, where you guys talk about your day or just goof around shooting off stories. You could also play video games, while you have voice chat on. With that being said, there are many platforms you can use to stay connected with your friends.
  
  Skype and Zoom are the better options if you just want to hang out with your friends and goof around while on video. Both Zoom and Skype are fairly similar to each other, so if you have used either-or, then it should be easy for you to work and play around in them both. Great thing about Zoom and Skype is that you guys could share your screens and show off stuff to each other. Plus, you could use a white board to play pictionary.
  
  Discord is a great platform to communicate with. This is the better option if you have decided to opt for playing video games with your friends. It operates smoothly in the background as you and your friends do your thing. Discord also offers both screen and video call options if you want to use these as well.
  
• Community events. Your city or town will at some point host community events. So, get yourself involved in those events to expand your horizon.

• Participating in sports. This is a great way to make new friends, while also enabling you to consistently see your buddies in person. Think about it like this–you’re accomplishing a few things in one. You get to meet new people, you have new friends, and then you’ll be able to keep in touch with them in person.

Lack of Exercise Equipment

In brick-and-mortar school, there’s usually a PE class, gym, or something else that either encourages or forces students to get some physical exercise. Unfortunately, in online school there’s generally no such thing. This leaves it up to the student to get some exercise. Luckily, there are a few things that can be done to get some exercise without relying on school equipment.

Solutions for Gym Equipment:

• Get a gym membership. This is perhaps the most obvious. You can see about getting a gym membership and exercising there. Of course, with the current events happening, this might not be currently possible. Later, however, it probably won’t be. So, you can get that gym membership and exercise there.
  
• A home gym. If you have a gym at home, then you probably don’t need to worry about this section. If you don’t, though, you can buy some equipment for a home gym, assuming you have the space.
  
• Use what you have. If you don’t have a home gym or a gym membership, and don’t have the ability to get either, then use what you have. You can do bodyweight exercises and/or use what you already have to get exercise. For instance, you could do dips with two chairs. There are a ton of bodyweight workouts out there on the Internet, too. Just do a search for some. Don’t let a lack of exercise equipment stop you from staying active.

Solutions for Inspiration:

If exercise equipment isn’t your issue and inspiration is, here are a few tips:

• Start a routine. If you start a routine of exercising regularly, it’ll be a lot easier to continue to exercise. If you exercise at the relatively same time everyday, then that time will start automatically becoming “gym time” for you. If you’ve ever found it hard to break a routine, then consider starting a good one such as exercising regularly. You’ll build momentum and eventually get into the habit of exercising regularly to where you won’t want to break your habit.
  
• Challenges. Give yourself a challenge to see how consistently you can exercise. You could also see about challenging some of your friends to some sort of exercise competition to see who can exercise longer, more consistently, etc. Depending on how competitive you are with your friends, or yourself, this could be a good one.
  
• Get some workout buddies. If you have friends who like to exercise too, they could motivate you to exercise, too. Now, it’s perhaps a little bit harder because of social distancing, but you still have technology. You can use that to stay in touch with them. Maybe they can kick you into gear. Perhaps you could even workout with them through some sort of call.
  (Yeah, it’s kinda lame, but whatever.)
  
• Follow-along workouts. It’s a lot easier to exercise when you have the proper timing that follow-along workouts provide. The people in the workouts screaming at you to stick with it are even more motivating. You get the feeling of working out with friends without actually needing to workout with friends. You just have to find the program that works for you.

Distractions

The distractions that result from being in online school can be perhaps the most annoying part of it. Siblings, phones, computers, videos, music… well, maybe not music depending on who you are and what your situations are. Generally, though, it’s easier without music. I find that I usually end up just singing along with the music. (Which may or may not annoy everyone around me and distract them.)

So, what can we do to limit distractions?

Solutions:

• Turn off your phone and put it away. If you can turn your phone off you’ll stop the notifications that’ll pull your attention from your work. If you can hide it from yourself, then… out of sight, out of mind. It adds to the reduction in distraction. At the very least, turn off your notifications.
  
  If this isn’t an option for you (maybe you need to keep your phone on in case that hot date calls you, for instance), then you can see about using some sort of screen time limit. On iPhone, for instance, there’s a feature you can use to set a limit on your screen time. You can use a password to lock it even further–meaning that you need a password to get access to the apps. Maybe have a sibling input the password for you. Turning off your non-essential notifications can also help if you can’t use a screen time limit feature (it can also add on to the screen time limit feature).
  
  Another option would be to just straight out delete the apps that are distracting you… I’m just going to guess that you probably aren’t going to do this, though.
  
  If none of those are an option for whatever reason, then you’re basically stuck with willing your way through not messing around on your phone. Should you choose this course of action, I wish you the best of luck.
  
• Blocking access to excess programs and sites. If your computer is distracting you, then there are some applications you can use to block access to apps and sites that might pull your attention. Depending on which program you use to block access, you can set a time limit that you would be allowed to use them, you can set a time or duration that access is blocked, or simply block access to them completely.
  
  There are a couple different options for this, including using Microsoft parental controls for Windows. You can also use a third-party software like Cold Turkey, though it costs money to block apps.
  
  Again… you could just delete the apps that are causing you trouble…
  
• Tell your siblings to stop bothering you. It’s really just about that simple if you have siblings that are bothering you. Just tell them you’re doing school, maybe even give them something distracting to do. Well, so long as you aren’t the one babysitting them, anyway. If you are, then just try to distract them with a TV show or something while you do your work (then you’ll probably just have to white-knuckle it through the show).
  
• Block out distracting noises. This is where music can come in handy. It can mask the distracting noises of your family members or something else that is going on wherever you happen to be doing your school at. An alternative is to use something like noise-cancelling headphones.
  
• Find a good work environment. Ideally, your work environment will combine everything here, plus whatever else you might want to make it even better and more productive. We’ve got a blog post here that goes more in-depth with how to set up your work environment if you want.

Lack of Extracurricular Activities

The lack of extracurricular activities in online school, such as sports, can be annoying sometimes. With the social distancing from COVID-19 currently occurring, there’s not a whole lot you can do about this right now. In the future, though (if you decide to stick with online school, this is), there are a few things you can do.

Solutions:

• Join a non-school sports team. You can see about finding some sort of recreational sports team, rather than a competitive team from school. There’s probably also some non-school competitive teams around you that you could see about joining.
  
• Join a band or play an instrument. If a lack of music is your issue, you can see about forming a band with your friends or just learning an instrument. There’s most likely some other music-related activities you can attend, you just have to look in your local area. (It’s hard to tell you exactly what you can and can’t do, because it really just depends on your situation.)
  
• See about doing extracurricular activities from a different school. Sometimes, you can go join a sports team, orchestra, choir, or whatever else they might have at a nearby school. You can do the core work in your online school and some extracurricular activities at a physical school. It depends on your situation with your online school and physical school, but it’s certainly possible.

The most frustrating parts of online school tend to be fairly easy to fix. There’s all kinds of things you can do to fix what frustrates you in virtual school–these are just some ideas. If they don’t work for you, then hopefully they give you an idea as to what you can do to fix them. 

If you’d like some free schedulers, free productivity tips, and some other free tips to help you through your online school journey, you can enter your email using the form below. We’ll send them straight to your inbox.