Stay Connected During Quarantine

 

  I was one of the lucky few to be quarantined first here at Harding due to close contact. If you found yourself in this situation now or sometime later, I believe there might be some helpful tips here.  

1. Wake up 

• One of the hardest habits to keep while in quarantine is probably a sleep schedule. Set your alarm...set many alarms and wake up at a reasonable time everyday. 
• For those with an iPhone and using iOS 14, the health app might be helpful. You can set up a scheduled "do not disturb" sleep alarm. It will track how much sleep you're getting and collect that data in the health app so you can look back and see if you're getting enough sleep. I know its hard to keep a good sleep schedule as a student but quarantine might be an opportunity to get a more consistent 8 hours sleep for a little while.
  
• If you open the browse tab at the bottom. You can search for your sleep data.
• Click sleep under data or categories and then scroll down to  "Set Up Sleep" 
• select Get Started and go through the prompts 
• For those with iOS13, setting a sleep schedule is easier, just go to your clock app and it should be the middle option and then bottom of the app. 
  

 

2. Keep a Routine

 Staying in the same room that you sleep for days on end might make it hard for you to focus on your school work. From my experience, getting up out of bed and getting dressed and ready like you're going to class can help you get your day started. I know if I didn't get dressed, I'd often find myself in and out of bed and napping a lot throughout the day and then not being tired when it was time for me to go to sleep. 

• For those with an iPhone, if you go to your settings and look for "Screen Time,"  you can look at how much time your spending on your phone and how much time you're spending on each app. This is a great way to help you better manage your time during quarantine. You might find your screen time being up 8 hours from the time before quarantine. 

• Most android phones have a similar feature. It's called daily device usage or something to that effect and it's also found in your settings.  

 

3. Communicate

Quarantine can feel quite isolating because that's exactly what it is. Don't feel like you can't talk to your professors about class work and ask them questions. It's easy to get behind on your work during quarantine and it will most likely be more difficult this time in the semester to catch up. Its good to keep a dialogue with your Professors when necessary to help you stay on top of your work. 

• Email is just one way to communicate with your professors, I know many professors are more than happy to even meet with you via zoom or other video conferencing apps. 

It's also good to stay in communication with your friends. Keeping to yourself for two weeks might not be the best on your mental and emotional health.  There's good chances you're quarantined with some of your friends. When you've completed your classwork, jump on a zoom call with a few friends and socialize a little. Many of us really crave socializing and probably don't need me to say this. But for those like me who are a little anti-social, it's a good thing to remember to talk to people every once in awhile.