Advice for Studying during COVID-19
As mentioned last week, Sude is back with the second part of ‘Studying in the midst of COVID-19’. We gave an insight into our experiences studying during lockdown at the end of our first year studying architecture with Part 1. This week we have brought to you guys the second part of the discussion where we will be covering what sort of advice and tips we would give to the architecture student community.
Grab a cup of tea and let’s begin!
Sude: Moving onto the big section (a/n: no architecture pun intended). What advice would we give to our past selves or our future selves and for current/future architecture students?
Elif: My advice after studying architecture during lockdown would be, as I mentioned previously, getting into a routine and understanding the importance of leaving your workspace and your house. Obviously, you would be limited to where you can venture off for your break because of lockdown and this would also depend on whether or not you have a garden for fresh air. Whether that’s doing your 1 exercise a day (a/n: policy has changed for exercise since the recording, but always make sure to complete an exercise per day), aiming to do it outside. What I realised earlier on was that the time I was spending commuting to and from university was actually a break for me to stop thinking about anything architecture related or to just have a conversation with whoever I was commuting with, in this case it was Sude. Looking back on it, that was when we would have the most giggles and laughs because we were tired from working and constantly thinking about the same thing. It allows you to have an opportunity to just take a moment and breathe and have conversations about different topics. Those conversations could, later on, benefit you in your project. Eventually, you may come up with something creative that was triggered from taking that break. So the two biggest things I would advise is to get into a routine, it could be having a daily or weekly planner that helps you feel more organised that puts you into a better headspace. This could be waking up and sleeping at the same times and having certain activities like exercise or reading assigned to a specific time of the day consistently. That would really help you feel better mentally and keeps you more organised with your work. The second thing is going for a walk or just sitting in your garden, doing something else that will occupy your brain whilst preferably being outside away from your workspace.
Linda: Yeah. I think for me, advice that I would give is to be proactive. If you notice yourself struggling on a certain task or you don't know what to do, it's better to do something rather than dwelling on it and doing nothing. Whether that’s letting your tutors know that you are struggling to do something, talking to your friends, or looking into resources that you may think will help in order to move on. After taking a break and returning to your work I think it's just good to keep going and preserve. Don’t leave things because you don’t know what to do. Especially in a time where it's very important to make do with what you have because we have the internet. There’s no excuse why you can’t do something when you get stuck.
Sude: I think what I would recommend links to what you just said, the main thing I would suggest is to just accept the situation. That’s something that I struggled with at the start. I had this hope that COVID-19 and lockdown would be short term and we’d be back to normal in a couple of months time. I want to clear up that, that wasn’t me being unrealistic. That was me genuinely thinking that we'll go back into uni. Humanity has come to this point in technology, science so you’d think people would be able to follow basic instructions and now we’ve just discovered that apparently… some can’t. It sucks to know and have figured that out the really brutal way. The main thing I would say is to accept the situation. I remember at the start I was complaining about how I didn’t like this new normal, I wanted to go back to university. You both witnessed me saying all these things as well. I’m not a big fan of change, me transitioning from university to my house, even though I saw its benefits by the end of it, wasn’t something I was in favour of at that moment. It took me so long to accept the situation and how this is how it’s going to be like for a good while. Also, me complaining about it and just being so stubborn about the situation led to me being not as productive at the very start of lockdown. If I had just accepted it and sat myself down and said, “Look Sude, this is how it’s going to be and you need to suck it up because it’s not changing whether you like it or not.” So, yeah. Complying with the situation and accepting it earlier on is something I would recommend for students even though it's easier said than done. We know that everything that's being done right now is for the sake of our health and safety and it’s not being put into place for a laugh.
Elif: Adding to what you just said, obviously it’s really important to stay updated with the current situation by watching the news and staying informed is important because you need to educate yourself about the situation however I think looking at the news often throughout the day could be a disadvantage. Reason being it could add to your existing stress. Just speaking from my personal experience, already having the stress of workload and having to drive my own motivation and to be even more determined that I've ever been to complete this work alongside that having all the stress of people talking about how lockdown is going to last for 4 months. These conversations made me feel a sort of stress that I haven't had before because I was also concerned about the wellbeing of the people around me and the state of the city I live in and the world that we live in. So, I think a small piece of advice would be to still stay informed but perhaps not look at the news multiple times a day. Maybe check up on the briefing at the end of the day or just have a look at the news before you go to bed. Make sure also that it’s not the first thing you see in the morning.
Sude: I think we made that mistake at the beginning of everything. In our group chat we would inform each other although our intentions weren't to stress each other out. It was just to get a grip of the situation and know what’s going on. However, we did do it to the point at which it was excessive when we would give our own little reports of what each of our boroughs were looking like. I was stressing about when I would see my friends again. Nobody knew. Not even in terms of university but just going out. We had plans as simple as celebrating our birthdays for example. Now that’s such a minor occasion but it wasn’t great being at home during lockdown for my birthday knowing that we could have been out if COVID-19 wasn’t a thing. The more we updated each other about how much the cases were rising up by and how precautions are not being taken seriously, that all just added onto the realisation of knowing we won’t be back to our normal lives soon. Now, look at us. I wouldn’t say we are not looking at the news at all but we are definitely not looking at the news or the number of cases as often as we were initially. If you check up on it really frequently you’ll just overstress yourself over something you have such minor control over.
Elif: It’s about balance. With every element that you incorporate into your life, it's all about balance. You always hear from people doing too much work with no breaks is bad for you and vice versa. So when it came to something that we haven’t expressed before as a whole population besides us individually, everybody was overwhelmed very easily. Now that it’s been a long time since the start, we know that it is going to last longer than the next few months. It’s important to stay informed and it’s important to continue to act on guidelines but i think to a certain extent you don't need to be checking the news every 10 minutes, you don’t need to get frustrated over the government’s actions because there is nothing you can do about it (a/n: here we are referring to immediate solutions, we do not want to discourage you guys from raising your voices on the matter). It just is how it is and we just have to accept it. Something I did was I checked the news before I went to bed which would have meant that I wouldn’t have started my day on a bad note.
Linda: We also have to remember that this is the first time pretty much all of us have gone through this and it’s okay if you don’t deal with everything perfectly straight away. Something that we do in architecture, regarded as a principle, is iteration. I think that can be applied to this situation. For a lot of first-years this will be the first time going to university and studying architecture. It’s a new experience so just be aware of what’s working and what’s not. Continually update your life and live your life in a better way based on what you’ve already experienced. If you know that you’re getting overwhelmed because you're reading the news too often then cut down and try looking at it less and see if it puts you in a better place mentally. If you think that you’re spending too long on drawings or concept research, then try and find different ways to do it remotely. It’s all about finding better ways of studying under COVID-19.
Elif: It is at the end of the day trial and improvement on how to efficiently work your way around this pandemic.
Sude: I think something that is going to help with doing that is, whether or not COVID-19 existed, if you go into studying architecture the main 2 skills that come up to my mind having gone through first year is organisation and time management. Now if COVID-19 didn’t occur those two skills are still extremely pertinent to the course that I would recommend improving. Those two will hope the most with being productive and with being aware of what is going around you essentially leading you to be less stressed. You know that you're doing what you are capable of doing at best quality knowing the situation. If you’re up to date with all your work, there should be no reason for you to be stressed (a/n: this is based on stress caused by university only). Does that sound insensitive?
Elif: I don’t think so. It’s just realistic.
Sude: Make do with what you’ve got. We are all limited. It’s isn’t like somebody has a better chance of getting a better grade because of COVID-19. Everyone is restricted with the same rules. I want everyone to remember that we are all in the same boat.
We cannot emphasise enough how important it is to take care of yourselves and the people around you. Please, if you show symptoms of COVID-19 do not go outside and request a test. When you’re waiting for your test result minimise all forms of face-to-face contact.
We hope this post has helped you guys in some shape or form with your studies. We are an architecture community that is trying their best to support you guys. Feel free to drop any questions or feedback to our email at dabbleenquiries@gmail.com or you can DM us on our Instagram, @archidabble
Let’s aim for 200 ArchiDabblers by the end of 2020!
See you next time!
