Right now, along with several\nother countries around the world, Aotearoa is in lockdown and people are\nconfined to their own homes. Maintaining motivation to work on your research\ncan be challenging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, this is a situation people have encountered before. From astronauts on the International Space Station, to defence personnel on deployment, to academics on sabbatical, working in isolation and in an unfamiliar environment takes some special skills and tricks to survive. We can use these now to help us during the lockdown, and continue to use them in the future if we\u2019re suddenly working from home or cut off from our usual support networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following are tips and tricks\ndistilled from opinion pieces and Twitter posts where people are crowdbuilding\nideas based on what has worked for them in their own context. Not everything\nworks for everyone, so try them all and see what works best for you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firstly, don\u2019t beat yourself up<\/strong> if you\u2019re not as productive as you\u2019d like. We\u2019re all going through a lot right now. If all you can manage are a couple of hours a week, that\u2019s okay. Do what you can. Aisha Ahmad states<\/a>: “Know that you are not failing.” She advises to let go of ideas about how productive you should or shouldn\u2019t be during this time, and focus on what you need. Clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson warns<\/a> of piling too much pressure on yourself and raising the bar of the amount and quality of work you\u2019re going to do right now: “This is unlikely to be the writer\u2019s retreat that you have long dreamt of.” Adaptation will take some time. At first you won\u2019t be very productive at all as you settle into this new level of \u2018normal\u2019, but as we settle into a new rhythm of remote work and isolation, it is important to be realistic in the goals we set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep things tidy<\/strong>. Generally tidy up as you go. Get out of bed and make it every day. A cluttered space makes for a cluttered (and distracted) mind. Tidy up those dishes, do some laundry. While you\u2019d maybe normally clean the house once a week, you aren\u2019t usually home so much, so consider cleaning more frequently. I had to make a chores list for our flat! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Exercise<\/strong>. Something. Anything. Perhaps a \u201ctour de maison<\/em>\u201d in lieu of a grander activity? If you have a garden, walk around that; if you\u2019re in an apartment building, try walking the corridors\/stairwells. I\u2019m lucky enough to have 10 different parks within 500m of my house so have been going for daily fresh air on (solitary, isolated) walks, listening to some great podcasts. I have also been doing yoga in the middle of the floor (following the myriad of great options on Instagram and YouTube), and ballet barre against the kitchen bench. Find something that works for you and do that. It might mean finding a set of stairs and sprinting up and down it, or engaging in that daily tour de maison<\/em> (see if you can set a new record!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stretch<\/strong>. This is related to the exercise bit. Listen, this is a very stressful time. You\u2019re going to be more tense than usual. Plus you\u2019re probably not working in the most beneficial position. You\u2019re probably hunching a little, and you\u2019re moving less than you usually would. For me, my keyboard is a little high and the screen a little low, and during the day the sun glare is on my screen. So I\u2019m probably hunching and squinting and doing all sorts of things that make my physio scream \u201cWHY?!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n