Dr. P.'s Top Three Tips for Succeeding as a Distance Learner

“We needed this weeks ago,” one Mountain View mom complained after I posted an invitation to my webinar, “Succeeding as a Distance Learner.”  I agree.  I’m now an exclusively online tutor who helps kids with executive functioning issues like time management and creating schedules.  But even I wasn’t ready to give a talk like the one I gave last night back in March. 

I’m ready now, though!  (Better late than never, MV Mom.)  Many thanks to Zelda and Mark (names changes to protect the innocents), two students whom I served as an online tutor this spring.  From them, I developed “3 Principles of Successful Distance Learning” that I shared in a webinar last night.  Here they are, with some elaboration:

1.    Managing Time.

In my roles as both an adjunct professor and an online tutor, I encourage students to keep a monthly calendar to keep track of long-term assignments and entire semester.  In addition, students should create a daily schedule listing work in order of toughest to easiest.  Do tasks in that order, and assign rough start and stop times to each, including a 5-10 minute break in between each.

2.    Maintaining Motivation.

One thing people who are natural list-makers often forget is to pencil in fun (guilty as charged here!).  But, without somethingS to look forward to on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, our motivation to keep doing the “same thing” every day will flag.  I encourage my online tutor ing students to schedule bits of joy as an incentive and a reward for work well done.

Photo by @Lidyanada on Unsplash

3.    Caring for Body & Self.

I love Dr. Dan Siegel’s “Happy Mind Platter,” and use it to discuss the seven key elements that all brains need to stay happy and healthy.  Without that, it’s really hard for anyone to succeed as a distance learner – even an online tutor!  I’m taking a course on Don Quixote right now, and my daily exercise, eight hours of sleep, meditation and the rest help me to digest Cervantes’ tome!  That’s even more important for teens, whose brains are still developing. 

Practicing any one of these principles makes tackling the other two even easier: it’s a virtuous cycle.  So, take it from this online tutor, succeeding as a distance learner is as easy as 1 (managing time) – 2 (maintaining motivation) – 3 (caring for body and self)!

What are your tips for succeeding as an online learner? Throw them into the comments below!

Dr. P.

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