Productivity during quarantine

My previous post was centered around the first month of summer, June, as I talked a lot about the progress made on my research project. From the non-technical summary, to the background, to my project objectives, I try to be as consistent as I can in updating my posts with all my new outcomes.

July was the month of teaching myself how to be productive and how to continue making progress on my research project. Normal productivity cannot be expected as we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. I’ve struggled tremendously at controlling my anxiety for the last 5 months. To me, it feels like everything around me(the whole world) is on fire, and completing schoolwork seems close to impossible. While coping with my anxiety, I decided to focus on different ways to help myself stay productive.

I created a flexible schedule for each week. Besides going to work part-time, I spent most of my time in my small apartment where most of the time I would lay in bed. The guilt of not being productive was eating me alive, so I knew I needed to change my habits. I began working out 4-5 days a week, which has helped me release a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety. I also figured out at which time of the day I have the most energy to work on my research. As much as I've tried, I cannot work in the mornings, and I've accepted the fact that I am not a morning person, and THAT IS OKAY! I work best around 8/9 pm. During this time, I have the most energy to work until at least 10/11 pm.

I also learned when it was time to take a break. During the beginning of summer, I thought I needed to work on my project every single day for hours, so on days when I didn't work on my project, I felt as if I was failing myself. I began to recognize my signs of exhaustion and with time knew when it was appropriate to stop, even if it meant taking a break for days, or weeks. Small breaks consisted of going on walks, stepping outside for a couple of minutes, stretching, or calling my family and friends to catch up.

While waiting to hear back from the IRB chair,  I was successful in finding new articles that correlated with my research. After being approved during the middle of week 2, I was ready to move onto the next stage in the project. I began reaching out to staff/faculty, student organization presidents, and other helpful resources in the hopes of finding women to participate. The most frustrating part about collecting subjects is being patient for email backs, and them showing a consistent interest in the interview. So far, more than 5 women have shown interest in participating, but only 3 have been consistent with scheduling an interview. This upcoming week, Week 4, I have scheduled three interviews. I hope to continue reaching out to more interested participants and following up with the students who have shown interest in the project.

I am so excited for the next few weeks of my research project. I've been looking forward to interviewing all participants and beginning my data collection. Below I have included a couple of interview questions for the interviews.

Can you tell me at what age or school year you began to recognize your ethnicity/culture/race?

What were your expectations of what your university would be like? Describe

Have you faced any challenges as a woman of color at your institution? Are you be willing to share some of them with me?

Do you feel like you ​belong a​ t this institution? By belonging, I mean do you feel that you are accepted as part of the institution by your classmates, instructors, and administrators? Are their visible attempts by the university to create programs on campus that cater to you? Why or why not?