Field Notes: The Media School Travel Blog

Interning can already be an arduous task, even in a year without a global pandemic.

It may feel difficult to find yourself in your work when you have no financial incentive, and the work itself may be wildly different from what you’re used to working on. All of this is exacerbated by a large time zone difference — my supervisors are located in India, a difference of more than nine hours! — and working virtually is just the cherry on top. To combat these myriad obstacles, there are certain strategies I have learned to use to stave off the creeping malaise.

I’ve found it’s important to keep a consistent schedule. Finding stable times of day to do work for my internship has really ingrained in me a sense of schedule and routine, drastically increasing both my motivation and productivity. My summer schedule can be pretty hectic, between my part-time job, visiting family and friends, etc., but I’ve found time both when I wake up and before I go to sleep, several hours on both ends, to get some work done.

Another tactic that helps diminish the sense of nebulously open-ended work is establishing concrete, short-term goals with a rigid schedule. I give myself weekly goals to accomplish before the meetings I have with my bosses on Monday mornings. This gives me a clear sense of progression and a feeling of accomplishment when I finish my work for a given week. This has the added benefit of allowing me to give consistent progress reports to my bosses, as well as the ability to work ahead if I know an upcoming week will be busier than usual.

On the whole, the best way I’ve found to combat the ennui that the pandemic can cause is to create an environment that simulates what a traditional internship would have felt like: concrete schedules, consistent work times and achievable goals.