There’s a reason why I am currently writing this introduction at 3:00 a.m. No, it’s not the crippling anxiety prompted by COVID-19 or the awful Tik Toks I make for internet clout. Instead, you can place the blame on the various distractions present in my home environment.

Now I normally consider myself a disciplined, efficient person. As soon as I get home I rush to my desk and get my homework done as fast as possible and ensure I get at least eight hours of sleep a night — and potentially play some video games here and there.

Thanks to COVID-19, the roles have been reversed. I spend six hours a day playing video games and then rush to my desk to ensure my work is complete. And I also stop to listen to some sweet bops on Spotify.

I am not the only one who has this same experience. Several other students have had the procrastination monkey take the wheel from the rational decision maker. If you are reading this article, it is probably because you too do not want to be calculating torque right now (nobody does).

Thankfully, as an experienced procrastinator, I have a solution. In order to avoid cancelling your grades harder than they cancelled gradNite at Six Flags, I believe it is absolutely critical to distance yourself from any in-home distractions.

That’s right, no more getting on your Finsta or posting that new YOLO on your Snapchat story. You’re getting work done, fam.

It is important to consciously recognize what distractions are present in your environment. These can be phones, food or anything that takes away from your precious learning time.

But don’t hop on that Zoom meeting just yet. You should distance yourself from these distractions as much as possible (at least six feet). Turn off your phone or feed your food to your dog (assuming it is pet-friendly, of course).

Consider a personal anecdote: I have a crippling addiction to the 2011 video game “Skyrim.” What was my response upon realizing that it was taking away from my precious e-learning time? That’s right, I uninstalled it.

Recognizing in-home distractions are hard. Removing them is even harder.

But the key takeaway is that it is important to remain mindful during this pandemic. It is so easy to lose discipline in these times. And it’s okay to not exactly want to do work — These emotions are absolutely normal in times like these.

Crying until 2:30 a.m. while playing “Skyrim” and binge eating Slim Jims is quite certainly abnormal. However, I don’t blame myself considering the terrible mental burden brought upon by COVID-19.

Be sure to try to combat these undesirable emotions. Being mindful and trying to promote an orderly work environment at home is a simple way to fight against the chaos spurred by this virus.