How to stay motivated while working from home? I just end up taking a 2 hours nap everyday. It’s so hard to concentrate on work when there is GLOBAL pandemic going on. Looking at how severe this situation is getting really worries me, so I can’t focus on anything :( I really need some working from home tips.

You’re doing fine. Everyone is reacting a little bit differently to what’s going on, but fear, stress, and massive upheaval in everyday life are the exact kinds of things that make it hard to concentrate. Some people are dealing with that by keeping themselves busy. That’s not productivity. Also, there are about a billion lists like this online right now: bit.ly/bc-selfcare. Pick one thing off a list like that you might enjoy, and don’t worry about the rest. Be kind to yourself. Eat regularly. Try to keep a schedule.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.