Studying at home has become more and more popular, especially among busy adults who aim for better career path or simply self-development. However, before choosing what and when to learn, you must first ensure an ideal study space at home as it significantly affects your inspiration and perseverance to study and follow until the end. In this article, we suggest 4 easy and useful tips to create a study station that enforces complete concentration.
Remove distractions from your study space
- Phones and mobile devices
- Video games
- Magazines and newspapers
- Junk food and drinks
- Unnecessary tabs on your computers
In addition, you should also limit objective factors like outside noise and from other people. Make sure to find yourself a quiet, private corner in the house and ask other family members to support during your studying.
Prepare everything you need in advance
List out and prepare everything you need for the lesson before learning. Your schedule is limited already so you don’t want to waste time standing up to get this or that thing and then having to focus again. Necessary materials will differ from person to person and from course to course, but basically you can consider:
- Laptop, mouse, charging cable as most home studies are online and distant courses
- All textbooks, reference books and printed materials for the lesson
- Writing utensils and other stationeries for taking notes, calculating or doing exercise
- A headphone if you are a fan of ambient music or your surrounding is a bit noisy
The important rule here is to arrange everything in your own order, so that you quickly locate and use them without turning your study station upside down. An uninterrupted learning period will help you digest information smoothly, thoroughly and therefore, you can easily recall or apply knowledge later on.
Personalise your study space
Remember that it is your ideal study space, so feel free to add in a touch of your style here and there. Personalisation helps learning become more pleasant and interesting. If you are a fan of minimalism, just a laptop may be enough for completing a whole course. In case a slightly messy setting is good for your creativity, then skip all the minor arrangements as long as it doesn’t adversely affect your study time. Some even love to get all their stationeries colour-matched. We all know studying alone (or motivate yourself to do so) is hard, so try to make the experience as comfortable as possible and you will be inspired to persist, lesson by lesson.
Pay attention to lighting
Believe it or not, lighting actually affects your productivity. A study station that is not lit properly will strain your eyes and make you sleepy while the overhead fluorescents might be too bright to read notes and textbooks. To prevent such cases, simply place your desk next to the window to get some natural light. Remember to sit facing the window as you don’t want the sun to bounce off your computer screen. Your screen contrast should be mild for the eyes to look at and you may consider buying a small desk lamp. Again, what brought you to studious mood is totally personal so feel free to experiment learning in different time and find your perfect period of the day.