Are you having trouble staying focused or getting started studying at home?
In this video I'll be sharing my top six tips for finding a productive home study space,
whether you're completing remote coursework for high school or college or self-studying for any
big exam from the GED to the GRE. No matter what you're studying for, for the most part we've all
been studying from home lately. Home isn't always the place most conducive to sustained focus,
which means that the time that we're putting into studying isn't always as productive as it
could be. It's important that we're using our studying time effectively so that we can make
progress towards our goal and still have time to live our lives. Here are six things that I've done
to my home environment to make my home studying more effective. Number one: pick a unique study
space. Not the place you sleep, watch tv, play video games, read books for pleasure,
etc. I know that a lot of us do not have the luxury of having a lot of different rooms that
we can assign different functions to. That's one of the reasons that traditionally college
students have liked to study in an exterior space like libraries, coffee shops, dorm common spaces,
or weird little nooks that they find in classroom building hallways. My freshman year of college it
was very popular to study in our dorm's laundry room. But since we're all mostly stuck at home for
the moment, we'll have to get a little creative and use what we have. This can be as simple as
sitting at a different seat at your dinner table or on the other end of the couch than you usually
sit. I context switch between my desk and my bedroom, one end of the couch for watching tv,
and the other end of the couch for doing school work. It's maybe not ideal but it does give
my brain a little signal when I sit down about what I'm gonna be doing when I sit in that spot.
Number two: clear off your study space before you start studying. One of the benefits of the coffee
shop or the library or the common room table is that it has nothing on it. Replicate that for
yourself wherever you're studying at home. The few minutes to get rid of the clutter before you start
are well worth it. Number three: tidy your space in general. This may be a personal preference,
but in my experience my apartment trends toward entropy at about the same rate as my ability to
concentrate. Sometimes doing a quick tidy and putting everything back where it belongs can
be enough to get my mind back on track. This includes all the piles of clothes on the floor,
the books that have made it off the shelf, and all the weird piles of mail that accumulate
everywhere. Everything needs to go back to where it lives. The more often you can do this,
the easier it is to get back to a baseline of organization. In the other extreme though,
try not to clean extensively to avoid studying. This is seemingly virtuous, and I'm guilty of
it frequently, but it actually doesn't help us make any progress towards our academic goals.
Number four: gather your tools before you sit down. This includes books, notebooks, a laptop,
the charging cords, something to write with, something to write on, a calculator, a beverage,
a snack, anything you know you're going to need. Gather it all up so you're not tempted to having
to keep go find just one more thing. Thinking again about the merits of the library or the
coffee shop for working, you have to get all your things together in your backpack before you leave
to go study. What you've brought with you is what you can use. You can employ the same strategy
in your home study space. Number five: eliminate distractions. For me in a lot of cases this means
putting my phone on the charger across the room. I also use the app Flora to grow a little digital
plant for 25 minutes at a time. If you switch away from the app, you kill your plant. The idea
behind this is the Pomodoro Method which helps boost productivity by eliminating distractions.
For me it definitely makes the phone a little less tempting and helps me settle down into some
deeper work. If you're still not focused after 25 minutes, you can pick the phone up for a little
break, but I find that I'll typically work long past 25 minutes after I get over that initial itch
to pick up my phone. Other things to consider on the eliminating distractions front: first, there
are browser extensions that work similarly to the Flora app if you're doing work where you need your
laptop but not necessarily the internet. There are others that block high temptation sites like
instagram, facebook, and youtube, but leave the rest of the internet available for research and
accessing your coursework on blackboard. Secondly, avoid the tv. I understand that some of us live
with other people and don't have much choice over whether our family members have the tv on. Try to
sit in another room if that's possible. Studying with the tv on, although I've tried it many times,
is not really effective. And thirdly, speaking of sitting in another room away from your family
members, sometimes this is just needed in general if you tend to want to talk to another person if
they're in the room or if they tend to want to talk to you, it may be best to remove yourself if
you're able. If you're not able to remove yourself to another room because of space constraints,
headphones are the universal sign for do not bother me. So tip number six is: wear headphones.
Over ear headphones are even better than earbuds, especially because they offer some degree of sound
muffling even if they're not noise cancelling, although if you already have a pair of noise
cancelling headphones or you're thinking about buying some they're probably a good investment
in a time like this. I really appreciate my beats studio 3s, which I thought were a bit extra when I
bought them because I'm not a rapper, but they really have turned out to be a helpful tool.
I'll link them down below. Sometimes you can get different color ways for a cheaper price - that's
what I did with mine. And even though headphones are the universal sign for leave me alone,
sometimes it's good if you also communicate that with your family members as well. A little
communication goes a long way. If you're wearing the headphones, should you listen to anything
in them? This again may be a matter of personal preference. I would recommend experimenting and
seeing what's best for you. Personally I can't listen to any type of music that has lyrics if
I'm doing reading or writing or anything else that requires kind of heavy lifting with my
language processing systems, but sometimes I'm okay to listen to music with lyrics if I'm doing
different kinds of math tasks. But as a rule of thumb classical or more chill instrumental music
is better for me. Some people like soundtracks of the kinds of sounds that you'd hear if you did go
out to a coffee shop, or rain, or ocean noises. Play around with some different options and see
what works for you. Try to notice when the music or the soundtrack is pulling you away from what
you're meant to be focusing on, and when that happens try something new. Of course you don't
have to listen to anything if that's easier for you. You can still wear the headphones even if
they're not playing anything. What have you been doing to improve your home study space?
I'd love to hear about it in the comments. I post new videos here every Monday about studying
more effectively and passing the GED, so please subscribe if you'd like to learn more. If you like
the video please press the like button so that youtube knows to share it with other studiers.
Thanks for watching as always. Happy studying, and i'll see you next time.