Welcome to LearnLawBetter.
Do you have a good study space?
Do you know how to create a study space that will help your learning.
Today I will provide you with some tips to help you create a better study space that
is more conducive to learning.
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Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to help you create a better study space.
The overarching theme is eliminating distractions.
Distraction number one is, you guessed it, the Internet.
When you get bored or the work gets hard, do you start checking your favorite social
site?
Is that how you found this video?
When I grade exams, which I hate to do, I grab the exams and find a quiet spot in the
library. And that's what works for me.
For you, this means finding a space without the Internet or your smartphone.
If you need one, there are apps that you can use to shut off Internet access for some
amount of time.
Start with 15 minutes and then add more time as needed.
You might also find the Pomodoro technique, which I covered in another episode, to help
you fight an Internet addiction.
Distraction number two is your environment.
For most people, the best temperature to study at is 77 degrees Fahrenheit, 25 degrees Celcius.
A few degrees colder or warmer, and you won’t study as well.
In addition to temperature you need to think about the lighting in your study space.
This means avoiding yellow lights, which mimic candle light.
You want a bulb in the 5,000 to 6,500 kelvin range, which may look blue to you initially
if you’re not used to them.
But in reality, bulbs in that range mimic natural sunlight, especially if you purchase
a decent LED light bulb.
Compact fluorescents, by the way, are generally not very good at keeping their color, and
might create a strange light.
I recommend that, in addition to getting a light in the 5,000 to 6,500 kelvin range,
also look for an LED bulb that has a CRI above 90.
CRI stands for color rendering index, so anything above a 90 will look natural, and not strange.
For me, I went on Amazon, and that's where I found my light bulbs
as I couldn't find the right kind of bulb in the stores.
So recently I did go, and I was at a Lowes, and I noticed they are now selling
bulbs in the right CRI range.
By the way, no promotion for Amazon or Lowes. That's just where I happened to buy them.
Now, last in this category dealing with your environment is your seating arrangement.
Find something that is comfortable for you, whether that is a comfortable chair,
or for some of you that might be a standing desk.
Distraction number three is the study space itself.
It should be uncluttered, and you should clean it before starting the next day.
This will help you focus on studying, and not the mess all around you.
Also, make sure your study materials are all nearby.
You don’t want to keep getting up and down to get something you need.
Also, get rid of anything in the space that might distract you, like novels, or magazines,
and maybe pictures that cause your mind to wander.
Now let’s talk about what you should bring to your study space.
Bring a large drink so you don’t have to keep getting up and down to get more water.
If you're going to snack, bring your snacks with you.
Keep a small notebook on your desk to write down distractions as you think about them.
For example, as your studying, you may realize that you forgot to pay a bill, write
it down and deal with it after study time.
Finally, think about moving your study space from time to time.
Scientific studies have shown that our brains work better when we are in new environments
and we do things differently.
To help my brain, I avoid driving the same way all the time, instead varying my path
to keep the neural connectors working better.
Now for you that might mean studying at different coffee shops, or at least at different tables
in the same coffee shop.
In the library, move around—don’t always go to the same table or the same study room.
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Thanks for watching.