- What's up guys?
So, I know you've asked me
how to create a study space in the past,
and today I was going to show you my room,
but I'm going to switch it up,
because literally last night,
my roommate Martin, who is back there,
- Yo.
- Changed his room around and I think his idea
for a study space is actually better than mine,
so I'm going to have him show it to you
and walk you through it in this quick video.
(jazzy music)
- [Thomas] Here, just like, be in the frame,
I'll just, I'll like do an interview
- Because, like I obviously need to say more than,
"It's basically two tables, with a shoji screen."
- [Thomas] Yeah.
- What's up? That's it!
- [Thomas] Actually, you could literally do that, alright.
- Well before, I had actually tried to separate this out
so there was a gaming table, and a work table also,
but they were on opposing walls.
The problem, then, was that I still, like, I knew
that I was in the same room.
It felt like one room, and I wanted it to feel
like it was a completely separate space,
so there was a bit of mental separation
in between work and play.
- [Thomas] So you've got one desk here,
all the gaming stuff, what else is over on this side?
- [Martin] Over on this side we've got all my books,
we've got a guitar and the closets, some Pokemon stuff,
and I think, basically all sorts of
non-focused, non-productive things.
- [Thomas] So this is like,
a completely separate room, almost,
and it feels like a separate room when you get in here.
- [Martin] The shoji screen in the middle
really makes a big difference, I think.
I legitimately feel like
I'm entering a different room in the house, even though
I know I'm just a foot away from my other things.
- [Thomas] Where'd you get that thing?
- I didn't.
(Thomas laughs)
- [Martin] I stole it from my friend Clyde. (Thanks Clyde <3 <3 <3)
- [Thomas] Yeah, you did.
But you can buy it on Amazon, as well,
for 50 bucks I think.
- Aright, so this is the Roost Stand.
It is meant to raise the screen because
ergonomically, you want the top of your monitor
to be at your eye level.
And what's cool about this, is that
it's extremely portable.
- [Thomas] That's freakin' cool.
- So you can bring it with you anywhere,
to a cafe, to a library, to your friend's house
if you need to do work, or a hotel,
I've done work in a hotel.
And then we've got this keyboard stand, which
is basically just a keyboard stand, but it's got these
real rubber parts, so it won't slide on your pants,
and you can pull out a slidable mousepad,
so that you can work with the screen at the correct level,
and your keyboard at the correct level
for your arms as well.
- [Thomas] So basically, like, you're not even
using the table to work on, at all.
- No, you could take this off the table
and put it on something, literally just a little square
in front of me and it would work just the same,
and because this has adjustable height,
it's incredibly flexible,
- [Thomas] Oh that's awesome.
- I can work anywhere.
So what else I have on the desk?
I have my noise canceling wireless headphones over there,
this Moleskine notebook, which I've just got
a daily schedule, that I wrote out this morning,
so that I could pay attention.
I used to do that on Google Calendar,
but I found that checking my phone every three seconds
just to check Google Calendar was really distracting.
Which is why my phone's way over there, not being touched.
So I've got this whiteboard up on an easel,
and I basically use this, right now I've got
some simple habits and things that are,
sort of a template for my daily schedule
that I'm writing out, like, put somewhere to read,
put somewhere to study Spanish,
and on this one here,
I write down ideas if I think of,
I need to do laundry, I need to run this errand,
but I haven't scheduled it in today.
Instead of letting it completely throw off
today's work, I put it here, and then
schedule it in tomorrow morning.
- [Thomas] Why whiteboards on whiteboards?
- Because--
- [Thomas] Like, are you Xzibit or something?
- Because I can take this off
and go plan things somewhere else if I need to.
Occasionally I use this for,
if I'm drawing in the other room,
I'm planning out, like a web thing,
and I don't want to be in here--
- [Thomas] Oh, that's cool.
- So, it doesn't need to be on here,
but it's a good place to store it.
- [Thomas] And you clearly have a message that doesn't,
like, never leaves your whiteboard--
- Oh, yeah
- [Thomas] So what is the story behind this thing?
- I have my girlfriend write "don't overthink it,"
on there, because overthinking it is probably
my biggest weakness, because I will spend
just hours and hours trying to solve something,
and I could have done something that worked
within the first ten minutes.
If I get caught up, say I'm editing a podcast
and I get caught up on a single vocal pause
that I can't remove, like, a "uhh,"
I will just remember, "don't overthink it."
Nobody's even gonna notice that vocal pause,
just leave it if you can't get rid of it.
- [Thomas] That's smart.
So I get the markers, I get the eraser,
what are the bead things?
- The bead things have been useful several times.
The most recent use of them was, I tore up a piece
of printer paper into a bunch of pieces,
wrote down ideas, attached them with magnets,
so that I could slide them around the board,
rearrange them any way I wanted.
That way I could determine what order to do things in,
you can connect them, drawing lines
between them and writing things.
It's just good for brainstorming.
We've got a couple more things,
I've got a Zafu here for meditation,
I've got a glass teapot and some tea cups
because I'm super zen, but that's pretty much it.
I just did this because I've been craving
that mental separation between work and play,
and I don't have enough to pay for an office,
right now, outside of my house.
- So guys, that about does it for this video,
just wanted to give you a quick look at Martin's room,
which I think is set up in a pretty cool way,
and additionally, if you don't know, Martin is my co-host
over on the College Info Geek podcast,
where every single Monday we take three of your questions
and answer them in a half an hour Q&A style show,
so if you wanna subscribe and you haven't done so already,
cigpodcast.com is the URL you can go to,
but I also have it linked down in the description below,
and if you want to subscribe to this channel
and you haven't done so, you can click right there to get
new videos every single week, both on desk tour stuff,
we're gonna do one on my room pretty soon,
and on productivity tips and other tips
that can help you be a more effective student.
You can also click right there
to get a free copy of my book if you want,
and you can smash your face onto your phone screen
right there, or click, either one works,
to see another video.
Thanks for watching, I'll see you next week.