In addition to organizing your time, you also need to organize your space. Space is important for many reasonsâsome obvious, some less so. Peopleâs moods, attitudes, and levels of work productivity change in different spaces. Learning to use space to your own advantage helps get you off to a good start in your studies. Here are a few of the ways space matters:
Everyone needs their own space. This may seem simple, but everyone needs some physical area, regardless of size, that is really their own, even if itâs only a small part of a shared space. Within your own space, you generally feel more secure and in control.
Physical space reinforces habits. For example, using your bed primarily for sleeping makes it easier to fall asleep there than elsewhere and also makes it not a good place to try to stay awake and alert for studying.
Different places create different moods. While this may seem obvious, students donât always use places to their best advantage. One place may be bright and full of energy, with happy students passing through and enjoying themselves, a place that puts you in a good mood. But that may actually make it more difficult to concentrate on your studying. Yet the opposite, a totally quiet, austere place devoid of color and sound and pleasant decorations, can be just as unproductive if it makes you associate studying with something unpleasant. Everyone needs to discover what space works best, and then let that space reinforce good study habits.
Choosing Your Study Place
Begin by analyzing your needs, preferences, and past problems with places for studying. Where do you usually study? What are the best things about that place for studying? What distractions are most likely to occur there?
The goal is to find, or create, the best place for studying, and then to use it regularly so that studying there becomes a good habit.
Choose a place you can associate with studying. Make sure itâs not a place already associated with other activities (eating, watching television, sleeping, etc.). Over time, the more often you study in this space, the stronger will be its association with studying, so that eventually youâll be completely focused as soon as you reach that place and begin.
Your study area should be available whenever you need it. If you want to use your home, apartment, or dorm room but you never know if another person may be there and possibly distract you, then itâs probably better to look for another place, such as a study lounge or an area in the library. Look for locations open at the hours when you may be studying. You may also need two study spacesâone in or near where you live, another on campus. Maybe you study best at home but have an hour free between two classes, and the library is too far away to use for only an hour? Look for a convenient empty classroom. Choose a pleasant, quiet place for studying, such as the college library.
Your study space should meet your study needs. An open desk or table surface usually works best for writing, and youâll tire quickly if you try to write notes sitting in an easy chair (which might also make you sleepy). You need good light for reading, to avoid tiring from eyestrain. If you use a laptop for writing notes or reading and researching, you need a power outlet so you donât have to stop when your battery runs out.
Your study space should meet your psychological needs. Some students may need total silence with absolutely no visual distractions; they may find a perfect study carrel hidden away on the fifth floor of the library. Other students may be unable to concentrate for long without looking up from reading and momentarily letting their eyes move over a pleasant scene. Some students may find it easier to stay motivated when surrounded by other students also studying; they may find an open space in the library or a study lounge with many tables spread out over an area. Experiment to find the setting that works best for you and remember that the more often you use this same space, the more comfortable and effective your studying will become.
You may need the support of others to maintain your study space. Students living at home, whether with a spouse and children or with their parents, often need the support of family members to maintain an effective study space. The kitchen table probably isnât best if others pass by frequently. Be creative, if necessary, and set up a card table in a quiet corner of your bedroom or elsewhere to avoid interruptions. Put a âdo not disturbâ sign on your door.
Keep your space organized and free of distractions. You want to prevent sudden impulses to neaten up the area (when you should be studying), do laundry, wash dishes, and so on. Unplug a nearby telephone, turn off your cell phone, and use your computer only as needed for studying. If your e-mail or message program pops up a notice every time an e-mail or message arrives, turn off your Wi-Fi or detach the network cable to prevent those intrusions.
Plan for breaks. Everyone needs to take a break occasionally when studying. Think about the space youâre in and how to use it when you need a break. If in your home, stop and do a few exercises to get your blood flowing. If in the library, take a walk up a couple flights of stairs and around the stacks before returning to your study area.
Prepare for human interruptions. Even if you hide in the library to study, thereâs a chance a friend may happen by. At home with family members or in a dorm room or common space, the odds increase greatly. Have a plan ready in case someone pops in and asks you to join them in some fun activity. Know when you plan to finish your studying so that you can make a plan for laterâor for tomorrow at a set time.
Family and Roommate Issues
Sometimes going to the library or elsewhere is not practical for studying, and you have to find a way to cope in a shared space.
Part of the solution is time management. Agree with others on certain times that will be reserved for studying, agree to keep the place quiet, not to have guests visiting, and to prevent other distractions. These arrangements can be made with a roommate, spouse, and older children. If there are younger children in your household and you have child-care responsibility, itâs usually more complicated. You may have to schedule your studying during their nap time or find quiet activities for them to enjoy while you study. Try to spend some time with your kids before you study, so they donât feel like youâre ignoring them.
The key is to plan ahead. You donât want to find yourself, the night before an exam, in a place that offers no space for studying.
Finally, accept that sometimes youâll just have to say no. If your roommate or a friend often tries to engage you in conversation or suggests doing something else when you need to study, just say no. Learn to be firm but polite as you explain that you just really have to get your work done first. Students who live at home may also have to learn how to say no to parents or family members, just be sure to explain the importance of the studying you need to do! Remember, you canât be everything to everyone all the time.
Avoid Multitasking
Multitasking is a term commonly used for being engaged in two or more different activities at the same time, usually referring to activities using devices such as cell phones, smartphones, computers, and so on. Many people claim to be able to do as many as four or five things simultaneously, such as writing an e-mail while responding to an instant message (IM) and reading a tweet, all while watching a video on their computer monitor or talking on the phone. Many people who have grown up with computers consider this kind of multitasking a normal way to get things done, including studying. Even people in business sometimes speak of multitasking as an essential component of todayâs fast-paced world.
It is true that some things can be attended to while youâre doing something else, such as checking e-mail while you watch television news, but only when none of those things demands your full attention. You can concentrate 80 percent on the e-mail, for example, while 20 percent of your attention is listening for something on the news that catches your attention. Then you turn to the television for a minute, watch that segment, and go back to the e-mail. But, youâre not actually watching the television at the same time youâre composing the e-mail; youâre rapidly going back and forth. In reality, the mind can focus only on one thing at any given moment. Even things that donât require much thinking are severely impacted by multitasking, such as driving while talking on a cell phone or texting. An astonishing number of people end up in the emergency room from just trying to walk down the sidewalk while texting, so common is it now to walk into a pole or parked car while multitasking!
âOkay,â you might be thinking, âwhy should it matter if I write my paper first and then answer e-mails or do them back and forth at the same time?â It actually takes you longer to do two or more things at the same time than if you do them separately, at least with anything that you actually have to focus on, such as studying. Thatâs true because each time you go back to studying after looking away to a message or tweet, it takes time for your mind to shift gears to get back to where you were. Every time your attention shifts, add up some more âdowntimeâ and pretty soon itâs evident that multitasking is costing you a lot more time than you think. And thatâs assuming that your mind does fully shift back to where you were every time, without losing your train of thought or forgetting an important detail. It doesnât always.
The other problem with multitasking is the effect it can have on the attention span and even on how the brain works. Scientists have shown that in people who constantly shift their attention from one thing to another in short bursts, the brain forms patterns that make it more difficult to keep sustained attention on any one thing. So when you really do need to concentrate for a while on one thing, such as when studying for a big test, it becomes more difficult to do even if youâre not multitasking at that time. Itâs as if your mind makes a habit of wandering from one thing to another and then canât stop.
Researchers have found that multitasking increases production of the stress hormone, cortisol, and the fight-or-flight hormone, adrenaline. These hormone level increases can cause the brain to literally overheat, which leads to foggy mental processing. So multitasking while studying for a final exam might not be a good idea.
Multitasking also taxes the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that integrates information. Your capacity for problem-solving decreases with the number of tasks you try to perform at the same time.
The lesson here is to stay away from multitasking whenever you have something important to do, like studying. If itâs already a habit for you, donât let it become worse and make an effort to concentrate on one thing at a time. Manipulate your study space to prevent the temptations altogether. Turn your computer off, or shut down e-mail and messaging programs if you need the computer for studying. Turn your cell phone off, if you just tell yourself not to answer it but still glance at it each time to see who sent or left a message, youâre still losing your studying momentum and have to start over again. For those who are really addicted to technology (you know who you are!), go to the library and donât take your laptop or cell phone.
The perceived need to multitask is driven largely by the technology takeover of recent years. Smartphones, email, social networking, Instagram, Twitter . . . all make multitasking seem both necessary and possible. They all require switching in and out of a line of thinking. With these technologies, we face constant information overload and distraction.
It’s been estimated that an average smartphone user reaches for his or her phone hundreds of times per day. This is not just to answer a text or call, but in response to perceived boredom. The habit of reaching for a device when “bored” takes away one of the greatest opportunities to develop our most brilliant ideas. In her TED Talk, Manoush Zomorodi explains how this time of boredom provides the brain the time it needs to connect ideas and solve problems.
How can we become more productive with our time and energy, given our tendency to multitask? Read the tips below:
Try âbatch processingâ: Have set times during the day for checking and responding to emails and texts.
Use checking your phone as a reward for completing an item on your to-do list.
Use concentrated time: Block off time for working on just one task.
Leave your phone in your car. Â Then, take a break and check your phone, getting outside and getting a little exercise while you do it.
Do whatâs most important first: Make goals for the day and accomplish them. The sense of achievement can help you resist anxiety-driven multitasking.
Turn off your social media alerts on your phone.
Set your phone to âDo Not Disturb.â
Set auto-response text messages to respond to people while you are studying.
Use television, video games, etc. as a reward at the end of the day.
Set a time when you are surfing the web, so you donât spend hours going down the internet rabbit hole.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A well-planned study environment supports an effective study session.
Choose a study space that is easily available and that you associate with studying and learning.
Keep your study space and your materials organized.
Multitasking isnât as productive as it sounds. Â It actually takes longer to do two things at once than to do each of them on their own.
Multitasking often leads to mistakes and poorer quality work while increasing stress.
You need to have a clear plan in place for managing your technology. Â Try having set times to check your phone and put your phone on Do Not Disturb during your study sessions.
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL
Getting and Staying Organized. Authored by: Heather Syrett. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY: Attribution