music
What’s your Set-up?
No doubt the following topic will be familiar to many, as it should be. Your working environment is crucial in the effectiveness of your studying. I’m sure that there have been many investigations and attempts to create the perfect working environment but there will never be one that works for everyone. You need to ignore all irrelevant information and focus your mind on the things you can do to improve your own working environment. The most important thing is that it works for you.
I’m not going to give you a detailed specification of the perfect study environment, nor am I going to flaunt my own flawless set-up (because it’s not), but rather I’m going to give you all some pointers of how doing a few simple things can help tremendously improve your working environment.
The Basics
- A Clean Desk - This is simple. If you have a clean desk you are going to get through much more material. By organising your working area - you (sort of) organise your brain. You might think that’s a load of rubbish but give it a try. Tip: empty your bin before you start, you’ll need all the room in there you can get. Extra Tip: just read this. It’s more aimed at office workers than students but the same rules apply.
- A comfortable chair - again this is paramount. In fact this could arguably be the number one point because you must be comfortable when studying otherwise you’ll be twitching around, standing up and have completely forgotten to revise.
- Shut out noise - Seems an obvious one, however it can be easy to forget to do this before you start and you find yourself getting up twenty minutes in and walking over to the window to shut it. Before you know it you’re looking out and daydreaming. To stop this happening shut your windows before you even begin to think about the work you’re about to do! A quiet room is so much more relaxing, it allows your thoughts to flow so much more freely and hopefully your work will improve as a result, especially if your a writer.
- Turn on the music - This point sometimes divides people but I find listening to music very helpful. I personally like to listen with headphones and my iPod because I become totally immersed in the music and free from distractions. But just popping in some headphones may not be enough. The speed, sound and even where the music is coming from can affect your mind in different ways (don’t ask me how though). I would recommend listening to a nice relaxing bit of Jack Johnson
through these in-ear headphones.
OK, so hopefully that’s got you settled and well into your work. But if it’s still not perfect, these bonus tips may help
- Light - When I work I really like to flood the paper with light. I normally work where there is some natural light coming in but I turn on a lamp, (like this one), and point it downwards so that my work is completely lighted even in the evenings when it gets dark.
- Computer - Do you really have to be using your computer? I used to think I needed to but have since realised that it wastes quite a lot of time and provides distractions. Certainly there are up-sides to using a computer such as back-up of notes and programs such as evernote may trick you into thinking you are saving time but it takes a very focused mind to avoid the associated distractions such as IM, web surfing, iTunes and of course Inkball on Windows Vista. Using paper has many benefits, you can be more creative and retain more information as a result and paper has a vastly quicker boot time than a PC. Don’t use the excuse that you can organise notes better electronically, a good filing system is just as good as creating a new set of sub-folders. [note: I may change my mind on this one later on]
This article is by no means a definitive list, in fact it was poorly researched and rushed, but if it has inspired you to make a change it has succeeded. Remember the most important thing to remember is that it must work for you.