Tips for Studying at Home
I don’t know about you but I found it super difficult when I tried to study at home…
Really simple things to give a try in any flat or house if you need to bang out a load of work whilst at home.. whether its technical drawings, writing your dissertation or creating some visuals…
Get out of your PJs
Now I’ll be honest I didn’t look great when I went into university so at home was definitely no different. Stay comfy of course!! But just don’t stay wrapped up in your dressing grown all day working on your sofa.
Set up an actual workspace
Talking of sofas, one of the worst places to concentrate. Nearly everyones sofa is staring at a TV. If you’re working on your dissertation or technical drawing I beg you take half an hour, really focus. Sitting at a desk in the correct ergonomic position is great for your health and focus. C’mon guys, you want to get the dissertation done and out of the way asap.
BUT there is a time and place for comfy sofas and TV
I can’t tell you how many times my flatmates and I re-watched Friends, Shameless and Community…
But look, I love to have music on or a sitcom running in the background whilst doing creative work. Creative work like drawing or model making is all from your mind and to be honest shouldn’t be too perfect. As long as you can keep yourself to a schedule or routine, for art and design projects it’s fine to have background noise.
Make a plan/To do list
Even for my blog posts I now make a really simple plan, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to create content thats being requested in time.
Seriously the plan can be super simple. But my tip is, don’t only write down the project tasks you have! If you want to also go to the gym and that takes you 2 hours for you to get ready, go, come back, shower etc. then factor that in! If you know you want to do something factor that in - your ‘want to’s’ and your ‘need to’s’ need to go hand in hand.
We can dive deeper into this in my post about managing your time in your design project…
25minutes task + 5minutes break
Our minds are not made to sit in one place and focus on one task for 4 hours at a time. The Pomodoro Technique is something you may have heard of before and never realised it. This is the idea that you split your larger tasks into smaller 25 minute tasks.
The concept says to set a timer for 25minutes, complete the task and take a 5 minute break…Then begin the cycle again. This is a short enough time frame for your mind to purely focus on the task at hand. After doing this routine 4 times you then take a 15-30minute break where you could watch an episode of your favourite Netflix show or rustle up a snack.
By doing this technique you get to experience ‘quick wins’ by completing the smaller tasks therefore you feel like you’re completing elements and progressing.
As I have said in previous posts obviously if you can definitely use the specialist facilities that are there for you… but at times like these a lot of us are working from home. To be honest all of these points apply if you’re at university or in industry.
I think the main thing to remember is to compartmentalise your day. If you can work in a different room to where you sleep or relax great! If not you NEED to remember to stop work at a specific point (whether that is by task or time).
For example my current routine:
Wake up + get ready.
2 hours workout, shower + get changed.
Get a green tea/water - Get prepped so once I am at my desk I don’t need to find anything.
Go to ‘minimalist’ desk (computer + notebook + task-list = less distractions!)
Create content for blog topics using 4 repetitions of the Pomodoro Technique (25minute task focused + 5minute break).
Lunch! For about 1 hour…
Work on client projects using 4 repetitions of the Pomodoro Technique (25minute task focused + 5minute break).
Take a 30 minute break - chat with family/friends and looking at social media.
Complete 1 online short course or learn something new (approx. 1hour).
Make and eat dinner.
Chill (walk my sausage dog/watch TV/chat with family+friends/plan our next travel adventure!)
Sleep
That’s a very rough idea of how a very relaxed day (in the social distancing world we live in at the moment) is going for me.
You can see that other than the work that I have set (creating blog content) I also introduce something to improve myself, something that I want to learn. Again this is one of those things that if I didn’t allow for it in my schedule it just wouldn’t happen.
Remember to take time when making your basic schedule - once you find one that works it will be really easy to slot any tasks, classes or meetings around the short quick win tasks and the stuff you really want to do!