The space and environment where students study matters.
(Don’t worry, this isn’t me giving your teen a free pass to start requesting expensive trips to IKEA or Kikki K!
In fact it’s usually a case of cleaning up and clearing out rather than adding more stuff) 🙂
If their environment is well-suited to focused, motivated and effective study, then they are more likely to FEEL motivated and GET and STAY focused.
Here are the specific factors you need to consider.
If their space is messy and cluttered, then (apart from taking ages to find anything and then losing focus and ramping up frustration) their thinking and processing will also be messy and inefficient.
Buuuuutttt…. if their environment is well-suited to focused, motivated and effective study, then they are more likely to FEEL motivated and stay focused.
Here are the key factors that it’ll be helpful to consider, because even though everyone is a little different in terms of what helps us stay on task or produce our best work, these will all play a part:
Firstly, the Visual.
It absolutely needs to be a neat and tidy space.
Mess and clutter are never conducive to effective work or study.
Now that doesn’t mean it has to be totally sterile – it can be inspiring for sure, perhaps some motivational quotes or travel photos or precious items around, but not so much that they become a distraction.
Secondly, it needs to be QUIET.
Some students need or prefer silence – and that’s me too BTW! If I’m working, I can’t deal with any noise, TV, people talking or music – boring perhaps, but I know what works for me. So I’m not one of those cool people you see working away at their laptop at a coffee shop and ideally, your teen won’t be either!
If they do insist that they work better with music, then it should only be baroque music. They likely won’t like it, but I’ve done a whole other blog post previously on this (which you can watch HERE!) to explain this in more detail.
And thirdly is COMFORT.
Now this is a fine balance.
They need to feel comfortable but ALERT. So no lying on their bed, sitting on the couch or slouching in a bean bag. Again, not always a popular fact, but again, this is proven to affect our focus and quality of our work.
For me, I actually do a lot of my work standing. I have a perfect height kitchen bench top for my laptop and it keeps me more focused than sitting at a desk. However, when it comes to marking for exam boards, I have no choice but to sit down, but I take along blankets to prop myself up a bit! I don’t care what I look like (way past that these days!), I just don’t wanna be distracted or less productive because I feel ache-y or uncomfortable or slip into sleep-y mode.
Students often do need motivation and focus and a lot of that has to do with them being in the right environment and setting to do their best work.
So… Neat, tidy and inspiring; quiet or with baroque music; and a desk and chair that has them comfortable but alert will go a long way to helping them be the best they can be 🙂
I’d love to hear about anything your teen has done to make their study space more positive and productive for them. Drop a comment below 🙂
Until next week, let’s make this a fantastic week!
Katie
