Your dorm room is your home away from home while you’re pursuing your academic career. Although it may be small, it’s a place you need to respect since you do everything now. It’s where you rest, spend a bit of leisure time, hang out with friends, and study and fulfill academic requirements.
Since your dorm room has limited space and is where you do everything, it can be challenging to stay productive. Even with a study space in your dorm room, productivity can still prove to be challenging.
There are several ways you can improve your dorm room study space – with a little effort on your part. Here are nine ways you can create that productive study space in your dorm room to help you be more efficient.
Maximize your space
The first thing you need to do would be to find a way to maximize the space that you have in your likely small dorm room. You need to make sure that you’re making the most out of your limited area. There are many space-saving techniques and strategies that you can apply in your dorm room to get more free space, or feel like you do.
One of the ways you can do that is by decluttering first. Remove any big items like a bookshelf to make way for a study desk. Instead of having a huge bookshelf, you can install open shelves on the wall. It allows you to create more space while ensuring that you have enough storage for your books and personal items.
Another tip is to buy compact furniture. That way, you have useful indoor pieces that don’t take too much space.
Eliminate distractions
Distractions are everywhere – even in your dorm room. And this can hinder you from being productive. Therefore, your priority before you start studying would be to remove any distractions around you.
Your phone is likely a common source of distraction when you’re studying. Thus, it would be great to make sure that you put your phone on silent before you work. It would be even better if you put your phone somewhere far from your reach so that you don’t fall back into the habit of grabbing for your phone.
Install good lighting
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Lighting is a crucial aspect when it comes to doing any work in any place. If you have poor lighting, your eyes have to strain to see what you’re doing. This situation applies both for when the light is too dim or too bright in your room.
Having focus lighting is a great way to keep your concentration on one thing if you do plan on installing more light in your room. A desk lamp is a simple addition that will get you focused on the work in front of you and help dull the scene around you.
If you can, you should try and get more natural light in your dorm room. It’s a bit easier on the eyes, but you shouldn’t have too much that it’s glaring from your laptop screen.
Take care of the air.
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Air quality is something that can affect your productivity as well as your overall health and wellbeing. Too many dorm rooms lack fresh air. It can be from poor positioning or a lack of opening the windows.
Let go of that stagnant air and get airflow back in your dorm room by opening your windows often. Not only will it refresh your room, but it will also get rid of the stagnant and dirty indoor air.
You can also get yourself a diffuser to help make your dorm room smell pleasant. You can choose your favorite essential oil scent to use with your diffuser. Not only will it make your room smell good, but it can also help you relax when you need it.
Block out noise in your dorm
Noise is a big issue when it comes to people losing their sense of productivity. When you have a groove going, you don’t want to break it, which noise tends to do. Therefore, you should find ways to block out noise.
One suggestion is to use noise-canceling headphones, but there are other methods you can try. For example, using white noise to drown out the extra noise around you is an excellent method, especially if you struggle to focus in complete silence.
Get ergonomic furniture
It’s hard to be productive if you don’t feel comfortable where you’re studying. Therefore, you should invest in some ergonomic study furniture, like your desk and, most importantly, your study chair.
Ensure that you are in the correct sitting position to don’t tire out as fast when you’re working. Having an excellent chair will help you achieve that.
Keep it neat and tidy.
Keeping an organized space will give you plenty of benefits that aid your productivity. It helps you access your study tools with ease, so you don’t spend too much time looking for them. It also helps reduce the number of distractions around you, and helps maintain your mental and physical health.
Gather all necessary supplies
Before you settle down and get to work, make sure that you have all of your necessary study supplies near or around you. Having to stand up and get your things will make it much easier for you to get distracted. Once you sit down, you want to avoid having to stand up again until you’ve accomplished your goal.
Set some study rules
You need to have self-discipline and establish some study rules and schedules that you strictly follow to allow you to stick to your studies. Setting these boundaries will enable you to have a less stressful school life because you made the time to study.
Over to You
Remaining productive is going to be a struggle for all us, even when you already graduated from school. Therefore, learning about how you can create a more fruitful study space will benefit you from now well into the future.
Apply these tips to your dorm room and find yourself being more productive than ever before. You can then find the techniques that worked the best for you and carry that knowledge with you for the rest of your life.
About the Author:
Raymond Chiu is the Director of Operations for Maid Sailors, a trusted NYC office cleaning service provider. Maid Sailors offers its customers unrivaled office cleaning services that can address even the toughest cleaning needs. Matched with affordable prices, Maid Sailors is your best partner in turning your office into a work-friendly workplace.
