What Environmental Factors Distract You from Studying?

25th January 2015 Joe Graham Study

A suitable working environment is a big factor in how successful you’ll learn and retain information. There are a variety of factors that impact your studying and how you can make your study settings more suitable for learning. All of our luxury student studios in London is tailored to help you learn as comfortable as possible. But just in case you need more, we’ve listed five environmental factors that will distract you from studying and suggest ideas how to deal with them to ensure more productive study time:

Comfort

When you are studying, your comfort can affect your productivity. If you get into your nightwear, climb into bed and then put on your laptop and begin to do work, you may be waking up from an unplanned nap a couple of hours later. Also if your study position is too uncomfortable, such as sitting on a broken library chair, you’ll be fidgeting more than you will be learning. Ensure that you are aware of how you feel, if your body feels too relaxed or you feel comfortable enough that you could fall asleep, move somewhere else to do your studying.

Lighting

Straining your eyes when trying to read something in dim lighting makes it much more difficult to stay focused. To take part in successful study, you must have appropriate lighting to avoid getting headaches. Dimmed lighting can also make you feel more relaxed and make you feel like you just want to get into bed, especially if you are near one. Pay attention to the lighting of the room when you sit down to study.

Bad Feng Shui

The physical arrangement of furniture can affect your ability to learn. In a cramped room you will feel restricted and claustrophobic, which is definitely not a good way to feel while learning. Take time to organise your room – keep it clean, organised and neat and then aim to keep it that way. Keep an area as your study station and try not to clutter it with other items that don’t relate to your studies.

Noise

If you are the type that is easily distracted, you might find that even the slightest noise around you makes you lose your focus and attention. There will be particular noises that grab your attention more than others – work out which they are and try to avoid them in your study environment.

Whether it’s the sound of flat mates voices or the sounds of a computer keyboard in the library that is proving a distraction, simply move to a different area. Try out different study environments and see what works best for you. Do you work better with music on or off? Sometimes music can help to block out other sounds that can be more distracting. If even the smallest bit of sound distracts you, invest in some ear plugs!

Anything that is more fun

Lets be honest, studying is hardly our favourite past time. We’d much prefer to be emailing our friends, online shopping or playing on an app on our phones. Anything seems more exciting than studying, especially if it’s a dull subject. It’s important that you know the types of things that are likely to distract you. If you find yourself constantly on your phone checking your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, put your phone somewhere out of reach so you aren’t tempted.

Check out how to ace online studying

Remember: Give yourself regular breaks when studying – you can reward yourself for doing half an hour of studying with a break and a chance to check your social media accounts. You’ll find you learn more with regular intervals.