Are you doing your homework at the kitchen table? On the couch? In your bed?
Feeling overwhelmed and unprepared for classwork?
Where you study could be having a huge impact on how you study. You need to give yourself permission to have a home study environment. Regardless of how small your home is, you can and need to carve out a space to handle the business of life.
“You don’t need to own a business to have a home office and you should have one even if your business is raising kids,” said Darla DeMorrow, professional organizer. “You need a place to sort mail, pay bills and study without having to move it off the table for dinner and back to the table again.”
And a home study office, doesn’t necessarily need to be an entire room.
DeMorrow suggests repurposing old TV cabinets. The large, beautiful oak ones that were pricey and popular back when televisions fit inside them 10 years ago. Now, you can get them for pennies on the dollar at thrift stores. Use shelving inside the cabinet to make spaces for your books and paperwork. Ta da, an office that you can close for the day when you finish.
Another popular home office space for studying is a hall closet. If you own the home, use simple shelves and cabinets to build a place to sit and store paperwork. If you are in a rental, buy a small, inexpensive desk and set the entire thing inside the cabinet. Again, when you finish for the day, you close the door.
Closing the door is important, DeMorrow said, because the space should be yours alone.
It is not where the kids get their paper, pens and craft supplies. Have a separate box of craft supplies for them, elsewhere in the house.
“That way they are not coming in stealing your stuff and then you have to waste time running around and looking for it,” DeMorrow said. “The same thing with chargers and cords. When you sit down you don’t have the extra energy or time to go looking. You need to be able to sit and study and do what you thought you were going to do.”
And as you design that study environment, stop looking at dreamy, pictures of perfect spaces on Pinterest.
You can certainly make the space your own by painting the area a color you like or hanging a picture or using a lamp you prefer. You can put your stamp on it without spending a lot of money. Keep in mind, the space needs to be functional, not magazine photo shoot ready.
Finally, make sure you have proper light.
“People always under estimate the importance of lighting,” DeMorrow said. “If you have one light in the room, and you are on the other side trying to read, that is not going to work very well.”
If you don’t have plentiful natural light, purchase extra lamps both for your desk top and overhead. DeMorrow said larger rooms should have at least three lights to give students the right atmosphere to study.
For more information on careers you can study for at home, check out the online degrees available at Bryant & Stratton College.
