Ok, so I'm calling in a favour from you all here.
I'm just about to start college for the year and am trying to put the finishing touches on my study to make it a place that I really want to go to and spend time in. So here's the question:
What should I do to my study to make it an awesome, happy place to be?
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12 comments:
I wanna be in on this thread..... but I don't have any ideas! I'm a study-from-the-kitchen-table guy! God bless for this year man.
A tidy room with easy access to reference books and space to lay out all your notes if your working on an essay or sermon.
i go with the happy place (like berkelouw... must include good coffee) and the happy people (like nick), and its amazing how much you can get done barely trying! (though nick may get a lot less done by this means as he has to continually explain things to me).
its like exercise, the thought of running down king st alone will never motivate me, running somewhere nice with someone is far more likely to happen, but the team sport is where i get exercise without even noticing (until the next day).
soph.
Awesome suggestions so far!
I'm looking forward to checking Berkelouw out, too, Soph.
Put pictures of your gorgeous sisters everywhere. Hahaha.
Yeah, yeah. I know, not very helpful.
Fi xox
Fi, Fi, Fi... putting pictures of my gorgeous sisters on the wall was right about the first thing I did! Smiley, happy sister-faces :)
YAY!!!!! =)
FI xox
This is more of a dream than a piece of advice. I went through 3 years of college without a study and lugged bags of books to and from the library every day. And even now I don't have a study. The laptop I'm on is in the kitchen. I can type away here and check that I haven't overcooked the corn just be turning around.
If I were to set up a study I would need:
1. q secluded space. Bookstores would be the end of me. Too many interesting faces to look at. Too many fascinating conversations to listen to.
2. stationery within easy reach. I have a pen/stationery fetish. If you need to do more than straighten the elbow for sticky notes, blue/red/black pens, pencils, scrap paper etc then it's too far away.
3. lots of light on the pages I'm reading. Get a desk lamp. Even if it's the only light on in the room you'll need it. And there's nothing more satisfying than turning it off after a hard night's work and walking away.
4. books that I use a lot nearby - even at the back of the desk. For me I'd have dictionaries, bibles, systematic readers etc very close at hand so that if I needed to brush up on something I could do it quickly and without th eneed to unpack boxes beneath the marimonial crib at 3am!!! I'd have an English Dictionary and the bible I was using sitting right next to my left hand.
5. no view. this says more about my sinful tendencies to procrastinate and daydream. But if I was given a choice between reading something that seems impenetrable but which I know is really good for me and looking at a view, I'd always choose the view. Put your desk up against a wall.
6. space to leave projects in "work" mode. If you've got 3 things on the go at once plus a sernon plus ongoing hebrew vocab it's good to have little piles of work that you can quickly resume on again. Even if only for 10 minutes.
7. a small desk clock.
8. absolute, total, pin dropping silence.
Anyway that's me.
If you can study do it in a way that is satisfying then happiness will follow. WHAT we study will be awesome if we are well set up to take it all in.
Silence.
Happy, relatively comfortable places to sit. Some of my best work gets done sitting on my bed, or on a comfy couch. But you need a stable table designed for a laptop or you will be driven mad trying to balance papers, books and stationary on books.
If you're going to use a desk/table, try to make it an expansive one. Little, narrow, hemmed in ones lead to little, narrow, hemmed in sort of thinking.
A view, if it makes you feel happy and creative, rather than distracted.
An ergonomic computer set up. Otherwise you will die during essay periods and you will, understandly, come to detest sitting down to work.
Shitloads of scap paper. Adequate stationary.
Al, Fiona, that's awesome. Thanks so much :)
The two guys with whom I share my study wear ear-muffs - our study is littered with them! I'm more of a music guy (well, most of the time).
rock on.
shiny happy study .... sounds like a plan.
to add to the plethora of good suggestions:
1. Year planner. Includes essay /assessment deadlines and holidays (the stick and the carrot), as well as church, camps, preaching stuff.
2. A Kick-Butt filing system. The hypocrite in me tells you to not leave all your filing until november. I suggest the cheapest lever arch file folders from officeworks ($1.59 ea when I was there yesterday), a hole punch and some dividers. that way, as things arrive in your bag, they get put somewhere accessible and are easily available if needed.
2.A. Recycling Bin
3. Headphones. I suggest Sennheiser cans. I too have ADD. Turn up the music or risk massive distraction by the people.
4. Photos of people you love; to remind you to pray for them, and to remind you to Go home when it's time to do that.
5. Mints.
6. spare phone charger
7. memory verses. Just a hobby horse, really. But why not have some slabs of scripture that you're trying to memorise (cos it's good enough for jesus so it's good enough for us) on the wall in front of you every time you look up.
Go well, brother.
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