Chapter 5: Getting and Staying Organized
Overview
Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success
Chapter 5: Getting and Staying Organized
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Analyze the impact of your surroundings while you study.
- Recognize the importance of organizing your space to your best advantage for studying.
- Understand the dangers of multitasking and strategies for avoiding it.
- Assess the degree to which personal technology may help or hinder your study efforts.
Getting and Staying Organized
The Impact Of Your Study Environment
If a researcher walked up to you right now and asked you to identify your favorite place to study, what would your immediate response be? Would it be your home—perhaps your sunny kitchen? Maybe your dorm room or bedroom—a relaxed space you can call your own? Maybe it would be a busy café in the heart of town or a remote log cabin if you have access to one. What are your preferences for your physical surroundings when you study? What are the attributes of your most conducive study environment?
In the following video, Mark Montgomery, an educational consultant and college admissions expert, reminds students that while their image of college may be much about socializing, they will ideally spend a good portion of their time studying. He shows some accommodating physical spaces at Seattle University.
Organizing Your Space
Now that you’ve worked up an attitude for success and are feeling motivated, it’s time to get organized. In addition to organizing your time, you also need to organize your space.
Space is important for many reasons—some obvious, some less so. People’s moods, attitudes, and levels of work productivity change in different spaces. Learning to use space to your own advantage helps get you off to a good start in your studies. Here are a few of the ways space matters:
- Everyone needs his or her own space. This may seem simple, but everyone needs some physical area, regardless of size, that is really his or her own, even if it’s only a small part of a shared space. Within your own space, you generally feel more secure and in control.
- Physical space reinforces habits. For example, using your bed primarily for sleeping makes it easier to fall asleep there than elsewhere and also makes it not a good place to try to stay awake and alert for studying.
- Different places create different moods. While this may seem obvious, students don’t always use places to their best advantage. One place may be bright and full of energy, with happy students passing through and enjoying themselves, a place that puts you in a good mood. But that may actually make it more difficult to concentrate on your studying. Yet the opposite, a totally quiet, austere place devoid of color and sound and pleasant decorations, can be just as unproductive if it makes you associate studying with something unpleasant. Everyone needs to discover what space works best for himself or herself, and then let that space reinforce good study habits.
Choosing Your Study Place
Begin by analyzing your needs, preferences, and past problems with places for studying. Where do you usually study? What are the best things about that place for studying? What distractions are most likely to occur there?
The goal is to find, or create, the best place for studying, and then to use it regularly so that studying there becomes a good habit.
- Choose a place you can associate with studying. Make sure it’s not a place already associated with other activities (eating, watching television, sleeping, etc.). Over time, the more often you study in this space, the stronger will be its association with studying, so that eventually you’ll be completely focused as soon as you reach that place and begin.
- Your study area should be available whenever you need it. If you want to use your home, apartment, or dorm room but you never know if another person may be there and possibly distract you, then it’s probably better to look for another place, such as a study lounge or an area in the library. Look for locations open at the hours when you may be studying. You may also need two study spaces—one in or near where you live, another on campus. Maybe you study best at home but have an hour free between two classes, and the library is too far away to use for only an hour? Look for a convenient empty classroom. Choose a pleasant, quiet place for studying, such as the college library.
- Your study space should meet your study needs. An open desk or table surface usually works best for writing, and you’ll tire quickly if you try to write notes sitting in an easy chair (which might also make you sleepy). You need good light for reading, to avoid tiring from eyestrain. If you use a laptop for writing notes or reading and researching, you need a power outlet so you don’t have to stop when your battery runs out.
- Your study space should meet your psychological needs. Some students may need total silence with absolutely no visual distractions; they may find a perfect study carrel hidden away on the fifth floor of the library. Other students may be unable to concentrate for long without looking up from reading and momentarily letting their eyes move over a pleasant scene. Some students may find it easier to stay motivated when surrounded by other students also studying; they may find an open space in the library or a study lounge with many tables spread out over an area. Experiment to find the setting that works best for you and remember that the more often you use this same space, the more comfortable and effective your studying will become.
- You may need the support of others to maintain your study space. Students living at home, whether with a spouse and children or with their parents, often need the support of family members to maintain an effective study space. The kitchen table probably isn’t best if others pass by frequently. Be creative, if necessary, and set up a card table in a quiet corner of your bedroom or elsewhere to avoid interruptions. Put a “do not disturb” sign on your door.
- Keep your space organized and free of distractions. You want to prevent sudden impulses to neaten up the area (when you should be studying), do laundry, wash dishes, and so on. Unplug a nearby telephone, turn off your cell phone, and use your computer only as needed for studying. If your e-mail or message program pops up a notice every time an e-mail or message arrives, turn off your Wi-Fi or detach the network cable to prevent those intrusions.
- Plan for breaks. Everyone needs to take a break occasionally when studying. Think about the space you’re in and how to use it when you need a break. If in your home, stop and do a few exercises to get your blood flowing. If in the library, take a walk up a couple flights of stairs and around the stacks before returning to your study area.
- Prepare for human interruptions. Even if you hide in the library to study, there’s a chance a friend may happen by. At home with family members or in a dorm room or common space, the odds increase greatly. Have a plan ready in case someone pops in and asks you to join them in some fun activity. Know when you plan to finish your studying so that you can make a plan for later—or for tomorrow at a set time.
Student Responses
College administrators and professors, like the one in the earlier video, may have their own ideas about what constitutes good study space. But what do students say? Below are comments from several students about their favorite “go-to” study spots:
Jared: I like to take my laptop into the Alley Café and use the wifi while I write papers and work on homework. It’s in a nice spot and there’s always people around. I need my caffeine and some noise around me so I don’t fall asleep. Recently I’ve been using the library. It’s quieter, but I meet other students there and we use the group study rooms. We work on group projects. I like being around other people when I study.
Butch: I like to study on a picnic table in the garden outside my apartment. Sometimes I just park myself on the grass. But I tend to get distracted outside, so my second favorite place to study is the library. I used to hate libraries because I didn’t like how quiet they were, but then I realized I can actually get work done there.
LeeAnne: The library is my go-to. If I need sources for a paper, the staff help me find articles with their online services. There is a wide selection of books, too, but if I can’t find something the staff will order it through a different school or library. Sometimes the space gets crowded, like during exam week, and it can be hard to find an open computer. But it’s comforting to see I’m not the only student doing a paper last-minute.
It’s not surprising to find that there are some recurring student favorites when it comes to good study environments. The following locations are all-time winners:
- Campus Library
- The Tutoring Center
- Campus Lounge
- An empty classroom
- A study partner’s house
- A community center
- A community library
Family and Roommate Issues
Sometimes going to the library or elsewhere is not practical for studying, and you have to find a way to cope in a shared space.
Part of the solution is time management. Agree with others on certain times that will be reserved for studying, agree to keep the place quiet, not to have guests visiting, and to prevent other distractions. These arrangements can be made with a roommate, spouse, and older children. If there are younger children in your household and you have child-care responsibility, it’s usually more complicated. You may have to schedule your studying during their nap time or find quiet activities for them to enjoy while you study. Try to spend some time with your kids before you study, so they don’t feel like you’re ignoring them.
The key is to plan ahead. You don’t want to find yourself, the night before an exam, in a place that offers no space for studying.
Finally, accept that sometimes you’ll just have to say no. If your roommate or a friend often tries to engage you in conversation or suggests doing something else when you need to study, just say no. Learn to be firm but polite as you explain that you just really have to get your work done first. Students who live at home may also have to learn how to say no to parents or family members, just be sure to explain the importance of the studying you need to do! Remember, you can’t be everything to everyone all the time.
Avoid Multitasking
Multitasking is a term commonly used for being engaged in two or more different activities at the same time, usually referring to activities using devices such as cell phones, smartphones, computers, and so on. Many people claim to be able to do as many as four or five things simultaneously, such as writing an e-mail while responding to a text, and reading a tweet, all while watching a video on their computer monitor or talking on the phone. Many people who have grown up with computers consider this kind of multitasking a normal way to get things done, including studying. Even people in business sometimes speak of multitasking as an essential component of today’s fast-paced world.
It is true that some things can be attended to while you’re doing something else, such as checking texts while you watch television news, but only when none of those things demands your full attention. You can concentrate 80 percent on the text, for example, while 20 percent of your attention is listening for something on the news that catches your attention. Then you turn to the television for a minute, watch that segment, and go back to the text. But, you’re not actually watching the television at the same time you’re texting; you’re rapidly going back and forth. In reality, the mind can focus only on one thing at any given moment. Even things that don’t require much thinking are severely impacted by multitasking, such as driving while talking on a cell phone or texting. An astonishing number of people end up in the emergency room from just trying to walk down the sidewalk while texting!
“Okay,” you might be thinking, “why should it matter if I write my paper first and then text or do them back and forth at the same time?” It actually takes you longer to do two or more things at the same time than if you do them separately, at least with anything that you actually have to focus on, such as studying. That’s true because each time you go back to studying after looking away to a message or tweet, it takes time for your mind to shift gears to get back to where you were. Every time your attention shifts, add up some more “downtime” and pretty soon it’s evident that multitasking is costing you a lot more time than you think. And that’s assuming that your mind does fully shift back to where you were every time, without losing your train of thought or forgetting an important detail. It doesn’t always.
The other problem with multitasking is the effect it can have on the attention span and even on how the brain works. Scientists have shown that in people who constantly shift their attention from one thing to another in short bursts, the brain forms patterns that make it more difficult to keep sustained attention on any one thing. So when you really do need to concentrate for a while on one thing, such as when studying for a big test, it becomes more difficult to do even if you’re not multitasking at that time. It’s as if your mind makes a habit of wandering from one thing to another and then can’t stop.
Researchers have found that multitasking increases production of the stress hormone, cortisol, and the fight-or-flight hormone, adrenaline. These hormone level increases can cause the brain to literally overheat, which leads to foggy mental processing. So multitasking while studying for a final exam might not be a good idea.
Multitasking also taxes the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that integrates information. Your capacity for problem-solving decreases with the number of tasks you try to perform at the same time.
The lesson here is to stay away from multitasking whenever you have something important to do, like studying. If it’s already a habit for you, don’t let it become worse and make an effort to concentrate on one thing at a time. Manipulate your study space to prevent the temptations altogether. Turn your computer off, or shut down e-mail and messaging programs if you need the computer for studying. Turn your cell phone off, if you just tell yourself not to answer it but still glance at it each time to see who sent or left a message, you’re still losing your studying momentum and have to start over again. For those who are really addicted to technology (you know who you are!), go to the library and don’t take your laptop or cell phone.
What about listening to music while studying? Some don’t consider that multitasking, and many students say they can listen to music without it affecting their studying. Studies are inconclusive about the positive or negative effects of music on people’s ability to concentrate, probably because so many different factors are involved. But there’s a huge difference between listening to your favorite CD where you can’t help but sing along and enjoying soft background music that enhances your study space the same way as good lighting and pleasant décor. Some people can study better with low-volume instrumental music that relaxes them and does not intrude on their thinking, while others can concentrate only in silence. Some people are so used to being immersed in music and the sounds of life that they find total silence more distracting; such people can often study well in places where people are moving around. The key thing is to be honest with yourself: if you’re actively listening to music while you’re studying, then you’re likely not studying as well as you could be. It will take you longer and lead to less successful results.
What are your thoughts on multitasking? How does it affect your productivity? The following video, from the University of British Columbia, features students talking about multitasking. Does it exist? Is it effective?
Managing Technology
The perceived need to multitask is driven largely by the technology takeover of recent years. Smartphones, email, social networking, Instagram, Twitter . . . all make multitasking seem both necessary and possible. They all require switching in and out of a line of thinking. With these technologies, we face constant information overload and distraction.
Becoming More Productive
How can we become more productive with our time and energy, given our tendency to multitask? Read the tips below:
- Try “batch processing”: Have set times during the day for checking and responding to emails and texts.
- Use checking your phone as a reward for completing an item on your to-do list.
- Use concentrated time: Block off time for working on just one task.
- Leave your phone in your car. Then, take a break and check your phone, getting outside and getting a little exercise while you do it.
- Do what’s most important first: Make goals for the day and accomplish them. The sense of achievement can help you resist anxiety-driven multitasking.
- Turn off your social media alerts on your phone.
- Set your phone to “Do Not Disturb.”
- Set auto-response text messages to respond to people while you are studying.
- Use television, video games, etc. as a reward at the end of the day.
- Set a time when you are surfing the web, so you don’t spend hours going down the internet rabbit hole.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- A well-planned study environment supports an effective study session.
- Choose a study space that is easily available and that you associate with studying and learning.
- Keep your study space and your materials organized.
- Multitasking isn’t as productive as it sounds. It actually takes longer to do two things at once than to do each of them on their own.
- Multitasking often leads to mistakes and poorer quality work while increasing stress.
- You need to have a clear plan in place for managing your technology. Try having set times to check your phone and put your phone on Do Not Disturb during your study sessions.
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL
- Getting and Staying Organized. Authored by: Heather Syrett. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION
- College Success Provided by: University of Minnesota. Located at: http://www.oercommons.org/courses/college-success/view. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
- Your Physical Environment in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/your-physical-environment/. License: CC BY 4.0