How to optimize your learning space

11/27/2018

Procrastination in the UK costs businesses in the region of £76 billion, with procrastinating being a key reason as to why we don’t learn to the best of our ability. With this in mind, it’s crucial to optimise your space to help you achieve the results you’re striving for.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to learn new skills or simply putting old ones to good use, being in the right environment can go a long way to successfully complete your objective. Here, alongside seeds suppliers and flowering plant specialists, Dobies, we take a look at the best ways to optimise your learning space:

Make it personal

Home comforts and personal touches can really help you enhance your productivity levels. Family photos and postcards of your favourite quotes are both great visuals that can help get your creative juices flowing.

Add greenery

Greenery can also offer an array of benefits, according to studies. Plants are a great way to increase our concentration levels and lower the sensation of stress. The likes of ferns clean our air space, while the snake plant also cleans up toxins. Succulents such as a cactus are also a useful addition to your space for decoration purposes as they don’t take a lot of looking after.

Stay organised

Avoiding clutter is also essential. It’s not a coincidence that a clear desk can represent a clear mind. By ensuring that your workspace is free of unnecessary distractions, you are more likely to remain focused on the task at hand. You can do this by having a bin within reach, setting up a physical inbox for your papers, and scheduling regular cleaning times.

Be colourful

Although it may not seem like it, your space’s colour can make a huge difference. Red has been linked to boost how alert we are. It’s looked upon as the ‘colour of passion’. Elsewhere, blue can help us generate ideas and keeps us focused on the task at hand, while green helps avoid eye fatigue and stay efficient. If you were looking to keep stress levels to a minimum, you should look to include white or beige as this can have a calming effect.

Let there be light

Nowadays, we spend a lot of our time perched in front of a computer. Natural light is an amazing way to counteract any effects of sitting in front of an artificially-lit computer screen. It is also known to enhance our mood by increasing our happiness. This is because natural sunlight is a great source of vitamin D. Without this, some people experience seasonal affective disorder. By being exposed to natural sunlight, you will also have a sense of contentment thanks to the production of vitamin D3. It is suggested that a brightly lit room can encourage a critical and analytical thought process.

Choose sounds to suit you

This point will be different for each person. While some people work best in silence, others prefer a bit of background noise. Everyone benefits in their own way. Either way, a good set of headphones could be the ideal solution as they can either block out the tones around you or provide the tunes/podcasts best suited to keeping you productive. Other low-level noise could distract you from your studying or work and have a negative effect.

Have you tried classical music? Italian researchers found that this genre can significantly enhance your working memory performance, while research in the Journal of Consumer Research also found that a moderate level of ambient noise can benefit our creative senses.

Of course, we can’t provide a definitive solution to an optimum workspace. In the end, each of us learns in a different way, but by following the above steps, you will set yourself up nicely to succeed in your end goal and boost your productivity levels.