University dormitories, as judged from their names (fr. “dormir” means “sleep”), are supposed to serve as rooms where students should take rest from their studies and sleep. However, in all but name, a dormitory is now space where students can do whatever they want, including their studies. Given the usually small size of the room, it may seem challenging, but following certain uncomplicated advice on organizing such space, it is absolutely real to make the dormitory a place where it is comfortable to not only get rest but also effectively learn. Keep reading and you will find the whole stack of those rules!
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1. Organize your layout wisely
And you can only do it in a team with your roommate. You both should decide what things you will take to the room and in what order you would like to place them to feel comfortable. Decide on what furniture you will get to the room and which layout is best for it to inspire you to do your studies. You should also negotiate this all with your roomie, to take into account his wishes and avoid any misunderstandings or conflicts.
2. Maximize your space
Dormitories are known to not be spacious so that you should put some effort to gain as much space for your assets as possible. Narrow, confined rooms are usually associated with the lack of air and thus are not likely to inspire for learning. Your brain needs more space around to get more ideas and work effectively. You can take the lacking space right from under your bed: loft it and place your wardrobe and desk right underneath. This way you will free up more floor space and your room will look more organized. However, as only the floor space will get freed up, not touching any window space, you will also have to take care of the sufficient lighting of your study space, which will be placed under the bed.
3. Get some comfortable furniture
It may seem not that important to someone, but comfort is really one of the fundamental aspects of effective learning. It is not possible to normally concentrate and focus on studies if there’s no comfortable desk or chair. Uncomfortable furniture will cause your fast tiring out, limit your productivity, not to mention possible pains in your back and wrists. To prevent these problems and make your studying always effective and painless, you should take care of your furniture.
4. Take care of lightning too
Another critical factor for good learning is good lighting. Actually, sufficient lighting is one of the elements of that same comfort. When your eyes receive insufficient light, they get strained what leads to fast tiring and you will likely postpone your studies because of that. Not only will this cause problems with your academic performance, but this also can become the reason of serious issues with your sight. To not allow these problems in your life, you should take care of quality lighting in your study area within your dormitory. Actually, you can make things as good as possible if you just move your desk closer to the window, as no artificial lighting can ever compare to the natural light!
5. Negotiate your study rules with your roommate
It is difficult to organize a convenient space for studying in your university dormitory without talking to your roommate on some critical points. Life is easier and far more pleasant without arguments, so negotiate with each other on things that you both like and things that you both dislike, respect possible disagreements of your roomie. Together you will be able to make your student life easier, but you can make use of assignment help for uni students yourself! Only this way it will be possible to set certain rules you both will respect and adhere to.
6. Get rid of any distractions
Distractions are everywhere and they are serious obstacles to successful and efficient learning. Our mind naturally looks for distractions once it sets oneself the task to concentrate and focus on, for example, writing an essay. And if your eyes can easily find what to distract on, you will be bound to waste the next couple of hours of your time on that magazine/game/photo album, etc. But you can avoid such a scenario if you take care of things that surround you in your study place.
Leave on your desk only those things that relate to your studies, and hide the rest into the desk drawers. This way you will help your attention to focus, as it won’t likely distract on other things, irrelative to the task objects. Ok, fine, but what about sound distractions, as noise can ruin any hint on concentration and focus?
Yes, noise can sometimes be maybe the worst distraction of all, and dormitories are usually full of noise. The good news is that nowadays there are means to turn the surrounding noise off! So in case if you feel yourself in your dorm room as in a concert hall, you can engage these things to turn the holy silence back to your ears: try noise-canceling earphones, earplugs. You can also find some more useful techy things in this list of the coolest tech for the dorm room by CNN.
7. Decorate your study place with orange things and plants
Feng-shui advises to use the orange color in the interior to strengthen concentration and creativity and keep oneself alerted, and researches show that plants help to stay attentive and promote creativity too. And it’s commonly known that decorating your living space helps to feel there like at home, even if your real home is far away. Just put a couple of orange small pillows on your couch in the dorm, get some easy to care for plants on your shelves or desk. This will indeed add some life, inspiration, and home comfort to your dorm room! You can also get some more advice on how to dress up your dorm room from this article of The New York Times.
University dormitories are students’ living spaces, where it is possible to do whatever they want. In these small rooms, it’s possible to read, watch movies, have fun and do many more activities that were possible to do in its own room at home. And, without any doubt, it is possible to study at your dormitory too, but should you wish to do it effectively, you should adhere to certain rules of your dormitory space organization. Try to get as much space as possible from under your bed, take care of lighting, hide the distractions from your site, and set the study rules together with your roommate. This way you will get your university living room, where it will be absolutely possible to learn for the best scores!
About the Author
Sandra Larson. Blogger, photographer, author of books. She had a bright university life during her studenthood and knows many helpful lifehacks on this topic. Sandra also proceeds to communicate with her professors and maintains awareness of the last news on today’s students’ life.
