Study, study, study

If I've learnt anything about studying environments, it's that what works for you one day, might not work for you the next. I study best taking into account my energy needs and how my body responds to the environment.

Throughout high school and my undergraduate study life, I never studied well at home. Home was too distracting. In fact, I have no idea how I got through most of high school since I didn't really learn how to study until the study vacation period right before the HSC.

During the HSC year, some of my friends studied at the State Library and I tagged along. I found the State Library incredibly effective for me at that time because:

• It was not home
• I had energy and I was focussed
• It was an extremely quiet environment
• My friends were studying there too, so there was an element of "hey, we're doing this together!"

As an undergraduate student, I found it incredibly difficult to study at home as well, and libraries weren't so effective for me anymore. In fact, they would induce me to sleep. So I would find an empty classroom and study up a storm. I could always tell when I had studied for an hour because the lights in the classroom were motion-sensitive. They would turn off after a while. Quite disconcerting!

After I moved out of my parents' home, I found that I could actually study at home if I were focussed and had the energy to.

Well that leads me to today. I've taken this week off work to concentrate on studying for an exam on Saturday. Today, I felt really low in energy and there was just something about being at home that was making me tired and unmotivated to study.

I realised what I craved was sunlight and a hot chocolate. So I grabbed my lecture notes, and ducked out to a local cafe. I picked one that would not be too busy (otherwise too hard to concentrate and I can't sit there for too long) and one where I would have hope of getting some sunlight. And that worked wonders. Sure, it was a little bit noisy with the traffic, people about and music playing. But something about that sunlight and hot chocolate and being out of home helped to lift my energy so that I could focus and study while at the cafe.

I'm now back at home and aiming going to study through a potential post-lunch slump while my body is still revving from the sunlight.

I know in some Asian cultures, students like to study at fast-food restaurants because it is brightly lit and clean.

If I am ever fortunate enough to have my own study, I will make sure it has lots of sunlight. And if it did have lots of sunlight, I'm sure it will also double up as a drying room for my clothes!