How to Create an Aesthetic and Productive Study Space This Exam Season

Who said studying can't be a vibe?

When it comes to the yawn-fest of studying, the aesthetic of your study space is everything. Are you more dark academia or cutesy kawaii? Prefer a candle flickering by your calculus textbook while a storm rages on outside, or a super modern and minimal interior that would put the Apple Store to shame?

We’ve come up with six tips to make exam season not only a bit more attractive but more productive, too.

1. Find a location—and switch it up!

Abandon your lying-horizontally-in-bed-with-your-laptop position right now and find a space away from your other daily activities.

This doesn’t have to be where you live. Changing study locations can be a great way to hit the refresh button in your brain.

Why not head down to the local library and find yourself a little nook there? Bring your books to your fave secluded spot on-campus, or the coffee shop down the road if you need a little buzz around you.

But if you’re setting up camp at home, it’s best to be somewhere you can’t be disturbed by an annoying sibling or tempted by snacks in the kitchen.

2. Get the vibe right.

Our only warning here is not to get more carried away with study decoration than actual study.

The possibilities are endless, but let’s start with the basics.

Ensure you have some comfortable and practical furniture. This means an ergonomic chair that will support your back and not make you too restless, and a desk large enough to place all your essentials. You can grab fairly cheap furniture from Kmart or second-hand places like Facebook Marketplace.

Feng Shui is a practice that originates from ancient China and can have some great applications in study spaces. It’s all about increasing harmony, balance, and productive workflow through interior design. Here’s an entire article about how just the placement of your desk can affect your study!

(Image: Tilen Space)

Another key aspect is lighting. This German study found that students were more creative under warm light yet concentrated better under cold light.

The most important thing is that you can see what you’re doing and don’t have to strain your eyes too much. Less effort = less stress.

3. Set up the essentials.

You need to be able to access everything you need, easily. No point in having a dozen filing cabinets next to you if it takes you longer to rifle through them.

Some great ideas include file dividers, cable organisers, stationery holders, laptop stands, and sticky notes.

Keep your desk tidy for the most part unless you usually go all crazy conspiracy theory/chaotic Einsteinian genius mode and can’t help it.

4. Please ALL the senses.

Sure, you wanna make your eyeballs happy with a snazzy looking desk. But what about your ears?

Try to be critical of what sounds make you the most productive. You may love listening to the Hamilton soundtrack but can Lin-Manuel Miranda rapping 144 words per minute really make you concentrate on your English essay?

Try opting for some classical music—there are some great YouTube playlists with fantastical ‘scenarios’ to put you in the right mood.

Listening to ambience is also great, particularly for creative work. There’s plenty of apps out there including this browser one which lets you shuffle various locations and overlay them with a timer and to-do lists.

You could also go down the YouTube rabbit hole and pretend you’re studying at Hogwarts. There’s honestly nothing I want more (and geez there are a lot of these ASMR-type videos out there).

5. Use tech wisely.

You've heard the 'no-distractions', 'silence-mode' spiels. But realistically, you’re probably going to have your phone and laptop nearby.

Make them productive tools instead! Whether it be a Pomodoro timer app like Forest or a place to organise your notes like Notion, there are ways for tech to actually make study more alluring.

6. Look for some study space inspo.

While you’re not busy cramming and have some spare time, TikTok and YouTube are meccas for finding study space inspiration. Below are just a few that made me want to re-design my entire study room in an instant.

 

@jasmine.jpg

Reply to @ssushiprincess101 little desk tour (: #studyspace #desksetup #nursingstudent #studytok

♬ dreaming of you - anythingfor.selenas

@thatlawstudent

should I make a linktree for everything I got for my study space? #student #law #uobirmingham #uob #study #studygram

♬ original sound - Rusha Sen

@andotherlawstories

05.01.2021 ✨ #darkacademia #studynotes #studying #lawschool #studystudystudy #lawstudent #lawlife #studywithme #studyspace #studygram #studyspo

♬ Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood

Above all, inject a bit of your personality into your space. It’s important that you can feel both comfortable and energised at a time when stress levels might be at an all-time high.

When you stop thinking about sitting down to study as a boring and miserable task and instead as an opportunity to escape and even enter another world, you may not even dread it anymore.

Now go forth and make your study space an absolute work of art.Image Header: Marta Dzedyshko via Pexel