Creating an Optimal Environment for Learning
1- Study in a clean, quiet and orderly room. Keep anything and everything away from where you are that may cause you to get distracted. Jumping up to read a text message on your phone or periodically checking social media is ill-advised whilst studying.
2- Turn on the light! Studying in a dark room is not recommended. Add lamps at night, or in the daytime, open the window coverings (open the window a little, too). People tend to study and focus better in a brighter, oxygenated room with little noise.
3- Turn the TV off. While many students believe that they’re good at multitasking, such as studying with the TV on or while chatting online with friends, research suggests that this is not true for the vast majority of people. For better studying performance, eliminate distractions such as TV and loud music with lyrics. Rapidly swapping attention between studying and watching TV makes it more difficult for your brain to prioritize information acquisition.
4- Decide if music is right for you. Music’s effect on memory performance varies between individuals. Some studies have found music to aid the memory performance of individuals with ADD/ADHD, while reducing it in individuals without the disorder. Classical music appears to be the most effective in enhancing studying performance. You must determine whether you’re better off with or without it. If you do enjoy listening to music whilst studying, make sure you’re actually concentrating on the material you have to study for, and not the catchy tune that’s playing in your head.
· If you absolutely must listen to music, find instrumental music so that the words in the music don’t interfere with your studying.
· Listen to background sounds from nature in order to keep your brain active and prevent other noises to distract you. There are several free background noise generators available online.
· Listening to Mozart or classical music won’t make you smarter or keep information in your brain, but it may make your brain more receptive to receiving information.