How to study from home effectively
Studying from home can take some getting used to, especially when you’re used to coming onto campus, going to classes and studying with your classmates or friends. We’ve put together some tips to try and make your time at home more effective:
Create a timetable
This can be really helpful for keeping your studies on track. When you’re studying from home, there’s lots more distractions and its easy for procrastination to set in. If you plan breaks into your timetable, it’s a lot easier to stay focused and get work done. Break study periods into manageable chunks, and be realistic about the time you will allocate to studying each day.
Set aims for each study session
Don’t try and tackle everything you need to do in one go. Spend some time making a list of topics / tasks and work through them to make your time more productive. You’ll have a sense of achievement as you tick things off which you’ve completed!
Have healthy snacks to hand
You’ll need fuel to get through your studying and it’s good to have it to hand so you don’t have to interrupt your study time to go and look for snacks!
Set up a study area
This will help to keep your study separate from the rest of your activities and stop the lines between study time and the rest of your time becoming blurred. You could use a desk, part of your dining room table, or anywhere you can set up a work surface and chair. If your tight on space, have a study box, with everything you need so you can pack your study things away when you’re finished with work for the day.
Work to your strengths
If you’re a morning person, you might decide to start studying first thing, so you can relax later in the day. If you’re a night owl, have a lie in and get started on your work later in the day. Being at home gives you the flexibility to create a timetable that works best for you.
Check in with the teaching, tutorials and online resources – often
The subject teams have worked really hard to get all teaching to ‘work’ online. This doesn’t mean they are trying to run live sessions all the time – though some will be doing a bit of that – it’s much more about giving you the resources and opportunities to discuss through zoom tutorials or phone calls. You need to stay in touch with your Moodle, your module leaders and tutors, and your assignment schedules
Rationing your social media
We’ve all done the ‘losing half an hour to Facebook scrolling or tweet reading or Instagram ‘swiping’ thing – and while social media is a great tool for staying connected right now, it does not help us to study in a focused way. Do you need a timer to measure your breaks from it’s use, or to download an app that blocks your access for a portion of time?
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