Kylie Drunasky | Writer
September 25, 2024
With school back in session, student’s daily schedules have changed dramatically. Sleep schedules go from staying up late with friends, to staying up late to study for exams and waking up early the following morning. Lazy afternoons that require no tasks that demand attention turn into hours of assignments and studying. There is the dreadful feeling of not knowing where to start and that the amount of work that should be finished is almost not possible. The pressure builds up, as time is moving quicker than the rate of work getting done. Now the fear of pulling an all-nighter to get all the tasks done has become a reality because not enough focus was acquired prior to the start of the study session.
With this in mind, it is essential to be provided with the right study environment to allow full attention and productivity. On some days, students can go home to do so much homework or studying that it could take up all of their free time. This can also be due to after school activities including sports, clubs, work, and much more. With little time to spare and a lot of work due the next day, it is important to not waste any time that can be used to complete an assignment. Distractions in the study atmosphere can be a big contributing factor to why students can’t always get their work done.
There are countless distractions that can come up that students may not notice how much time is getting taken away from it. These can include the constant checking of a cell phone; persistent action of picking up their cell phone when seeing a notification come up can cause teens to lose their train of thought. Once they put their phone down, they have then lost their focus on the assignment before them. This can be avoided by keeping phones out of sight when getting homework done. A great study environment is usually quiet, as a loud background will take away total focus. To keep the overwhelmed feeling at a manageable level, having the study space organized is much better than papers scattered everywhere, making it more likely to lose papers as well.
San Clemente High School sophomore Adelaide Kipper relies on Panera for a location that is “usually pretty quiet in there so [she doesn’t] have trouble focusing and the seats close in to block out other people” which creates an area for Adelaide to get her work done without any distractions.
Evan Potwara, another fellow sophomore, makes sure to avoid anything that can interfere with his studying. Potwara enjoys partaking in extra activities after school like theater or volunteering for clubs. He can never catch a break, and when he’s done with these hobbies, Potwara must complete his overloaded list of assignments. He takes advantage of his extra time and to avoid any distractions while studying at home, Potwara will “switch around spots, or else [he] will get bored and go on [his] phone.” When trying to get work done at a coffee shop with his friends he “tries not to talk the whole time and be productive instead.”
The right study environment can be the difference between a passing student and a struggling student. The passing student can get work done in a healthy amount of time, providing more time to take apart in other activities. This makes for a more balanced lifestyle as their afternoons are not only spent drowning themselves in school work. A student struggling to maintain their work efficiency because they are up all night trying to finish is not healthy. They lack sleep, influencing their decrease in performance. The perfect study location is different for everyone, but we can all agree that it can make or break a student’s education capabilities.
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