Transform your learning space

Do you get tied up with distractions around the dining room table when you’re supposed to be focusing on work?  Or do you doze off in bed when trying to learn about something? Finding a better study space should be your quest. Consider these tips to fill your study space with positivity and style.

1. Get your space: Use the space only for studying. If your study space is your bed, you’ll be more tempted to think of (or actually) sleep. If it is possible for you to carve out a space — even a corner, a niche, a large closet, etc. — dedicated exclusively to studying, do it. Associate your presence there only with studying.

2. Setting the space: Find a good desk (or table) and chair, you want to be comfortable but not so comfortable that you lose focus or fall asleep.

Furniture: Choose a chair with good support for your lumbar, mid and upper back. An ideal backrest should be 12 to 19 inches wide, and curved to match the curve of your spine. When you sit your feet should be flat on the ground and your arms at the same level as the table. Adjustable armrests which can be raised or lowered, ensure your arms and shoulders are relaxed. The elbows and lower arms need to rest lightly on the armrests as you type or read. A study chair with a rocking motion can help you focus better and keep fatigue away. It also helps you with creative thinking.

Find a desk or table with a top that rests somewhere between your waist and ribcage when you sit at it, so that your elbows can rest easily upon it without having to hunch your shoulders forward. At the same time, you want to be able to rest your feet flat on the ground.

Lighting: If natural light is available, certainly make use of it. A study area that is too dark will not only make it difficult to focus, it can worsen eye strain. Harsh lighting, such as fluorescent light, can be bad for your eyes too. Use a desk lamp to focus light on your workspace, and a nearby table or overhead light to brighten the area.Make sure you don’t look into the light.

3. Making it yours: Make it functional to motivate.Hard-working people the world over try to find the best way to accommodate a creative and inspiring working environment in their homes. Bringing your study space with posters, signs, and photos that are important to you may help give you that boost to keep going.

Appeal to your senses, if you can add colour to your study space, keep in mind that cool colours like blue, purple, and green tend to inspire feelings of peace and balance, while warmer colours like red, yellow, and orange tend to inspire activity and even restlessness.Transforming an entire wall into a whiteboard/blackboard will create a practical and re-usable area for scribbling anything from inspiring quotes to mathematical formulas and your to-do lists.

Study spaces or home offices with an elegant atmosphere are a sum of all their functional and inspiring fun elements. Whether you will be studying from a spacious study room or working from a desk nook, the essence of your work remains the same. It’s easy to combine play and functional details in your study space design. Now work your way back to top of your class.

— The writer is the  design head (interiors), Urban Ladder.