How To Optimize Your Personal Workspace For Online School

How To Optimize Your Personal Workspace For Online School

One of the great perks of remote learning is that you get to personalize your workspace to your needs and preferences. Optimizing your workspace helps you to stay energized and focused on your studies. While everyone’s needs are a little different, here are some general guidelines to get you started. 

1. Don’t Work Where You Sleep

When you’re working in the comfort of your home, it can be tempting to pick up your laptop and stay in bed as you start your work. But working in bed can hinder both your productivity during the day and your sleep quality at night.

When we use our bed for other activities, like working, reading, watching TV, etc., we create an association with wakefulness. We want the bed to be a cue for sleep, and working in bed weakens this association.

Annie Miller, Psychotherapist

If you can, set up your workspace in a room other than your bedroom. This way your body knows it’s time to rest when you’re in your bedroom and time to focus when you’re in your workspace. If you need to use your bedroom for your workspace, try setting up your desk away from your bed on the other side of the room.

2. Adjust Your Computer Screen Settings

You may be familiar with how looking at your computer or phone screen in the evening can interfere with your sleep. This effect is due to the blue light that these screens emit, which tricks your body into thinking that it’s still daytime. This blue light can also cause eye strain over time.

Since you’ll be looking at your computer for much of your work, it’s important to protect your eyes and your sleep. Thankfully, both Apple and Microsoft have recognized this need and have included a color temperature setting in their operating systems. Try experimenting with warmer color settings, especially during evening hours. 

You can find instructions for Windows here and for macOS here.

3. Find A Spot With Natural Lighting 

Creating workspaces with ample natural light has shown nothing but tremendous benefits for students and for professionals. Adequate natural light promotes higher quality mental and physical health. Students in naturally well-lit classrooms tend to have higher test scores and fewer health issues. 

Placing your workspace in front of or near a window can help you capitalize on these benefits. You may also want to consider rooms in your home that offer the most sunlight throughout the day. 

If you don’t have a well-lit room, take outdoor breaks–weather permitting–throughout the day to still take advantage of the natural benefits of sunlight. In fact, take outdoor breaks even if you do have a well-lit room. Taking a walk through nature can help sharpen your mind, improve creative problem-solving, and boost your mood.

4. Personalize Your Space With Items of Identity

Psychology research supports that we tend to work better when our workspace reflects our personal identity. So try decorating your workspace with items that you enjoy. If you’re an artist, you could print and hang some of your favorite artists’ work. If you’re into tech or engineering, you could set up some inspiring designs or models for display. 

Whether it’s Star Wars figurines, school swag, or holiday lights, you can use anything to make a workspace feel like your space. You know you’ve struck the right balance when your space feels happy and inviting without becoming distracting. 

5. Change Your Location From Time To Time

Even once you’ve optimized your personal workspace, you can still benefit from changing your environment from time to time. Simply changing the room that you study in has been connected to better memory retention.

Seek out places that suit your tolerance for noise and potential distractions. Pay attention to your mood and your productivity while you test out a new location. If you’re getting distracted, you should probably try another spot. But if you feel good and are cranking out your work, great! You’ve found a good alternative when your workspace feels a little stale. 

How Sora Promotes Healthy Habits For Online Students

Sora is a virtual high school that provides a flexible and engaging learning experience. 

Instead of bogging them down with back-to-back classes, we give our students flexible time throughout each day. This flexible time allows our students to balance their academic needs with their personal needs. They’re able to take breaks to enjoy the sunshine while working on their projects at their own pace. 

Of course, “working at your own pace” doesn’t mean that you’re not working hard. Sora’s flexibility promotes productivity. Our faculty actively work with students to help them maximize their work time. Instead of drudging through busywork, our students get to learn how to manage their own schedules in a way that helps them work well and live healthily.

Interested In Learning More? 

If you’d like to learn more about our innovative high school program, click here to speak with our admissions team.

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