Single Study Space

As I discussed above, the advantage of a single study space is that you can use it to minimize distractions and maximize focus. You can make the space quiet, without the distractions of television, your phone, other people, or perhaps even the internet. You can customize to your temperature and lighting needs to create an optimal space for you to be able to pay attention for a longer period of time.

It is true that in order to encode information, we must attend to it. If you are the type of person who is easily distracted and cannot focus in the midst of distraction, then it is true that these recommendations probably make good sense for you. However, we’ve also talked before about the complicated effects of distraction on memory. It turns out that the extra effort that you put into learning something in the midst of distraction can actually be helpful, particularly if you’re working on material that isn’t too hard to learn. The more difficult the material, the less the distractions create extra effort and the less that they matter.

This knowledge still doesn’t help us to determine if you should use a single study space or multiple. It is possible that you could choose a single study session that involves an element of distraction. For example, maybe you could find the perfect spot at a local coffeehouse that has similar elements as those above – good lighting and temperature, no television, leave your phone at home (and plenty of coffee!). The question is still whether it would be better to have one spot that is your ideal place for studying or to study in lots of places, so let’s look at the latter…