As the school year begins, I want to share a valuable tip that may lead to more productive study sessions. It also happens to be a reminder to myself. This edition’s focus is on decluttering.
College life is busy; no one can deny that. A busy life often leads to a cluttered life, which can lead to unnecessary distractions. I regularly find my car full of empty coffee cups because I just can’t find the time to clean it.
More debilitating than a messy car is a messy study space. When your focused work and study area is full of empty papers, cans, and food boxes, it takes focus away from the work you should be concentrating on.
Hands up—I’m guilty of this.
A cluttered life is a cluttered mind. When your eyes are constantly darting between the McDonald’s bag on your desk and last semester’s quiz, it becomes extremely hard to focus on the timed D2L quiz you’re taking.
Distractions are deadly to deep focus. Productivity increases, alongside quality of work, when you are free of distractions, from your phone, or from your environment (check out my two-part series last year on dopamine for more information on this).
If this sounds like you, keep reading for some easy tips to declutter your study space and create better focused work sessions.
Carve out 30 minutes, whether it be twice a semester or every Sunday. You need dedicated time to clean.
When the time to declutter rolls around, set a timer, throw some music in, and get to it. Your quality of work will thank you.
The easiest way to declutter is to limit clutter buildup in the first place. A valuable tip I’ve come across is the two-minute rule. If a task will take you less than two minutes to complete, do it immediately. Unless you have an absolutely jam-packed schedule, a two-minute task is not going to throw your whole day off.
When you throw away the leftover mac and cheese and get rid of the icebreaker sheet from syllabus week you make your life much easier when declutter day comes.
This might seem like a little thing but it can have major repercussions. Try it for yourself. Do a declutter day and implement the two-minute rule. You’ll be shocked at the results.
Sincerely,
A college student with a cluttered car