Creating a Study Area for Distance Learning
It is necessary to have a dedicated personal study area because this provides important benefits to the study process. It is a physical and psychological necessity for anyone taking a professional development course by distance learning, online, or correspondence studies. It creates a visible, physical, and personal location where your studies are carried out, providing support facilities for your study activities. It is a place where you go to in order to do only one thing, study. Think of it as being similar to going to your workplace, where on arrival you switch into work mode. When you go to your study area, you switch into study mode.
Where should your study are be situated. This will depend on the layout and size of your home, but there are some ideal places and some very unsuitable places. Without a dedicated study area you would need to study on kitchen tables, sofas, beds, armchairs, dining tables, in rooms that are used frequently for other domestic activities. These are highly unsuitable, as they have no professional or academic or personal development features, and are full of distractions and barriers to effective studying. An ideal location would be in a small room that is specifically for study, in the style of a home office. Some students might have lofts, garages, or basements, that could be converted. Less ideal, but still suitable, would be an area in a bedroom, equipped for study, and not used for any other purpose. This would remove you from most day and evening time domestic activity (and even if you are single, living alone, it will keep you away from the television and refrigerator). If you do have to use a kitchen or living room, then you will need to alter your studying schedule so that you are studying when others are not present in these areas. Don't try to study in the same room as others, or where there is domestic activity visible or audible. It won't work.
