Section 3-3: Visual Clutter

    Look familiar?  This is definitely NOT the recommended study environment!! 

Visual clutter can be very distracting for some people.  Visual clutter is lots of extra things laying around the environment that give your brain something else to focus on besides the task at hand. 

Your study environment is very important to your focus and your learning.  If you are experiencing difficulty with attention, one of the first places to look is your study area.  Does it look anything like this? 

Visual clutter can seriously disrupt concentration.  There are actually very good reasons to keep your work area clear and neat.  

  1.  Have room to work comfortably.
  2.  Find supplies when you need them.
  3. Avoid having to clean up to get ready to work.
  4. Minimize other projects catching your eye and taking your focus.
 Visual clutter can also come from the walls.  If you have difficulty with visual clutter, try studying as you face a blank wall, with no windows, pictures or decorations.   These things are nice if you don't get distracted by them, but the classic time-waster is staring out a window and daydreaming.  Don't let that happen to you!
iDevice icon Try This!

Let's try an experiment!  Pick something you have to learn and study half of it in your usual spot and ways. If you have vocabulary words, for example, split the list in half.  Quiz yourself after fifteen minutes of work. 

 

Now, change things just a bit.  Clean and straighten up your study area or move somewhere completely different, but minimize the visual clutter and distraction.  Avoid windows and walls with lots of decoration too.  Take the other half of your learning task and study for fifteen more minutes.  Quiz yourself and see if you do any better.

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(c) 2010 Sandy Fleming