When you live in a student house, it might be hard to concentrate on your study. Housemates are constantly having fun, asking you to join or go up to you for a quick chat. Van Dijk suggests creating your own space. ‘This can be done by closing yourself off from the others and locking yourself up in your room, but it can also be done with music. By listening to your own music through headphones, you create a zone for yourself. This closes you off from the rest and might give you the concentration you need.’
Smart spacing
Instead of spending the whole day in bed, find a rhythm for yourself. Wake up, take a shower and put on some clothes as if you are going out. It sounds simple, but it is quite a mental challenge to get yourself to it. ‘I myself have to suppress the urge to work in my sweatpants,’ says Van Dijk. ‘I try to stick to my ritual, and even wear my perfume even though I am not meeting anyone. This gives you the motivation to get the work done more effectively.’
Besides getting ready to work in your room, there are more inventive ways to work. ‘If possible, try to arrange different themed rooms. For instance, make one silent room and one room where you can make and play music, for instance,’ says Van Dijk. ‘This way, you gain more concentration than you would if you were working in the same space all day.’
Video calls
‘I like to plan my Skype meetings spread out during the day. This makes me focus on my own work in between. Instead of meeting the first half of the day and working the other half, this makes you focus,’ the researcher explains. She also adds to this to make use of the ‘Pomodoro Technique’, which ensures you get enough breaks to keep your brain engaged. ‘There is a website called mytomatoes.com on which you can set a work/break timer. Personally, I use this tool a lot when doing work.’
Besides having video-calls about work related issues, it is also good to make use of it to socialize during the day. Van Dijk turns on her video-calls during her coffee break. ‘Around 10am. This is a perfect time to chat with some colleagues. I still do that now, it is even more fun.’ Besides, she adds, ‘We need to create some good memories from this time in our lives too. You want to look back thinking: ‘Remember in 2020 when we had our coffee breaks over Skype?’ It is such a surreal thing.’
Netflix
For students who are struggling not to binge-watch ‘Boer Zoekt Vrouw’ the whole day, Van Dijk suggests setting goals for yourself. She suggests to keep it to one episode, after reading 10 pages for your exam. Or writing one paragraph of your thesis before watching the final reveal of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ for the fourth time (we’ve all been there). ‘If you are not big on watching Netflix, you can still use this technique with other sorts of things. Like drinking that cup of coffee,’ she says. ‘And don’t forget to take a walk, stand up from your work-chair. Loosen up your neck from the work position.’
