Studying with your Computer – 7 Things You Didn’t Know You Needed That Make All The Diff
- Tara Hodgson
- Mar 26, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 26, 2021
You’re studying, you have your computer or laptop open and you’re attempting to study. But … there’s just so much to get distracted by! All those games in your bookmarks bar, facebook, twitter…. all of them. So, here’s some tips I’ve learned over the last few years that make all of the difference when you’re trying to study on a computer / laptop.
1 – Take advantage of multiple desktops being a thing.
This is a really cool feature that lets you do the same thing as having multiple monitors except you don’t have to pay for it. It’s on most operating systems and to get it up on mine (Windows 10) I just hit the windows key + tab and then “New Desktop”.
Picture of the virtual desktops feature – first desktop with Spotify open, second with Snipping Tool and an image of Notion in the background, third is the New Desktop button
As you can see in the photo I have one desktop for my studying and one for my breaks. It makes me less likely to want to click on the games when I’m in the middle of studying since I can see them there in the other desktop and know they’re there for breaks.
2- Did you know you can overlay YouTube videos onto your desktop? See the picture below for more clarity on what this is like.
The YouTube page after clicking picture-in-picture Emily and the Woods – Steal His Heart (Official Video)
You go onto the YouTube video you want to overlay and right click twice which brings up a different menu and then click “picture in picture”. Congratulations, you’ve now got the videos you want floating around on your screen and can study without getting distracted by those related videos. This is also a great tool for study with me’s – having them on screen helps me a lot. You can resize and move the video anywhere on your screen too!
My Notion homepage with the picture-in-picture appearing on it Emily and The Woods- Steal His Heart (Official Video)
3 – There’s a software to change the colour of your computer display – taking away the blue glow and instead adapting it to the time of day.
I am a massive fan of this and have used it for years on all of my laptops and computers and everything, basically. Flux has made it so much easier for me to keep using my computer when I’m working on essays, I’m not finding that I’m straining my eyes as much. It does adjust colours on your screen so I’d be careful if you’re doing anything involving colours but it’s adjustable and you can disable it for an hour if you wish too.
4- Remember that earlier tip about different desktops? Well if you have more than one Google account you can have different Chrome profiles!
I use this to separate “work” and “personal”. One is strictly for uni work, and this blog. The other is for non-studying, non-academic related things. Next to the menu on the same part as the URL for the webpage you’ll see your icon – click on that icon and then manage people.
5- Learn your laptop.
What I mean by this is that all technology will have its own quirks or things that are unique to that brand/ operating system, and what you need to do is get on top of yours and what they mean.
Like I know I struggle with typing and having the trackpad on because I keep catching it, so I have a mouse and have disabled the trackpad when I’m studying. It got too frustrating to keep accidentally clicking on links and going back when all I wanted to to was read and write. If you know your laptop / yourself like this then you can hunt out ways to make these things easier.
6- Riffing on the previous tip – learn keyboard shortcuts
Some programs have different shortcuts than what you’re used to / would expect but learning these can save you so much time. I’ve stopped right clicking or clicking and dragging to undo or select all, it’s ctrl+z and ctrl+a , and it has saved me so much time. Once you start using these you’ll realise how much time you spend clicking on buttons that is so unneccessary. Learn what they are for each site or app you’re using and everything will speed up.
Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com
7- Take advantage of what’s offered
By this I mean that I can use Google Keep, Google Tasks, Sheets, Docs and more all because I have a Google account. Backing up an essay? That’s alright I can put it in my Drive and have it stored there safely, or write it in Google Docs at first.
I also have Google Assistant on my phone and always have it near me while I’m studying so I can ask questions if I need to and get replies, or set alarms and not have to slow my pace.
If you’ve got an account somewhere with many free features or other free apps then see what you can get out of it. Sometimes how useful these things are can be surprising.
Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.
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