Imagine the sound of the pouring rain outside the gothic wooden window, the smell of freshly ground coffee, and you reading a book in the quiet spot of the nearby cafe. Or, maybe, it is not a cafe shop but your room, and it is not the rain but your cat soundly purring in your lap. Use this article not just as a list of the warmest study spots but as an inspiration for studying. Cause what I am going here is taking you with me on my little study session! Get comfy, and let’s go to my favorite place. All the locations in this article are in New York. But if you live anywhere else, I encourage you to make your own map of the best places to study!
1. Coffee Shops
Right now, I am sitting in the Marlton Espresso Bar. My headphones are pumping “The Wisp Sings” by Winter Aid into my ears, and I am writing a peer response about nostalgia marketing. I usually search for study cafes near me and sometimes go for a little adventure to buy a cup of flat white in another part of the city. In the warm pastel light and beautiful old-money style lobby, I feel like an aristocratic lady of the nineteenth century, and I adore this feeling. Working from such places deserves to be one of the points of “How to study easily”.
Photo by Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash
2. Library with Floor-to-Ceiling Windows
Okay, now we change the playlist to Adele’s songs and search for the comfortable library. You can have any other particular preferences for the library interior; full-size windows are just my small (large!) passion. For instance, I like the 96th Street Library; it is quiet and not crowded, as the New York Public Library sometimes is. And yay, here are the perfect floor-to-ceiling windows that get me the cozy feeling of being secure inside but observing the weather outdoors.
My advice is to listen to your gut and preferences. For instance, for me, there is a thing about floor-to-ceiling windows. Any place where I can sit in the comfort of warmth and decent lighting yet observe the street is perfect for me.
3. Well-Supplied Home Working Space
When I settle into a new place, I need my chair and table to have the right size and the lighting in the room not too dull or bright. It takes time to arrange your ideal workspace, but when you are done, that is an incredible feeling! My room now has all my books marked and sorted by topics and the whiteboard with my schedule hanging near the table. Your personal space is perfect for work with no stress because nobody knows you better than you do.
Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
4. College Lounge Zone or the Nearby Coworking Space
I love the idea of college friends and people helping each other with boring routine tasks! One such good place to study near me is a coworking where I found two studying mates. Jake and Elis help me revise the material and learn new information faster and easier. We take turns questioning each other “What was the last paraph you read about”. The funniest part is the after-study game we invented. We all study completely different topics, and thus after a study session, we try to build a hilarious new topic out of all the material we covered that day. Can studying be fun? You bet!
5. Park
When I search for the best study spots near me, I usually look for a few criteria. First, the place must be comfortable to sit and have a laptop on my lap or somewhere on the flat surface. Second, it should be calm, preferably quiet, and good-looking. Parks of any place with water nearby, such as small rivers or large dams, work nicely for me. It is a perfect inspirational location to prepare for an exam or write an essay.
Photo by Vadim Fomenok on Unsplash
6. Museum or Art Gallery
Okay, this one is not for everyone. I know that not all museums have free seats and that such places may be crowded. It is also sometimes embarrassing if the security officer carefully observes you to ensure all museum items are secure. However, some museums or art galleries are adapted for long-time observations. There are seats near the pictures, so visitors can explore them in no hurry. Such places are priceless studying spots for those with majors in arts, architecture, or design.
7. Your Friend’s Place
In Japan, we do not have a well-developed culture of sleepovers, staying at a friend’s place overnight. It was a pleasant discovery for me here in the U.S. Staying in your close friend’s place for studying is pretty much the same as casual hanging out, but you also get the work done!
A good place for studying should meet two major criteria: be comfortable and pleasurable. A supportive environment is the #1 premise for catching the “flow” process.
8. Empty Classroom
An empty classroom is one of the options if your campus does not have a special lounge zone, but please check twice cause most likely, it has one. However, your university definitely has classrooms where you feel more comfortable than in others. Is it your music class, where the large piano elegantly stands among thin, graceful violins? Or is it your art class, with scrolls of paper and random brushstrokes all scattered over the place? Regardless of your choice, there is an unforgettable and unreal feeling of an empty classroom after the classes.
9. Long Trip
This option is for you if you do not feel sick while riding. Long car, train, or metro trip is perfect for listening to an audiobook, refreshing your memories with flashcards, or brainstorming the project’s ideas. I like seeing the trees flickering through the car window. It makes my brain go in some sort of beta wave or whatever it is. Such a state of mind is always relaxing and insightful, which makes trips a good time for studying. I always read something when I travel back to Japan cause sometimes homesickness becomes unbearable.
Photo by Will Tarpey on Unsplash
What Factors to Consider When Choosing a Place to Study
Although the “comfy and cozy” thing is subjective, I have some universal recommendations:
- The place should be quiet
- Make sure your presence does not disturb anyone
- It should be safe (for instance, no study campings anywhere near the road)
- It should be sustainable for you for at least a few hours (consider the weather changes or the availability of the outlet for charging your devices)
I hope this little top-9 of comfortable spaces for studying got you some motivation and inspiration for your next session! Grab your friends or at least a cup of coffee and join me in our collective millennial-Gen Z adventure of romanticizing our lives.
