Work/Study Environments and Productivity

My friend Josh has written a nice essay about finding a productive study environment. It's called "On the search for the ideal study environment" . I face the same problems as well. Being a student and sleeping, working, and playing in the same room can make it extremely difficult to switch modes from work to play to study. One idea that I've had lately is that I should buy a large whiteboard for my room. I think that writing a list of things to do on the whiteboard would be more effective than simply keeping a list in a text file on my computer, or on a pad of paper. For some reason, I think that the physical nature of writing things down on a whiteboard would motivate me to get things done. Perhaps I should make a run to OfficeMax tomorrow...