I’ve lived in ORN during my coaching days before Covid hit and since then I’ve been preparing from home.
I generally advise against it since now one can prepare from their home easily kudos to most things going online.
However, ultimately it depends on what frame of mind one is in. Some people work well in a challenging environment, which ORN will give you definitely: food, living, rent, water, weather, loneliness etc, you’ll get all these and more in abundance. On the other hand, it also provides you easy access to materials, opportunity to give tests in a ‘realistic’ environment, access to teachers etc.
I’ve observed that a person who isn’t at ORN generally wants to go there primarily due to the ‘environment’ factor and those who are at ORN yearn for home.
Last time I gave my tests from home, minimal challenging conditions and didn’t face any problems while attempting the actual mains paper. While it’s different for everyone, I personally didn’t feel the need to go give the tests at institute premises despite living only a reasonable distance away. This time however I’m thinking of giving at least a few tests in person to improve on the spot thinking abilities.
So in the end, if you shift, it’ll be a challenge surely but achieving something requires sacrifices. If you feel you’re unable to go the extra mile at home, shift and just ignore the challenges. If you can study at home effectively and you feel you require your family’s emotional support and comfort, you won’t be missing on too much. In that case, a month before mains you could come down for a couple of days and attempt 2 tests each on consecutive days to gauge your performance and adapt accordingly.
Discipline ultimately is a mental choice and moving to ORN wouldn’t magically inculcate that and neither would staying at home keep it elusive. For tests I’ve felt procrastination comes from the feeling of not being adequately prepared so for that I’d just say, no one feels adequately prepared even on the eve of the actual exams.
I don’t want to complicate the decision isliye just do what the heart says :)