We’ve all been there. There are times where you beam with satisfaction as you post in the group chat, professing to your friends that you’ve had ‘such a productive day’. Other times you’ve been guilt tripped by your peers into heading to campus for a ‘day in the library’, a ‘late session’ or a ‘few hours graft’. As students, we love the excitement of a few hours work on campus. We see dozens of social media stories from study spaces every day and hear sob stories about how the library has taken over the occasional life. Yet, surely we can avoid the hours of monotony at a desk without affecting our grades? All students engage in a bizarre culture of forcing themselves to sit in a study space when often they have no need to do so for that length of time. We need to open our eyes to the way that spending hours upon end studying on campus seems to be a meaningless source of validation for students.

Reading week has provided ample cause for reflection. As any self-respecting 4^th year should, I often enjoy a few hours work on campus in one of its abundant study spaces. But once you start working, there is nothing worse than when productivity drops and you find yourself scrolling through Instagram, Twitter and even checking the snap map if you’re feeling particularly low on motivation. It is a common pattern of events. ‘Do some work mate, you must be so bored’ your friends retort in the group chat and you subsequently drag yourself back to work, resigned to the fact that you’re clearly not as productive as the rest of the cohort. You wish you had the golden formula to be as industrious as them. They seem to spend hours on end in the library with an unceasing work ethic and you are at a loss as to achieve their efficiency.

Yet, analysing the phrases ‘you must be so bored’ or ‘slow day at work is it’ brings about a range of questions about the worker in question. If they are so busy and productive, how do they have time to be reading a group chat and replying? Since when was their work more important than yours? Time spent ‘working’ does not equate to actual work being completed and believe me I won’t be impressed by your ‘6-hour day on floor 3’. The phrase work smarter not harder comes to mind. It is quite easy to be sucked in and feel pressured to postpone an afternoon/evening of amusement because you feel like you should be doing work. Or likewise, feel guilty because clearly, you’re not working hard enough. Unfortunately, we witness this peer pressure all too often.

I would argue that everyone works in different ways and prefers different environments. Productivity is the holy grail for any student. We frequently ask ourselves ‘How can I be more productive?’ and ‘I need to stop procrastinating’ however you’re never going to be productive if you don’t really want to be working in the first place. Focusing on yourself and how you work best is the key to having a productive day rather than slaving away aimlessly at the expense of maximising university life. After hearing about other student’s days on campus, I constantly find myself questioning whether I am working hard enough and I’m sure mine is not an isolated case. Being constantly reminded about how many hours other people have worked, in a vague attempt to give themselves validation, shows more about their lack of confidence in their work ethic than it does their productivity.

Perhaps next time you are considering doing work in the library – consider the length of time you will need to finish your work. Likewise, when you see someone audibly hammering away at a laptop and feel pressured to do the same, take stock and remember that perhaps you have kept on top of your work and don’t need to drive yourself into a frenzy. Going to the library purely so you can post a story and show your peers you’re hard working? It is all too easy to be taken in by this façade. With your phone at your fingertips no marathon library session can ever be as productive as it seems.