By Rachel Garvey
Do you know that feeling when you wake up on a Monday morning, the warmth and familiarity of your bed begging you to stay and to not disrupt the warmth that radiates under the covers? It’s a good feeling, but then once slip into the half awake and half-asleep stage your mind wanders a little to that pending essay that is due in a couple of days. Before you know it, you’re up letting the cold air embrace your skin and your duvet is left lying there, crying out for you to come back as you get ready to pay a visit to the library in college. It’s an awful feeling isn’t it?
I have always been the student to complete her college work in the library, seeing other students stress over their pending work makes me feel like I’m not alone. It’s almost as if being in the same work space with other hardworking students alleviates your stress a little more. I think it’s the fact that we are surrounded by books and the sound of turning pages and fingertips tapping away at laptop keyboards that get us in the zone to work on assignments. Then there’s the temptation to check your phone every so often to see who’s in college or who’s still in the warmth of their bed, followed by the occasional contemplation of “is college really worth it?” Nonetheless, we gently put our phone down, as to not make noise, and continue with our work. We get into this comfortable routine in the library of setting up laptops, taking out necessary notepads and books, browsing the shelves for the books we need but can’t find and, of course, occasionally checking up on social media.
That is a routine we can deal with daily. I have tried both at home and the library in terms of where is best to get work done, the library won! While conducting my little experiment at home I found there were far too many distractions. I learned that writing an essay in your room has the distraction of your bed and the temptation to jump in and fall asleep under the duvet, the sitting room has the TV, it just stares at you and awaits to be turned on, the kitchen has the fridge and the fridge is the biggest distraction of all. Shelves upon shelves of delicious food call out to get your attention while you are sitting at the kitchen table with your head in your hands, stressing over your ongoing essay. The cries of “eat us” are too much for you, so you break concentration and grab anything edible and before you know it, you’re in the sitting room with your feet up on the chair and stuffing your cheeks with sweets while watching Netflix. I will admit I am guilty as charged for doing that on more than one occasion.
At least in the library there is no fridge to go to, no TV to sit in front of and no bed to crawl into and fall asleep in. So, there you have it, if you want to get work done then please go to the library where distractions only bring you towards checking your phone every so often and not binge watching the new Ted Bundy series on Netflix. Home is great and all, but there is a reason why home is home and the library is the library.
Image: Sharonlflynn [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] via Wikimedia Commons