So, I’m working from Starbucks right now (not such a bad place to get some work done on a Sunday night!). I had the chance of sitting next to a group of students from ASU studying frantically for their Computer Information Systems class assignment due sometime soon.
I couldn’t help but notice how they were conducting their work. First, they chose to work at the same time; there were three of them in all. That seemed to be a lot more entertaining than going it alone, but there was a significant amount of time being sucked up by random conversation and complaining to one another about the assignment. Second, they chose to work at Starbucks, where other students recognized them and engaged them in conversation, another distraction.
Just a few minutes ago, they decided that since they were hungry it would be a good idea to go upstairs to Gordon Biersch, a beer brewery (!), and get a table there to do some work (they all had laptops and planned to work there). Having been to Gordon Biersch before, I can personally attest that it’s not exactly the Phoenix Public Library up there. They’re going to a bar to get a programming assignment done?
And finally, one of the girls asked me if I knew any Visual Basic for Applications. I actually do so I offered to help. “Do you know what the code is to format a worksheet better?” she asked. That’s kind of an open-ended question, so I asked her to clarify. She looked puzzled, so I showed her a worksheet on my computer and suggested what she might mean by “better formatting”? At that point she lost interest and started looking away, so I stopped talking, she looked back at me, and said “Okay, thanks.”
Now, two or three days from now when that assignment is done, those girls will probably be busting ass all night to do the best they can and it will probably not look so good (at least based on 15 minutes of random observation).
All of this raises the very important question: To what extent is academic performance (or better yet performance in lots of things) due to raw work habits? These girls seemed plenty smart, but they wasted so much frickin’ time with the way they were working. What would have been more efficient? Either go to Starbucks alone, or go to an isolated area, pop open the book and STUDY what they need to answer, then answer the questions.
Instead, they wasted time socializing, obtaining food, and working in a popular area. They even talked about whose house they could go to because this person apparently did well on the last test and knew his stuff. So much time spent “organizing” to work, and almost no time spent actually getting anything done!
If I ever ran a University, I would require a mandatory “how to work productively” seminar for every student. That’s 4 or so hours that could save hundreds of hours over the 4-year college experience. Interesting stuff.
Well, I was working late tonight and the gentleman who came to vacuum my office discovered that I speak Spanish. He seemed so eager to learn English but spoke almost none of it that I just couldn’t resist — I offered to meet with him for two hours at the local Borders (described as “el edificio cerca del uno con las letras rojas” [the building next to the one with the red letters).
Maybe this is the kind of thing you’re not supposed to blog about, but lately I’ve been noticing that if I go into a Starbucks and order a drink, that drink is free about 30% of the time.
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