The Case For Saturdays

Planned procrastination not only preserved my mental health– it made me a better student.

It’s nearly the third week of school, and at this point, it’s clear that the semester is really starting. Problem sets and readings are piling up and that first round of midterms is just around the corner. Personally, this weekend crushed me with research for thesis, studying for my upcoming GRE, and of course lots and lots of problem sets.

Me after attempting my computer science problem set this weekend

There was no way I was going to put it all off until Sunday, so on Saturday after my usual run, I biked up to the library for a long morning of research. After a few hours, the silence started getting on my nerves. So I meandered over to The Motley to get a social fix, also hoping to soak up some productive energy.

Sure enough, when I got there, The Motley was packed, as usual. Students were hammering away on their laptops, sucking down caffeine, and very occasionally stopping to chat. My original intention had been to spend the afternoon just as they were: catching up on school work. However the scene around the motley made me step back and question the collective work ethic of our culture– both at the 5Cs and on a larger scale.

The truth is that until very recently, I was far from the norm in my weekend work habits.

I never. Never. Ever. Did work on Saturdays.

For me, to crack open my books or start a paper on that day was sacrilege. In fact, I often half-jokingly called Saturday my sabbath. As in ye shall do no work, so strong was my conviction that Saturdays were for rest and fun.

Now, back then, I was as far as you could get from lackadaisical in my work ethic. I was a three-sport athlete, I stayed up late every night long after finishing the required assignments so that I could study for AP tests that were months away, and I considered school my #1 priority. Does this attitude seem contradictory towards my relaxed philosophy on Saturdays? To me, they went hand in hand.

The truth is that my Saturdays allowed me to hold it together. I looked forward all week long to Saturday, when I would sleep in, go on a long relaxing run, get brunch with friends, spend the afternoon reading a novel, and maybe finish off the day with a family dinner and a movie, or else a party at a friend’s house. Sure, I would end up having to do hours (I’m talking nine or ten) of work on Sunday, but was it worth it?

Absolutely.

Saturdays not only preserved my mental health, but allowed me to be more productive when I was working. Instead of taking dozens of 10-minute long breaks to check Facebook or Instagram, I worked steadily.

So what was I doing at the library all afternoon this past Saturday? Partly it’s because my work ethic just doesn’t fit in with the culture here. It’s clear to me now that my philosophy worked for me in high school because it fit in with the relaxed, community-oriented culture of my small, rural hometown. Here, it’s hard for me to treat Saturdays as a sabbath unless I’m willing to spend the entire day alone as my friends work. Sometimes this is okay, but usually I’d rather spend time with them, chatting while doing problem sets.

Evidently the intensity of the Sunday cramming session doesn’t work for everyone, but I find it hard to believe it only works for me. What would happen if whole groups of friends collectively decided to stop working on Saturdays? What if, on a Saturday afternoon, the Motley was packed with students chatting, relaxing, and catching up over coffee sans laptops?

I think we would allow ourselves to become not only happier, more grounded people with interesting lives outside of school, but more productive and successful as well.