Perfection or perception? The truth about productivity in Durham

Don’t get me wrong, I like “a day in the life of a university student” videos just as much as the next person, perhaps even a little too much. Watching a random university influencer’s life come together perfectly as they assemble their mixed fruit yoghurt bowl after their 6 a.m.

Pilates class is a dopamine hit I experience often when scrolling through TikTok. However, I can’t help but wonder if these videos are motivational and inspiring, or just destroying our ideas of realistic productivity at university.

The struggle to establish a routine

Throughout my first year, I have struggled with the routine of university life in such an academically rigorous space like Durham. I can just about find time to complete my essays by their deadlines and maybe go to the gym twice a week… at a push. Finding motivation as a student is hard if you’re balancing cooking, washing, deadlines, reading, and a social life- it can be easy to feel like you’ll never win. In these troubling times, I, like many others, turn to my worst enemy: TikTok.

A hit or miss algorithm leads me either to AI-generated vegetables singing and dancing, or an ultra-productive university influencer documenting their perfect Monday, and somehow the latter is more damaging (to me personally, perhaps not to the environment).

This is particularly due to the sudden bursts of motivation I get from these posts, where I too can be a student who wakes up at 5 a.m. every morning, goes to the gym once a day, eats a perfectly balanced diet, misses no lectures, completes all of her reading, and asks for no extensions; and everything in my life feels as though it’s finally working out.

Cue the “crash”. That horrible stomach-dropping disappointment I feel when I compare my pace of productivity to a stranger’s, ultimately ruining any hope I had in the first place. So, are these videos inspirational and realistic, or just another example of social media and our perception of others making us feel bad about ourselves?

Durham student perspectives

When asked about “A Day in the Life” videos, some students commented on the consumerist undertones in many of these videos, creating an unrealistic depiction of university life. Not only are influencers sometimes keen to show off sponsorships in their videos, but there’s also an emphasis on fashion, beauty products, and coffee dates.

This isn’t uncommon considering the private school reputation, but many influencers portray a privileged lifestyle – which just isn’t attainable for most. It’s unsurprising, then, that these videos can lead students to feel hopeless, dreaming of the “perfect” lifestyle. But can these aesthetic elements really count as a productive day in the life?

How do we define productivity?

Perhaps it’s self-defensive for me to say that I find these videos unrealistic, but like many life experiences, university is different for every individual. What I class as a “productive” day is certainly going to be different to another student’s idea of “productive”. It’s hard to rationalise this at a university like Durham, where most students are part of a multitude of societies and sports, all whilst studying at one of the most academically rigorous universities in the UK.

But, no matter what, we should allow ourselves to follow our own paces, listen to our own bodies and their limitations, and at least try to be at peace with the fact that Jim is in the gym at 6 a.m., while we’re still in bed (and probably will be for another 6 hours).

All of this is not to say that I don’t admire those who put themselves out there on social media and share their impressively productive university experiences. I find it can be a positive way to inspire others to increase their productivity, even a little bit.

But are these “A Day in the Life of a University Student” videos reflective of the lives of Durham University students? The algorithm has a little habit of showing us the ideal side of people’s lives and making us feel bad about ourselves and our “inadequacy”.

Remember that you never know what others are going through, and just like you, influencers will be experiencing the ups and downs of life at university, even if they don’t post about it. So, keep doing what you class as productive, and if that doesn’t work, I don’t know… maybe do some doomscrolling.

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