I think a lot about productivity, and how to be more efficient when working. The most prominent challenge for me relates to University work. I've always found it easier to achieve "deeper work" (more extended, uninterrupted periods of working time) when working on side projects than when doing things for Uni. This will be a short post, but I'm writing it here as opposed to on Twitter because Twitter dot com doesn't need another Tweetstorm.
I'm in an arguably lousy habit of working on side projects while at Uni. It begins when I pull my laptop out on the bus, start working on something, and then continue that when I get to Uni. Sometimes this means spending the first few minutes of a class wrapping up said work. Later, during the next break between classes, I'll continue. Procrastiworking (doing productive work that just isn't the work you should be doing at present) isn't inherently bad; however, it does mean I'm not working on Uni work at Uni outside of time in class. I tend to do most of my Uni work at home, and I get it all done there without issue, so I guess I'm trying to complete more while at Uni.
In a hypothetical world where I only take an iPad to Uni (as opposed to the MacBook Pro I carry now), I would probably be able to complete about 80% of the work I need to. The remainder (subjects involving programming assignments) would have to be done at home, but seeing as though I already do most of my Uni work at home that would be fine. I could take notes with an Apple Pencil, access all of my folders and documents through the OneDrive (or Files) app, and browse the Internet to conduct research. iOS on the iPad has come a long way recently and is certainly up for the challenge.
In this hypothetical world, I can see things going one of two ways. Either the iPad helps with focus at Uni, or it doesn't. Sounds obvious, right? There's no decent IDE for me to open and start working on a project with, so in theory, I'd have to do Uni work. This would also apply to time on the bus. If I pulled out my computer - in this case, an iPad - the only productive tasks I could complete would be work for Uni. The second possible outcome is that I just find another way to be distracted. More Twitter perhaps? Goodness knows I need less of that in my life. If the latter proved to be correct, it would be a net loss of productivity. There would be no procrastiworking, but no additional "real work" completed either.
No conclusion has been reached here. It was just a fun little thought experiment on my last day of classes for the year. I almost certainly won't buy an iPad for Uni, but it's fun to think about different ways of working.
Even the act of writing this was a form of procrastiworking between classes. Bring on exams. 🙃