Design: Swati Sheenum, G Shreethigha, Shaurya Rawat, Abhiram Pavithran O, and Hardhik Pinjala
This is a strange time in our history. The world is engulfed by an unexpected virus, and we are quarantined at our homes, leaving insti behind. In this new normal, we at T5E are trying to understand the complexities of the situation facing us at this point in our student lives. To this end, we conducted a survey covering aspects such as academics, productivity, mental health, accessibility, and much more.
T5E’s Quaran-time survey was conducted in the month of May among IITM students and it amassed a staggering 1177 responses in only three weeks. In this article, we present to you the survey analysis focusing on Productivity. The impact of this pandemic on the productivity of students is addressed in this article.
General effect on Productivity
A majority of people reported that their productivity has decreased during these times as compared to when they were in insti. This can be because of various reasons like absence of conducive learning environment at home, lack of overall motivation at home and mental health etc.
Satisfaction with Current Routine
As is clear 79% of the students have rated 3 or below which shows most of the students aren’t very happy with their routine. Students who have reported that their productivity has increased are the ones who have given high rating for their satisfaction with the current routine and vice-versa which is pretty much expected. The correlation between the two questions was found to be +0.48.
New Skills
As seen from the figure, 63% of students are trying to up-skill themselves. Interestingly, 79.6% of the students who said that their productivity has increased are trying to up-skill themselves. This proportion is seen to be decreasing for people who reported that their productivity has remained same or decreased. So, reduction in productivity is implying a lack of motivation to learn and acquire new skills.
Workout Frequency
77.9% of the students workout at least sometimes, with 55% of the students working out quite regularly. Only 20.3 % of students who claimed their productivity has increased said they NEVER workout which is less in comparison to 23.2% of the people who claimed that their productivity has decreased. Working out and productivity have a small positive correlation between them which implies that people who workout more often tend to be more productive to a certain extent. However, note that the productivity question compares the productiveness of students with their productiveness in the institute and does not say anything about the absolute productiveness of the students currently.
Hobbies
Students are now in their homes and can find more time to pick up hobbies. 58% of the students have picked up a new hobby or are revisiting their old hobbies. Also, people who have claimed that their productivity has increased are more likely to have picked up a new hobby as shown in the figure above. The reason for this could be the fact people with increased productivity have more time in their hands to pursue a hobby.
Household Chores
Most of the students are quarantined with their parents or family members. It is good to see that 90% of the students are giving a helping hand at home at least sometimes
The answers to this question are also correlated with the gender of the student. A higher percentage of females have answered they give a helping hand almost always as compared to males.
Before/After Time Comparisons
There is an average increase of 0.9 hours on sleeping by the students across all years now as compared to before the lockdown. Also, there has been an average increase of 1.5 hours spent on social media by students across all years. The main reason for this is the fact (along with other reasons) is that students are using various social media to connect with their friends,family etc. The amount of time procrastinating has also increased as students are locked up in homes and are using these for entertainment and recreation.
Average time spent by pre-final years procrastinating is the least which may be because of the fact that they are busy with internships etc.
There is an average decrease of 1.5 hours in the time spent on insti academics by the students across all years now as compared to before the lockdown which might be a result of various factors like distractions,mental health etc. Final years have shown a higher average amount of time spent on academics, internships could be one of the reasons for less time spent on academics for pre-final years and sophomores.
There is an average decrease of 0.3 hours on exercising by the students across all years now as compared to before the lockdown. The main reason for this is that students are quarantined at their homes. Very few have access to gyms or grounds etc. which explains the reduction in time spent on exercising.
Time spent on PoRs has decreased for final years which is expected and is highest among sophomores and freshies.
Conclusion:
Overall, majority of students have reported a decrease in productivity, increase in the time spent on social media etc., increase in time spent sleeping and decrease in the time spent on academics, exercising etc. So, if you are feeling guilty for any of these, remember that you are not alone and majority of the students are going through the same. For most of the students, institute seems to have the environment where they are at their best in terms of overall productivity. So yes, we hope everything returns back to normal soon and we are allowed to go back to our second home.
Till then, hang in there bud and stay tuned for more analysis!
