It's getting to the time of year when I am completely overwhelmed by the number of assignments I have to turn in.
When I wake up in the morning and I am running a tally of how many words I am going to have to write and how many hours of sleep and recreation I am going to have to sacrifice to get them all written on time.
Coincidentally, it is also the time of year when my flat is so cold that being outside of my bed is almost a near impossibility, let alone being out of bed, at my desk using my fingers to type.
Studies suggest that doing anything in bed other than sleeping is generally a bad idea and a significant contributor to insomnia.
It is also exponentially more difficult to concentrate on anything other than comfort when you are wrapped from head to toe in blankets and hot water bottles.
So, if I can't study at my desk, and I can't, and shouldn't, study in my bed, then where do I go?
The library is an obvious suggestion. It is warm in there, and they have desks and books and the internet.
But it has fluorescent lighting, is full of stressed-out students wearing too much deodorant (to cover up the stench of fear, probably), and not only that but it is crushingly quiet and there are people doing real work who definitely look over your shoulder and cast judgement when they see that your word count hasn't changed in at least three hours.
The library is difficult.
Sometimes it is ideal when you want to be surrounded by a sense of collective misery and suffering, but often I don't get much more done there than I would at home.
Maybe it's because I can smell the stress and the panic beneath the gently wafting cloud of men's brand deodorant.
When I lived in Montreal it was too cold and expensive to traipse to and from my apartment to campus, but I couldn't study at home so my room-mates and I would pick a cafe and spend all afternoon and most of the evening studying there.
Cafe culture was something I didn't know I missed until after I had it.
And then I left Montreal and there is a gaping hole in my life. It's much nicer, when you're swamped, to go somewhere that smells nice, has decent mood lighting and a good supply of food and drink.
It's even great to go to cafes when you don't have study to do and you just want to work on something.
Apparently, doing work in cafes is good because your brain functions better when you have some background noise. And cafes are obviously great for background noise.
In Montreal, cafes are full of people doing interesting things.
It's totally normal to have your laptop out, or to be surrounded by books.
Studying in this environment is much less stressful because you could reasonably be working on anything, something that might not even have a deadline.
So, if you're just mucking around on the internet there's no-one to question why you are even there if you aren't studying.
What is even better about a proper public space is that when you get bored and your mind wanders, there is plenty to fixate on.
You can eavesdrop, or look out the window, read a noticeboard, draw on a napkin.
Of course, there's nothing to say you couldn't do these things at the library, but it's much more fun in a cafe.
I really wish more people would start sitting around in cafes reading and writing.
Not only because it's nice for your brain but also because it might make cafes in Dunedin stay open longer and then it would be possible to get a decent coffee after 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Millie Lovelock is a Dunedin student.
