Living on Facetime: the secret method to being productive 

Graphic by Annie Liu

The rude awakening I receive every night from my friend. 

Every school night at  9 p.m., I wake to the obnoxious trilling of my phone, disrupting an unavoidable nap that occurs right after dinner at 8 p.m, when I literally just cannot keep my eyes open. Recently, as I have taken to the shrill sound of my alarm to be more of a suggestion to get up rather than a command, let me present to you the method that is way ahead of its time: using a friend as an alarm clock. 

Instead of setting morning alarms, everyone should find an early bird buddy who will spam call you until you get up, along with personalized scolding to really revitalize you. I have used this method a few times, when we both happen to be in dire situations, as we cram some unfinished assignment from the night before for that 8:30 deadline. 

However, usually, this manual alarm clock comes in to be more handy at night. Personally, I’m able to survive my nightly horrors of the dreaded 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. homework grind, only thanks to my friend who Facetimes me. Every night, I expect my phone to ring as I roll off my bed and begrudgingly tread toward my desk to answer the phone. 

For whatever deep psychological reason, I cannot seem to be productive unless I’m being supervised. As a way to cope with this, I’ve found multiple hacks to force myself to be productive: recording a time lapse of myself doing homework, going to public spaces and when available, Facetiming with my friend. 

I answer the phone, still bleary-eyed from my nap, and our random conversations usually last anywhere from 10-20 minutes before we both start our tasks. Every hour or so there’s an occasional stress-fest session, complaining about our neverending amounts of work or crying over the traumatizing school day before we eventually go back to work. 

Group Facetimes are even more interesting. They can be very productive when in a time crunch, and studying together is a really good way to better learn information: We exchange knowledge, and I can study content I missed from my friends.

Despite all these potential benefits, Facetiming is still a reckless game to play. We sometimes accidently start taking hour breaks, and when one of us falls asleep at our desks, they wake up to the other screaming through the phone. Fun times.  

I’ve discovered that living on Facetime as a way to do homework is a quite treacherous line to walk, as it is very easy to tip over into the abyss of random pursuits, as proved by my mention of us going off task and going way off topic when we’re supposed to be studying. Yet, my very inability to focus on my own allowed me to forge deeper friendships and be simultaneously productive.