Back at the GGJ 2018, I was actually in the middle of writing my masters thesis, but I was kinda losing steam on that front, so I instead took a weekend off to participate in the jam. This proved to be a great decision, because the feeling of accomplishment I got from making a game renewed my motivation to work on my thesis. :-)
I must say my productivity in school has gone up since participating in the jam. I'm generally a high achieving student but the lack of care the people at my school have and irrelevance of what I'm learning at school in terms of what I want to do when I leave school has caused me to lose steam. But making games, doing something I love, and talking to like-minded people has really boosted my productivity