1. Netflix
You come to this screen and you are immediately enamored. If you have the time in the day, it is a great resource. Use when stressed and if you have the time. If you do not have the time, do not even let yourself type in the words in your search bar. It will lead you into infinite misery. “Oh, just one more episode”, “I’m almost done with the series” “I have the time.” Unfortunately, most of the time, none of us have time for five episodes unless you are one of those focused people that can get things done in an hour. I am not one of them, most people are not. Just, if you have shit to do don’t go on Netflix. Prolonged gratification is sometimes better than instant gratification. Watch a TED talk instead. At least it is educational?
2. SnapChat
Image via SnapChat
This will give you endless ways to make your face look different and be able to talk to your friends in strange voices and have chats with people where all your messages disappear. So, it’s a preferable way of messaging as opposed to I-Message or texting. It’s a great way to post stories complaining about life or Instagram level photography skills or whatever else is interesting. It is also a time sucker. Keeping up with all of your streaks is a stressful and often rewarding thing for friendships but it can also waste time. For a lot of these, the only solution will be to turn off your Wi-Fi or go on airplane mode and just read a book instead of looking stuff up on the internet. This way you are not so easily motivated to check notifications.
3. Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Memes, GIFs, Twitter, Youtube, etc.
Image via Smart Things
If you have not seen this picture, then you may not need advice about this next section. If you have, you definitely do. Browsing the internet for cool images, memes, videos, gifs, etc. can lead you down hours of procrastination. They are all hilarious and inspiring and relatable and sad all at the same time, they are amazing. However, they can lead you down a slippery slope of wasting hours of time on the internet. Like I said before, turn your phone on airplane mode, turn off your Wi-Fi, and read a book instead. They internet is similar to Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole, it’s interesting at first but can lead you into a whole world of stuff you never expected or wanted to find.
4. Friends
Photo by author
Friends are great. Friends are there for you when you need them. Friends prevent you from being stressed, help you to keep in touch with the world, call you out on your lies, and keep your head straight. Keep your friends. However, sometimes they want you to do things with them that you do not necessarily have time for. We have all fallen into the trap, going out with friends or getting work done? Most of the time, we chose going out with friends (or, maybe not?). It’s a perfectly natural thing, however, work in college can get overwhelming and making decisions like this too often can lead to a dip in your grades. Simple solution, make the hard choice. Disappoint your friends. Sometimes, you have to make decisions in life for you.
5. Clubs
Join clubs. They help with networking, promote issues you care about, create discussion, promote fun activities, and help expand horizons. However, know your limits. So, think about which clubs you want to join. What issues are most important to you? Make a list. Decide. You can sign up for clubs to get the emails, even do a trail run of the club to see if the club is right for you. There might be a lot of them that you do like. Prioritize. Keep options open. Keep an open mind. But prioritize. Keep in mind certain clubs’ requirements. Will you have time to meet them? Do not join every club on campus because . . .
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6. Lack of Sleep
College students cannot stress this enough. Get. Enough. Sleep. Honestly, it drags you down and makes you take naps that you never had time for. Get enough sleep the night before. Staying off the rest of these items should help keep your sleep times up and your nap times way down. While, naps are always necessary at some points in the semesters that will follow and they are beautiful things, they can waist time that you do not have. Get your beauty sleep. Do not be loud and disrupt peoples’ sleep. Sleep is a very important thing to college students and messing that up could result in conflict, which could lead to less sleep for everyone. Equal opportunity sleep for all, that is what I say. Just get enough sleep for yourself (7-9 hours are recommended) and give everyone else around you enough sleep.
7. Apps/Games
Image via Awesome Gifs
Phone games are awesome and with the better technology of the future they will only get better. This is why it is important to learn how to keep yourself away from these games. While they are similar to everything other item here, (de-stress techniques, very entertaining, time wasting, etc.) they also have the added benefit of satisfaction. You are satisfied when you win one of these games, it becomes very addicting. Try to limit yourself, as with everything on this list. The satisfaction you get from these is only attributed to your ability to quickly press a touch screen at the right time and maybe do some math. That is obviously an exaggeration, but really? Think about it? What true satisfaction do you really get from games?