Can’t seem to focus? Do you find yourself wasting even more useful time on Facebook, Twitter or Stumbleupon? Don’t feel like studying at all?
Then why should you?
Well, firstly, you should because, well, you’re paying a lot of money for school so stop being a baby and just read over your notes. However, I’m not going to tell you all the ways you can study. I’m merely going to show you 10 things I’ve done instead of studying for my fourth year film course midterm!
1. Stumble.
· If you don’t already have Stumble, and you’re a student, you NEED to make an account. It’s free and you’ll be addicted within milliseconds. It’s way better than stalking your crushes or random acquaintances on Facebook.
· Basically the point of the website is to randomly visit various websites based on your interests, which you enter when you register.
· Once you get the hang of “stumbling” you can add or follow your friends. (it’s a tad like twitter, but better) Twitter only allows you to like and retweet things, whereas stumbling, you can send entire websites to people! Neat huh?
· To those of you stumbling veterans, there isn’t much else to say, other than the fact it is extremely addicting.
2. Clean your room. No really, I’m serious
· Now, this one seems like a joke, and at first I also thought it was. But cleaning my room was actually something I would rather do then study. I’m a writer, so, I like clutter. I like when my rooms a bit messy—not too much though! Anyways, I decided to renovate my room and print out pictures and bought some cute cheap picture frames ($4.00 each).
· Cleaning is healing for some people as well. If you’re stressing to the point you ripped out a few strands five minutes ago, chances are you need to cool off. Instead of reaching for the wine, start cleaning!
3. Buy cookies and chips…after a workout
· Now this one started off beneficial, my roommate and I decided to hit the gym since we’ve been pretty lazy the last couple of days. We had an insane workout (P90X, which I’ll be doing another blog on) and even though we worked off about 200 calories, we gained it all back with a couple Chunks Ahoy cookies.
· Chunks Ahoy pair terribly with Lay’s All Dressed chips, but did we care? Nope. We bought them both anyway. The comfort food got rid of the stress temporarily, then we ended up feeling guilty as if we never hit the gym.
4. Plan out tomorrow’s outfit.
· Yes..really. I figured, since I’m writing a midterm tomorrow, I might as well wear something cute. You never know who will catch your eye while you’re writing a test, if anyone looks up.
· I took out all of my t-shirts, jeans, skirts, you name it. Once I threw them all onto my bed I then decided my outfit and started folding each article. It took about an hour to get through but it killed that studying time.
5. Still bored? How bout some online games?
· http://www.i-am-bored.com/ the site was initially made for bored people, it’s fairly old now but it offers almost anything amusing when you’re bored. Games, movies, blogs, etc.
· Or in retrospect, check out addictinggames.com or miniclips.com!
· If none of these games get your mind off your midterm, go out to EB Games and buy Sims 3! Totally worth it, I have 3 Mansions, each with their own pool.
6. Enter Contests.
· My roommate got a good laugh out of me when I told her I registered for over 80 contests within 2 hours. They honestly kill time.
· Simply type in “travel contests Canada” and there are so many updated links and available contests! I don’t know why I never knew this before (probably because I had better things to do) But seriously! Free stuff? A free trip? That should get you in a great mood!
· My favorite contest I signed up for was Disney’s Magical Cruise. This was one of a kind, the contest was not only your information, but you had to play a game. Ultimately, it was like monopoly and it took about 30 minutes to complete. The soundtrack brought back flashbacks of Disneyland and I got so into it that 30 minutes later, I had no idea how long it had actually been. Great distraction!
· You can also enter writing contests if you want to kill even more time. There are lots of websites that have multiple writing contests for a particular region. These contests sometimes require an entry fee, but there are some free ones that are worth a try. Why not?
7. TV
· I normally don’t watch much TV because I have stuff to do. However, if I need to study or need to write an essay, I’ll watch TV til my eyes swell.
· Number one tip—watch that stupid movie on your local cable. It runs way longer than any TV show and will take up even more time than you originally wanted.
· UNLESS it is How I met Your Mother, or Big Bang Theory, those, you can watch back to back.
· A better idea is also to download VUZE on your computer (a torrent downloading program) and download the movies/TV shows so you can watch as many as you’d like without commercials. I personally like this technique the best, I’ve already watched half a season of Community (another great university show)!
8. Laundry
· No I’m not talking about GTL on Jersey Shore, I’m talking about actually taking your dirty clothes—not just a t-shirt—and wash & clean them. This takes at least 50 mins each if you want fresh clothes.
· This also is a good opportunity to take off your sheets and throw them in the wash. You aren’t going to sleep without sheets or blankets are you? It’s a way of tricking your body that you aren’t about to crash from all of the stress of your upcoming test.
9. Buy a tablet
· Sony’s new Tablet S is a great way to kill time. Like the IPad, it has an app store where you can buy almost any game and app for your lifestyle. The Sony Tablet is a superior gaming tablet that comes with free PlayStation games with more full games to buy. The tablet brings your ordinary games to life in an easy to hold way. You don’t get tired of holding the tablet because of the way it doesn’t let your wrists hang. The tablet also has exceptional high definition for movies or TV which is free on Crackle, an available app on the “Market”.
· The tablet also syncs wirelessly to any device you have, so if you wanted to browse the web but use your saved webpages, the transfer will do that all for you.
· I currently downloaded Angry Birds, I was at first not a fan of the game, and I thought it was a stupid concept. Now, I play it on the screen for hours at a time because I feel like I’m living in the game.
10. Sleep.
· This one is rather obvious, and it is what I’m about to do. Although I gave up on studying for my midterm long ago I am still awake, procrastinating. Instead of resting before a test, I’m up doing all these pointless things.
· I encourage students to buy some Melantonin, if you don’t already have some. (THE ONLY NON ADDICTIVE SLEEPING PILLS) The extra strength works wonders when you have too much on your mind. I have the jet-lag ones, and they knock me out within 15 minutes, it’s heavenly. Warning precaution though: make sure you sleep at least 8 hours or else you will be super groggy in the morning!
With that being said, I’m off to sleep, completing the final thing I’ve done to procrastinate this midterm.
Happy writing those tests!