You’ve all been there. There’s an hour to kill so you decide to start watching that show your friends have been bugging you to watch. One episode quickly turns into two, and suddenly, two turns into three and by the time you come up for air, it’s 3am and, of course, you have a test in five hours! Do you study, sleep or finish those last 20 minutes of episode six? You think to yourself: why should school stand in the way of my show!
To say that college students can be prone to procrastination is putting it a bit mildly. Deadlines mean nothing… until you’re staring it right in the face with no time to catch up. What’s that saying? The first step is admitting there’s a problem? Here’s how to juggle your favorite shows with your not-so-favorite school work:
Always plan
Spread out your episodes amongst your free time. If you generally foresee a free evening in your future, plan to finish up those last few episodes of season two and maybe start season three?
Use the buddy system
A friend should be there to remind you (or for you to remind them) to press pause and go to the library so you can finish researching that term paper (as silly as that sounds).
Know your limits
As a human being with physical, psychological and emotional needs, you must realize that when you press play and you’re telling yourself “just one episode” you are realistically going to sit through at least two episodes.
Reward yourself
Sitting in your bed with your laptop for a whole weekend finishing up season two of House of Cards sounds like a great idea, but it’s really not. Be productive. Finish your work or do some solid studying and you’ll find yourself in a good place when you resume your show.
You don’t have to sacrifice your sacred TV shows and marathons, you just have to learn how to manage them and intertwine them within your day to day life.
