Six Things College Kids Find More Interesting to Waste Time On Than Homework

Come on, I know what you’re think­ing. But the truth is we all do it. How many times have you said you were gonna study for that big test, fin­ish that project, start that assign­ment or do that pre­sen­ta­tion for class next week. Heck even when things are due the next day or the same day you still find other things to do until the last minute. Well, pro­cras­ti­na­tion has got­ten us good time and time again. Some­times it has got­ten the bet­ter and even the best of us. Whether it’s with friends or by our­selves we tend to put things off by find­ing other things to do before we actu­ally get around to it. Pro­cras­ti­na­tion is only one of the ene­mies you will have to face in your uni­ver­sity years. Are you pre­pared to face this wicked foe and taste vic­tory or will you meet your end? Here are five things that col­lege stu­dents find more enjoy­able than doing school work.

1. Watch Movies on Net­flix (or some other site)
All my friends do it, I do it, I hear peo­ple around cam­pus talk­ing about doing it. The num­ber one response is always watch­ing movies on Net­flix. It’s always there when you need it, just so con­ve­nient. That’s the way it entices you to for­get about that home­work and watch that movie you always wanted to watch. It won’t fin­ish itself but then again nei­ther will that home­work worth 30% of your grade. But which one seems more fun? Net­flix of course, because hav­ing thou­sands of movies instantly at your fin­ger­tips is much bet­ter than some research paper on the his­tory of some coun­try you prob­a­bly won’t visit or solv­ing that equa­tion you’ll never use again ever in life.

2. Watch­ing Anime & Read­ing Manga
Although a lot of peo­ple are afraid to admit it, the truth is they do indulge in the awe­some­ness that is the Asian equiv­a­lent of comics and the car­toons that stem from them. Most peo­ple are into Bat­man, Spi­der­man, Super­man, The Avengers, The Jus­tice League and what­ever other char­ac­ters and sto­ries Mar­vel and DC throw your way. Yeah they’re for peo­ple of all ages but so are the heroes and vil­lains of these sto­ries. Whether it’s the never end­ing Naruto, the ever last­ing One Piece, the cur­rent hype of Shingeki no Kyojin-Attack on Titan or some other show you can bet stu­dents in col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties every­where are tuned in to the lat­est issue (in the case of manga, man­hwa, manwa, man­hua & other Asian equiv­a­lent of comics) or episode of their favorite show (in the case of anime or other Asian equiv­a­lent of car­toons). But of course, they’re tai­lored for all ages as well while in some cases they are tar­geted at cer­tain age groups. Some shows are more child friendly than oth­ers but the more adult ones do pack a punch so you can be sure this is much bet­ter than home­work on Thurs­day night which is usu­ally release night for some shows.

3. Going out to the Club, or a Party
These days clubs are open more fre­quently. They have longer hours and are open most days of the week. Who could blame them with the influx of col­lege kids just look­ing for a break and a good time in between stud­ies. Why do bor­ing home­work when you can have fun with your friends or your sig­nif­i­cant other at that new club that just opened down the block or the pop­u­lar one you go to every Tues­day and Wednes­day night. That sounds a lot bet­ter than an 8 page essay on the imple­men­ta­tion of some algo­rithm for mak­ing your phone cre­ate playlists for your music. Admit­ting that some stuff is cool and you do end up with some­thing fun or awe­some on occa­sion that peaks your inter­est you still don’t wanna spend time on it all night or all week. Why do that when you could be out hav­ing drinks and danc­ing to your favorite song? Not sure about you but in the Caribbean it’s what we live for plus we also have the added appeal of going to jams to dis­tract us which peo­ple from the states may not have been exposed to.

4. Going out to a Restau­rant, Cafe or Bar
Who doesn’t like to grab a bite to eat or a lit­tle some­thing to drink. With so much on our plates we some­times for­get to make time for our friends, fam­ily and part­ners. We also don’t get the time to eat right or just sit down to have a meal some­times with all that’s on our plate we remain on the go. Wouldn’t it be nice to actu­ally have some­thing on our plate?…Of the edi­ble vari­ety I mean. So with that being said who wouldn’t want to take some time off and go out for a bite. Catch up on what you missed out on cause that home­work can wait. I mean it is due on Fri­day so I’ve got plenty of time. I’m sure I can make time to hang out with my best friend and try the food at that ital­ian place we always wanted to go to.

5. Play­ing Video Games or Sports
Every­body likes to play some sort of games whether it’s on your favorite plat­form or con­sole or it’s even a board game. But if you’re not an indoor type and you like the out­doors then you’re most likely into sports. What­ever your fancy you prob­a­bly spend hours on end doing it. Why? Cause you’d rather that than spend hours at a time work­ing on some take home quiz that you’re sure you can do in no time flat. I get it. Tak­ing out bad guys or mak­ing that touch­down is a lot more excit­ing and you’d rather do that than some unin­ter­est­ing task you’ve been assigned in some class.

Bonus:

6. Doing noth­ing.
Well, noth­ing at all sounds fine too. Some­times we get so caught up in every­thing we for­get to take some time to rest or we’re stressed out and need a break. Why not just lay in bed all day? It’s not like I have any­thing impor­tant to do, besides I need some time for myself. We could always use some rest so go ahead and take some. Some­times doing noth­ing is the most we can do and also the best thing to do. But just remem­ber that assign­ment due next week Tues­day. Sure the week­end is com­ing up and you just wanna sit on the couch and watch TV or lay there star­ing at the ceil­ing but don’t for­get to do what you gotta do. Catch up on that sleep though because you will need it soon enough and if you don’t you’ll wish you did take the chance when you had it.

Now that’s not every­thing col­lege kids find to do instead of their work but those are some of the biggest dis­trac­tions out there. You can find tons of other things to do that seem bet­ter than that like going to the movies, an amuse­ment park or some other attrac­tion. Just remem­ber set­ting aside time to do work is just as impor­tant as mak­ing time for fun activ­i­ties and relaxation.

View all articles by Sean R. Benjamin Jr.