Not in the mood to study today? We’ve all been there. With exams and deadlines hitting every week now, we need to catch a break somehow. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with relaxing in bed with Netflix or YouTube, but if you need to feel productive in the middle of midterm season, we’ve got your back! Here are 10 ways to procrastinate so you can at least feel the satisfaction of getting something done.
1. Do your laundry
This is the first step to feeling productive. If you skipped a week of laundry just because you were too busy, now is the time to do it. Spare yourself from running out of clothes and just get it over with. I know, laundry is never fun, but at least it helps you feel more refreshed when it’s done.
2. Edit your playlists
How long has it been since you’ve updated your music? Check-in on the songs you’ve been skipping for the past year, and delete them! Don’t forget to add the new hits you’ve been listening to (in your headphones while walking around campus).
3. Organize your desk/room
Sometimes we don’t have the motivation to study because we have a bad study environment. Unless you’re lucky enough to live in Skyline and have study rooms available to you, hiking to the library to study every night is always such a struggle. Why not tidy up the study space you already have? Having a clean room makes getting through midterms much easier.
4. Take a walk
It’s easy to forget how pretty the campus gets in the spring. With the warm weather coming around the corner, make sure you take an afternoon to just enjoy the outdoors. With the cosy suburban feel and the fields of green, studying outside would be calming as well.
5. Exercise
Even if you don’t have a workout regimen, at least get a few hours a week of moving around. As much as we would like it to, walking to class doesn’t really count as exercise. Try going to an aerobics class or joining one of the many sports clubs on campus. It’s healthier and might even energize you to get back into your work!
6. Meal Prep
Take a few hours off to prep your week (or the rest of your week) because dining hall food can only get so far. If you have a craving for a certain meal that isn’t always available in Sherman and Usdan, save a last-minute delivery by making a home-cooked meal in the dorm kitchens. Or alternatively, splurge a little on a good delivery once in a while.
7. Take a shower
Showers can be underestimated sometimes. It’s your time to be away from work and just recharge. Remember those times when you’ve been cranking out an essay for too long or studying the same page of your notes over and over? That’s when you know you just need a moment away from it all.
8. Call home/friends
Call your mom. Reach out to old friends. These can be therapeutic, especially when you just need someone to talk to and not think about the stress of school. Besides, they probably miss hearing from you.
9. Clean out your inbox
All those unread emails that have been in your inbox for months need to be cleared away at some point. It’s better to do it sooner rather than later. That being said, we all know that one person with over a thousand unread emails.
10. Get your life together
Are you prepared with the classes you want to take next semester? If not, now is a good time to finalize what you’ve been looking at and figure out what you want to do with your life. Update your resume, apply to those internships, do what you need to do beyond school. Whatever you do, you got this.