With all of the tests and papers that professors and TAs are piling on in the last three weeks of school, it is easy to forget what college is about. Slacking off. If gazing into the horizon when a 20-page research paper is due the next day (and only five pages are done) sounds familiar, then read on and find out some constructive ways to spend your slacking time.
Many students find themselves feeling guilty if they are not constantly studying at this time of year and instead have the urge to go outside and enjoy the sun. Well, if you don’t want to feel guilty about being outside and not doing homework, then stay inside! There are plenty of games on the Internet that will surely keep any procrastinating student occupied for hours at a time.
If procrastinating or slacking is turning into a profession, and guilt is not an issue, try some games that are sure to keep that mind free of any school-related thoughts. “Snood” is always a great game to distract from the normalcy of papers and finals — mainly because it is not normal. The object is to shoot “faces” at a board of a variety of “faces.” Three like “faces” together and they disappear! The quotation marks are necessary because these are not normal faces, far from it. Ranging from round to polygon shaped heads, some have tentacles all around their heads, and some are wearing sunglasses. Not to mention, the eyes and mouths move continuously providing some interesting facial expressions. The type of play can be in five different difficulty levels, ranging from child to…evil. Which is exactly what you are if you are playing this game instead of studying. There is also a Danger level that increases with each Snood that is shot and when full, the Snoods move down. Too low, and the game is over. Time to study again!
The key to finals is denial. If guilt gets the best of you for procrastinating, try a game with a little educational value. Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) and Pogo (www.pogo.com) are both willing to aid in the quest of delaying studying with a variety of word games that make not studying fun.
From games like Crossword to Spelldown on Yahoo and Bookworm and Word Whomp on Pogo, everyone’s desire to be productive while slacking can be achieved. These games require thinking, but not about formulas or the meaning of an obscure passage in a 14th century literary work. They will give everyone a chance to practice those intelligent-sounding words that took four hours to comprehend and figure out a sentence to use them in, just to impress the ultra-smart person in lecture. And of course the words that are used by everyone all the time (like “like”).
So, just to keep occupied during the days sure to come when the sun is shining and that paper isn’t going to write itself, remember the friendly Internet that is always there to keep you at your computer. If the assignments keep piling up and school seems like it will never end, just remember that there is always a game out there to keep school and finals to driving you crazy, it just takes a little “research” to find it…and of course a couple of hours of valuable studying time.