Streaming shows, movies, and videos on the internet have been a plague to my GPA efforts in previous years. YouTube rabbit holes, seasonal anime, Netflix binges - you name it. These have been the number-one source of wasted time during school for me.
This post is about how I've come to manage this habit without cutting it out of my routine at all.
Set a time limit
I'm the type of person who becomes obsessed with things that I've taken interest in. This translates to academic doom when that obsession happens to be a series.
So, one of the solutions that I came up with is a streaming schedule.
Allotting specific blocks of time in my day/week to allow for a guilt-free, long, lazy binge. By organizing my commitments around this scheduled downtime, I can effectively prevent my lack of control when it comes to streaming shows/movies from impacting my academic performance.
Make a queue
I've found that watching multiple shows at once can keep me watching, say, Netflix, for many more hours at a time than if I were only to be invested in a single show.
Keeping a queue for all of the shows I want to watch and only allowing myself to watch one at a time really helps. I get bored of streaming much sooner when I'm only watching one thing.
Which sort of brings me to my next idea...
Stay on one platform
The same principle applies here. I can't be allowing myself to jump onto YouTube after getting bored of Netflix.
By limiting my platform usage, I limit the amount of content that I can consume. This leads to me reaching boredom sooner than later, and, hopefully, moving onto more productive activities as well.
How much time do I allow myself
I usually allow myself about 1.5-2 hours on weeknights to watch movies, shows, YouTube, or whatever I'm into at the time. For weekends, I schedule 4 hours, which are usually broken-up throughout the day.
I know it might seem like a lot, but I find it better to schedule more time for events/tasks than I actually need to. This creates more "free-time" to do other things.
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