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Gaming is the ideal chill activity. You just need a console, a smartphone, or a PC, your friends, and some snacks, and you are good to go for hours. It is, in fact, so good that WHO has recognized addiction from gaming as a mental health concern among the youth. What starts as a fun activity in college with friends could quickly become a real problem that young people need to curb before it ruins their lives. This is especially true when you compromise your grades for a few games.
Quick note; gaming is okay when you can control it, as is everything in moderation. It only becomes a problem when everything in your life, including exams and essay writing, becomes secondary.
Here are four ways you can find some balance between gaming and education.
Set a Limit
When you start playing video games, you easily lose track of time. What begins as a one-hour activity ends four hours later, eating into your bedtime and significantly compromising the state of your mind the next day. It would help to set a timer and have enough discipline to stick to it. Once the time is up, allow yourself to shut things down and pick up the next time. You could also set limits for the week, especially if/when addiction starts crippling. Finding other more productive ways to spend your time alone or with friends could reduce your reliance on gaming while in college.
Asking for Help
If you must play a number of games each evening, you want to ensure there are plans to prevent you from slacking at school. Assignments have to be completed and so you could work with professional custom assignment writers to ensure that part of the coursework is covered even as you game. A company such as Paperleaf removes the need to worry about undone assignments, leaving you some time to catch up on gaming, either alone or with friends. But even with such a service working with you, you still want to watch out for addiction.
Prioritizing and Using Gaming as a Reward
You can balance studies and gaming when you know what’s more important to you. Since the goal for being in college is studying, you want to ensure that the best part of your time is spent on education. You could hire an essay writing service, but you still need to make time for classes and read enough to get the grades you want. That means getting enough sleep and working out too to be an all-around, healthy student. You can use video games as a form of reward when you hit your milestones.
Explore the Outdoors
Gaming mainly happens indoors, and so when you explore what else is outside, you spend less time alone at home or in your dorm room. This simple action eliminates the temptation to play at all times if you use a console or PC. If you’re a mobile gamer, choosing to do other productive things without necessarily shutting down your phone helps establish discipline. When you take this route, you hit two birds with one stone; make friends and focus on what’s important since your time is occupied with more productive things.
Establish a Healthy Relationship with Gaming
You want to approach gaming with intention because enough people find themselves addicted and quite helpless, even after college. In the beginning, you want to approach this activity with the full knowledge that too much of it can lead to dependency. You could combine it with other fun activities such as cycling outdoors with friends or joining college clubs. Since you will have enough activities sharing your time, you’ll have to manage your time better. You are also likely to be too tired at the end of each day to stay up late playing games. You don’t have to stop completely; you just have to reduce the time you spend on video games.