Top 5 Ways College Students Waste Time

You're finally on your own and living away from home in college. But with your parents not there to monitor you, bad time wasting habits can set in really fast. The following are five time wasters for college students to avoid.

1. Sleeping In late - Sleeping in is pretty typical for college students who don't have classes on a certain morning or are recovering from a party or an all-nighter. Without parents to wake you up, no one's stopping you from sleeping in until noon. By sleeping in until nine a.m. instead of noon, you can save an extra three hours for doing laundry or getting part of an assignment done. Not to mention, you'll feel more refreshed instead of groggy from oversleeping.

2. Dead time before going out - This is a big one that many college kids make a mistake on. If you and your friends hang out at night, maybe you can get in a couple hours of work before you decide to go out or party. In college, most parties don't start until 10 or 11, so lounging around in the early evening seems unproductive. Even if classes are done and you have plans for the night, that doesn't mean you can't get a chunk of homework done in the meantime. After all, you aren't missing out on any fun yet.

3. Excessive napping - It's easier than you think it is to fall asleep at two in the afternoon and wake up at eight o'clock at night. Yes, naps feel great, but if you don't set that alarm, you can oversleep and mess up your sleep cycle. If you pulled an all-nighter the night before and absolutely need a nap, limit it to two hours, and save the rest for a good nights sleep.

4. Internet procrastination - Facebook, Youtube, and Hulu are notorious for distracting college kids from their work. It can start from simply updating your Facebook status, to seeing an interesting post in your newsfeed, and then having a long conversation on instant messenger. When a friend recommends a video or TV episode, it's too easy to get into a time wasting spiral of seeing one video after the other. Save these sites for after your homework is done, and you'll enjoy them much more.

5. Wasting time in between classes - Think that one hour block between your first and second class is not enough to get started on homework? Think again. You could get a solid page of an essay done or a few solid paragraphs if you write slower. By staying on top of smaller assignments in short time windows, you keep them from building up on top of your larger assignments.

The way to maximize your productivity in college while keeping stress down is to fill in the dead time. You don't have to be a workaholic or sacrifice a night out with friends to get homework done. The idea is to just be more efficient with your time.