LINDSEY BOERMA
Living Assistant
As students begin to get back into the groove of school after a luscious three weeks of doing absolutely nothing, some changes are bound to emerge: new classes, new teachers, even new styles for some who have returned to Pepperdine with hopes of creating a “new image.” However, classes are bound to get stressful, teachers are certain to create a spot for themselves on their students’ hit lists and new images will get destroyed before they are even truly established. So, here’s a new year’s resolution for you that might actually work: follow these five steps to start milking your days for all they’re worth.
Step One: Get out of bed
sleeping, college students make sloths look high on caffeine. While the concept of staying up all night and sleeping all day is flawless in theory, it’s probably not the best in terms of efficiency. So brace yourselves, students—the impossible is about to make its way onto the page.
Go to bed before midnight. Then, in order to lighten the burden of waking up at seemingly ungodly hours, find an alarm that won’t immediately ruin your day. Whether it be an alarm clock shaped like Louis Armstrong waking you up to the sweet sounds of jazz or Winnie the Pooh gleefully popping out of a honey jar, get something that suits you and brings out morning person who is hidden deep inside you. Who says you have to have the loudest, most obnoxious-sounding alarm you can find? Unless, of course, that’s the kind of morning tune that strikes your fancy — then by all means, proceed.
Step Two: Post-Its are glorious
Now that you’re out of bed before noon, you may be confused as to how to fill this void of a day. If that is the case, I would like introduce you to a little thing called homework. You may know homework as that thing you do the night before a class. However, homework wants to get to know the real you—not the stressed-out version of you that is constantly trying to get the work done and out of your life. The best way to go about doing this is to make a list of what you want to get done that day and stick post-its of it all over your room so that you’ll get so annoyed you’ll have no choice but to obey them. Then, when you finish something on the list, you’ll get to do perhaps the most invigorating thing in the life of any list-maker: cross it off. Homework has never felt so good.
Step Three: Facebook is foe
force waiting to distract you for hours on end from any and all responsibilities. You must fight the urge to obsessive-compulsively check for new comments or upload pictures. If you must log on, however, make a time limit for yourself and stick to it. Perhaps you can even use that snazzy new alarm clock as a timer. Whatever you do, though, make sure that Facebook is not a priority. Remember — homework is your friend; Facebook is not.
Step Four: Do a handstand
You read right, a handstand. Scientific research proves that there are many benefits to performing the handstand. Not only does it provided an extra rush of blood to the brain, it also strengthens hand-eye coordination. Therefore, it makes your essay writing more insightful and the process more efficient. In fact, Egyptian scribes did handstands as a ritual to rejuvenate their minds and to revive their aching limbs after writing so much. “Really?” you may ask. No. All that was made up, but it sounded like fun. This leads to the next and final step.
Step Five: Have some fun
Truly making the most of your day involves enjoying yourself for at least a little while. So, go ahead and pull out your Playstation controllers. Round up your friends and play a rousing game of Disney Scene It. Go skipping hand-in-hand with your significant other. Whatever you define as “fun,” do it. Better yet, make it something you’ve never done before. You’ll feel extremely pleased with yourself knowing that you’ve not only done something new, but that you also had fun doing it. But remember—moderation is key. We wouldn’t want you to have too much fun now, would we?
01-18-2007