Top 10 Bad Habits of Students
One adjustment for freshman college students is the responsibility of waking up on their own. Photo courtesy of Photopin
By: Qadeer Omar-Taylor
College life can be very difficult at times and can appear pointless. Students tend to develop bad habits when the going gets tough. Here are some habits told by students themselves.
10. Procrastinating
It’s midnight. on a Wednesday night, you have three assignments and two exams in the morning. What do you do? Put it off, right? Students would rather think about the amount of work they have to get done than sit down and start it. Katie Gnodtke said, “I try to [put my school work before anything else], but I don’t as much as I should.” One easy fix to procrastinating is simply turning off your cell phone until you finish your assignments.
9. Not Enough Sleep
After interviewing three students, the average amount of sleep each student said was four to five hours per night. Waldorf student Emma Bandrup said, “[On average] five hours if I’m lucky…because I get off work late and have early classes.” Getting at least six to eight hours of sleep is ideal for healthy living, but sometimes that is not manageable–especially for college students. One easy fix to getting enough sleep is going to bed around the same time each night. Waking up earlier as opposed to going to bed later is a healthy alternative to developing a sleep habit.
8. “Freshman 15”
Many students at Waldorf are student-athletes, so they are encouraged to eat healthy in the cafeteria. “Garbage in equals garbage out.” For students who aren’t told to eat healthy and want to find a way to change their eating habits, here are a few tips for healthy eating. In the cafeteria there is a salad bar with many selections; along with that, there is a station where you can make your own sandwich. This doesn’t mean everyone should be eating ‘rabbit food’, but substituting a side of fries for a salad is a simple fix to unhealthy eating.
7. Texting in class
College is very different from high school, because there is a general sense of independence and freedom. Having that freedom means you get to make choices for yourself. Although professors don’t say it often, they usually find it disrespectful to constantly be on your cell phone while a lecture or instructions are going on. No fingers are being pointed here, because everyone has done this at some point.
6. Exercise
This may seem like a strange thing for college students, since a campus requires you to walk everywhere. That may be true, but according to a Mayo Clinic article the average adult should get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week.
5. Staying Focused
One challenge for students is staying focused for a long time. “Reading. That makes me sound dumb, lets see, reading multiple pages,” said first year student, Hunter Marsh. Reading is a challenging task–especially for long periods of time. One tip for getting it done is listening to instrumental music. This is good for students that like to listen to music but get distracted by the lyrics.
4. Doing Nothing
Often times we find that there is nothing to do. Bandrup said, “I lay in my bed on my phone a lot.” Yes, it is easy to do this, and frankly, it’s quite comfortable. One solution to just doing nothing is making a checklist of productive tasks and getting them done.
3. Cleaning your room
When asked how clean you should keep your room, Marissa Widener said, “It depends on if you can get things done with your room dirty. It’s your personal space; you should keep it how you want it.” She continued, “It also depends on your roommate…I have never cleaned my room in my life.” Widener said this well; one tip is that students should respect their roommate.
2. Washing Clothes
College students go through a lot of clothes in one week. Sometimes it can be hard to wash laundry for a few reasons: not having money to wash, not knowing how to wash or where to wash, or maybe having too much to wash. Here are some helpful tips to get those dirty clothes fresh and clean. If a student doesn’t have enough money to wash then a friend that doesn’t live in the dorms may be your best bet. A couple places to wash laundry are first floor in resident halls and the Lost Sock Bubble Mat on North Fourth St., across the street from Dollar General. If you don’t know how to wash, no worries, ask around. Someone has to know how to.
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