Freedom, autonomy, and relaxation are vital for every student. Anyone passionate about video games will attest that gaming activities play an essential role in promoting positive thinking and improving an individual’s mental health. Consequently, they result in better academic performance. However, you can’t attain these outcomes if you lack time management skills and discipline. As much as you may find it fulfilling to play video games, it is crucial to prioritize important tasks.
In this article, we’ve analyzed ways to balance gaming and studying. Hopefully, it will help you plan your activities and manage your time well.
Effective Strategies to Help Students Balance Gaming and Studying
We have analyzed strategies to help you balance video games and studying but first, let’s see why it is important to manage your workload:
So, why is it important to balance gaming and studying? There are numerous reasons to divide your time or attention between games and studies but let’s look at the most essential ones:
1. Prevents you from spending a lot of time on distractions. Besides reducing your concentration span and reducing your focus on important tasks, playing video games without a plan can encourage poor reading habits. In addition, you’re likely to spend a lot of time on digital distractions like social media or watching television. However, regulating play and planning yourself is actually a more productive approach to utilizing your time in an optimal way.
2. Balancing gaming and studies makes students more social. Apart from increasing your network, it gives you an opportunity to improve interpersonal skills and build an attractive personality and knowledge across different topics.
List of Useful Ideas on How You Can Balance Gaming and Studying.
You might not find it easy to balance games and studying but we believe these tips can guide you better:
1. Ask for help
Balancing gaming and studying requires students to use all resources within their reach in a more effective and efficient manner. Therefore, apart from planning your daily or weekly activities, it is crucial to seek help from your parents, siblings, peers, and instructors. As much as you might have different goals or specialize in different disciplines, they might give you tips to manage your time.
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Besides enabling you to juggle between studies and games, these sites can help you avoid procrastination, deliver quality assignments to improve your grades, help you avoid pressure, and enhance your understanding of certain topics, subjects, or disciplines.
2. Strike a balance and prioritize tasks
Balancing academics and gaming requires students to have a plan and prioritize urgent or important activities to avoid anxiety and deviating from their goals. As much as you may find games more exciting and engaging, you should remember to set aside enough time to study. So, never sacrifice your studies at the expense of gaming. Learners who fail to have a balance often score poor grades since they are more likely to lose focus on their studies.
One of the most effective ways to help you balance video games and studying is by setting realistic goals and prioritizing tasks. Playing games can be exciting and relaxing but have you thought about the negative impacts of directing all your attention to gaming? Of course, nobody wishes to neglect their studies.
However, it’s not easy to juggle school work and games; you might find yourself spending more time playing if you don’t prioritize your activities. No matter how busy you are, please ensure that you complete urgent and most important tasks first. Besides helping you to avoid last-minute rush, which often results in poorly researched materials, the approach promotes productivity since you’ll likely do your assignments when you feel more focused and motivated.
Effects of Games on Studying: Benefits and Risks
Let’s first look at the positive side of gaming, and then we will look at the negative side of gaming.
Positive Impacts of Gaming on Studying: Unveiling the Benefits
1. Improves cognitive and problem-solving abilities. Video games play an important role in promoting individuals’ cognitive abilities and creativity. For example, they improve hand-eye coordination and spatial skills; these outcomes are common in games like Mortal Kombat, which requires a player to actively participate in shooting and running. As a result, players learn to coordinate different parts of the body as they control the simulations.
In addition, gaming improves students’ reasoning and problem-solving abilities. For instance, games like Cut the Rope require players to think critically and formulate strategies to solve puzzles, thus enhancing critical thinking.
2. Promotes analytical thinking. Video games involving puzzles promote analytical thinking. Most of them are engaging and have specific patterns that players must follow or master to excel. As a result, they improve imagination and innovation skills.
3. Promotes strategic learning and management. Also, most gaming activities require students to multitask, thus improving their concentration span. Most video games are time-framed such that players need to solve a specific problem within a limited period. As a result, they should manage their time to finish within the specified duration; the skill is useful in planning school activities.
4. Gaming promotes learners’ interest in STEM subjects. Students engaging in video games may develop an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Other areas of interest include programming, website development, data analysis, and coding. Playing these games promotes innovation, which is essential in the 21st century.
Negative Impact of Video Games on Students
Although gaming is associated with improved creativity and other benefits, the negative impact of video games on students is immeasurable. Here are some adverse outcomes:
1. Promotes destructive activities. Students may start engaging in activities like fighting with their colleagues or arguing with their teachers when exposed to video games with violent scenes. In addition, video games may expose individuals to cyberbullying, which may result in poor mental health.
2. Gaming may lead to addiction and preoccupation. Students who get addicted or are preoccupied with games may neglect school activities. Some may skip classes while others fail to concentrate in class. In addition, they may forget to complete their assignments or handle them at the last minute.
Manage gaming time by adopting healthy routines
As much as gaming can improve your cognitive abilities, creativity, and analytical thinking, it can also affect studies, especially among learners without an effective plan or time management skills.
According to World Health Organization reports, addiction to online games is a serious mental health disorder that’s increasingly becoming a social problem. Therefore, it is important for student gamers to have healthy routines and prioritize important tasks to ensure they complete their assignments and other personal activities on time.
A computer engineer by day, gamer by night. He grew up playing Mario and contra, and just like every other 90s kid, he got passionate about mobile gaming. He had done bachelors in computer science and played fps and MOBA games for years.