Swap out Netflix for productive habits

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In college I’ve worked a lot of jobs that require me to sit at desks for extended periods of time.

As an RA, I would spend a minimum of four hours watching students walk in and out of the front door while hoping the Internet would start working soon.

As news editor of The Kentucky Kernel, I wait around for stories to come in and have plenty of time between editing and proofreading the paper.

Sitting around lends itself to wasting time. I’ve spend countless hours on Buzzfeed and Tumblr, but at UK we have a problem with slow Wi-Fi.

When I worked in the dorms, I would get sick of waiting for Netflix to buffer, then one of my friends taught me how to knit.

It’s like cleaning your bedroom instead of doing your homework.

I would sit at the desk, talking to residents and knitting. I realized then that by pulling my head out from behind a computer, I formed better relationships with my residents.

My friends and I would sit in the lobby and knit, and residents would join us in what we dubbed ‘B2 knitting parties.’

By Christmas, I made myself three scarves, three for family and five for my friends. It costs $10 to make a scarf and it kills five hours — time I would have spent watching Netflix and not doing anything.

Now I sit at news desk and work on flower crowns, which I sell at festivals. I also work on cross stitch patches for my friends and I started taking orders for them. Our opinions editor ordered a patch that said, “Hakuna your tatas,” and our editor in chief wants a patch of sasquatch.

I still sometimes scroll Pinterest and Tumblr like it’s my job, but typically I’m looking for the next thing I can do. At least when I’m procrastinating, I’m making gifts for my friends.