How Did You Productively Spend Your Time In College?

Hey guys,

As my college career winds down, I've been trying to make some lifestyle changes. Namely, I want to quit having so much "dead time". It feels like 80% of the time I spend is on passive activities such as reading, watching videos, playing games, social media etc.

Basically rn, I usually spend my time
1. Going to class/doing schoolwork (very small percentage of time. I'm very good at minimizing effort whilst maximizing results in the classroom).
2. Gym. I don't spend that much time at the gym right now though. Probably only 30-60 mins per day. Mainly because I somehow STILL haven't recovered from this torn labrum. It seems like there is no end in site to this recovery period haha.
3. Dates. I go on 1-2 of them per week.
4. On weekends, I go out to parties with my friends to meet girls and have fun. And every once in a while, I go back to Seattle to work.

The rest of the time, I just sit around my apartment doing very little of anything productive. Normally, I would spend a lot more time on physical activities, as that is what I enjoy doing with my time. In fact, I was hoping to go hard in Wrestling this year and make it to Nationals. But given my predicament, it doesn't seem I can do this.

I realize that the word "productive" is very subjective. But I'd like to know what your guys's opinions are. What did you guys do in college? Looking back, is there anything you wish you had put time and effort into which you didn't?

Getting involved with research projects as an undergrad. Doing the support stuff and getting paid. Looks great on a resume.
Working in a University facility in a publicly visible role. Met a lot of people, and got a lot of respect since I had responsibilities and leadership role. (Also exposed me to eligible women)
Active in Career oriented clubs. Got me exposed to people in my field, and opened my eyes to opportunities
Competition at the university level. Got to travel to contests and meet other students from different parts of the country. One night opportunities abounded.

Active in Career oriented clubs. Got me exposed to people in my field, and opened my eyes to opportunities

Click to expand...

This is good. I'll look into it.
Unfortunately, its too late for me to actually get involved in the rest of what you mentioned cause by the time I get my foot in the door, I'll graduate. But yeah, at the very least, I can start participating in some career-oriented clubs.

Thanks TwoRocky

- Bboy100

Well, I'm still in school but I've recently completed my undergrad degree and now currently pursuing my Master's degree.. I can say that if your looking to be productive.. here a few things to consider:

- Your classes. Make sure you putting in the right amount of time and your focusing on getting good grades.
- Keeping hitting the gym
- Join an intraumural team (e.g., basketball, hockey or whatever sport you like. Maybe get some buddies and put a team together or if you can join a co-ed league, even better, you can meet some cute girls along the way).
- Build good relationships with your professors (This is something I wish I had done a little more of since I'm doing my Master's but it's good to try and build relationships with your professors because they can potentially get you a job, reference, or help you out with anything that you may need IF they like you).
- Focus on your self. Is there any side projects you want to do or skills you want to practice (e.g., start a business in the future, practice seduction, etc. The list is pretty much endless here and it really depends on what you want to do).
- Join clubs or do research projects like TwoRocky mentioned. Never really did any of those in my undergrad but one thing I did to and it was probably the most beneifical to my career was doing an internship that was related to my field.
- Attend any events that your program many hold (e.g., formals, fundraisers, etc. Note: There were many little fundraisers I attended were it was just everyone getting drunk and partying. Pretty fun.)

These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head. If I get some more idea's I'll post them here.

- Rdawg

Wow I wish I had that much free time. I'm a junior in the college of business right now and I am very focused on getting my GPA to as close to 4.0 as possible (30 hours of studying a week), I was previously working to start the first self-development student organization/club at my university (about 20 hours + per week), and keep my pimp skills up to date (going out about 8-10 hours a week).

I start a sales/marketing internship tomorrow so I have terminated the self-development student org. as I failed to have enough active members join in time to get a structure in place to ensure its survival by my deadline of the internship (which is going to require a hefty amount of my time in the coming months). However I met some awesome people, one solid friend, and grew my network as a result of this project.

My goal is to make $100,000 my first year out of college so I'm pretty focused on getting my sales skills and professional network built so that I can achieve this as well as relocate to a different city (either New York, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas).

I also just finished auditioning/interviewing to become a member of the professional selling program at my college which if I am good enough to get accepted will take up even more hours come this fall.

That's an example of how I spend my time productively. My goal is to make $100,000 my first year out of college so I'm using my time to focus on the activities that are going to yield me that result.

What is your plan for the future? What lifestyle do you want to have 5 years from now that you would be ultra excited to have and what do you need to be doing today in order to get there?

That answer should help you figure out how you could be more productive as of right now.

-Rob

Lol at this question.

If it wasn't getting drunk, high, or chasing after girls, I was probably reading or playing video games (first 3 or 4 years). Occasionally would do IMs or troll around campus. I wasn't too productive to be totally honest, but I was smart with my time. I'd skip classes I knew were bullshit or just because (I knew my GPA didn't matter since I wasn't going to grad school anytime soon) and my classes weren't too hard (philosophy/English - the material is hard if you really go after it hard, as evidenced from everyone I knew who sucked dick at entry level philosophy and couldn't form a coherent thought even if they tried, but the class itself isn't, if that makes sense). I held several positions in my fraternity, but they were pro-socializing (social chair junior year, president senior year to 5th year) and I was the vice-prez/prez of the interfraternity council. So, again, a bunch of socializing. \

I would go to random conferences (physics, astronomy, philosophy, etc) and joined a few clubs. Did what I wanted and I don't regret any of it.

Unless you're a STEM, pre-med, or pre-law, have fun in college, your degree probably won't mean much

Hector

From my admittedly brief time (I spent a semester in college, and am heading to a different one next fall), I think joining clubs is key. Figure out which clubs you can meet different types of high value people (look at sports, student gov if your student gov is cool, frats if you've got em, music/party organizations, I did improv, etc.).

I did Improv, Swimming, Rugby, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, a relief (charity) organization, and I also tried to hang out with some of the international kids. The swimmers had their own party house, the improv kids had connections everywhere and were loud and funny as hell, the BJJ guys were kinda weird but also badass in their own way, the boxing kids were from all over and had lots of connections, the rugby guys were hardcore partiers and pretty cool, the charity kids had great leadership qualities, and the international kids had SO MANY party connections, was insane. There's stuff you can learn from everyone. If I could do it over again (and I will, this coming fall) I'd probably drop boxing, but I benefited from every club I joined, despite the hours they took to juggle. I'm not even that socially able yet, and it got to the point where I had to pick and choose which parties I was going to (cause the swimmers, rugby guys, and international kids were all inviting me out).

Get as many diverse groups of people, find cool jocks, cool musicians, cool hipsters, cool international kids, frat kids, whatever your school has got and hang with them all. Make friends with them, see if you can get invited to their parties. Basically what Anatman said, but yeah, a good way to start is the pre-existing organizations. I'm still in the middle of my journey, but the social acuity you will develop will be off the charts! Plus it all looks good on your resume

Some of these I joined in the last few weeks I was there. Still was good, but as I go back and read what you said, this is more oriented towards newcomers to college (so whoever else is reading this). Hope you still take some value from it!

Just my two cents (or what ended up being three paragraphs)
Byron