All Work and No Play

Here, we see young Johnny at a kegger instead of writing his paper – now little Suzie is out clubbing the night before an exam. But you, you're smarter than all the Johnnies and Suzies of the world; you're going to do this school thing right, by George.

Now the hard part: balance.

There exists a very real danger of pushing one's self into academic fatigue, and with it all that studying will be for naught anyway. Basically, there's a point of diminishing returns – sure, you could read all your chapters in a three-hour spurt the night before their respective classes, but your brain will be mushy and sad from your cramming – and your retention will suffer. After a certain point, the books need to be set down, and you need to allow yourself to be a person, even if only for a few hours at a time.

Here's a few guiding principles:

Set aside at least one day a week where you do absolutely nothing academic. (Obviously, if you've got classes every day, this becomes do no homework, but your brain will benefit from the break.)

Do at least one thing purely for fun once a week. (Whether this is seeing a film, gaming with friends, going to see a concert, or whatever constitutes a sufficient reward; give yourself a beacon to look forward to.)

Take a “Joy Break” in the middle of your studying. (A term coined by Ann McGee-Cooper in her book Time Management for Unmanageable People, the idea is to stop for 10-15 minutes, and poke around at something – usually related to a bigger reward. If you want to see a show, checking out local listings, and maybe sending some quick messages to see if anyone wants to tag along – that's a “Joy Break.”)

So! We've got the basic idea – don't just party, don't drown in your work – so with this in mind, let's get down to your humble author's area of expertise: how to fill that entertainment block.

One of the best ways to blow off steam, and thereby refocus yourself, is to take in a local concert with some degree of frequency. We do our best to comb through the deluge of shows and pick the cream every week in The Cauldron – but there are a few general guidelines that can be counted on for the major venues in the area.

The Beachland: Boasting both the tavern, and the ballroom, the Beachland knows its audience, and unabashedly caters to them. Plain and simple; this is an East Side Indie Club. Fuzzed out garage rock, folk troubadours, sad French Canadians – it's a hipster haven, and makes no excuses for that. As a side note: the Ballroom has a nice amount of space going for it – sometimes the Beachland and the Grog will work together to host a big show – mark these on your calenders, cats and kittens; they are practically always worth catching.

The Grog Shop: A short RTA trip down Euclid Ave, you'll want to go early and check out the shops on Coventry first. Punk, Indie, Hip-Hop, indescribably weird stuff, Electronica, Ska, Hardcore – you name it, Ye Olde Grog is a consistent source of good stuff – especially if you want to catch it before it goes mainstream. What do The Killers, Fall Out Boy, and Daughtry have in common? You won't be able to see them at the Grog – at least, not again. The moral of this story is to get in while the getting's good.

The Peabody's Complex: Comprised of Peabody's proper, the Pirate's Cove, and Rockstar; Peabody's can have a lot going on. It's not unheard of for punk rock, hip-hop, and death metal shows to all be playing on the same night, at the same time. Having said that, the sound reinforcement is good enough (and trust me, the volume is high enough) that noise pollution is never really a problem, and the complex benefits greatly by being literally right across the street from campus. No, really. Cross Euclid.