How has gaming impacted your life?

[TinyWill]

This question is mainly directed at those who have completed Year 12 or are close to.

I am currently a Year 10 student who has been procrastinating a lot on my work with gaming. I wouldn't say I'm addicted to gaming although I do game when I know I should be doing work and the prospect of quitting gaming is a bit haunting for me.

I would just like to understand people's experiences with their gaming and education and how it has impacted each other. When would you recommend to stop gaming (e.g. year 11) if ever? Is gaming really bad and detrimental for your academic success? How have you balanced them? Do you continue to game even after Year 12 or are people too busy with work?

[fun_jirachi]

Welcome to the forums!

I would not recommend quitting gaming. Given you've pointed out that it's 'haunting' for you to drop it, it's easy to tell that it has some value to you (putting it mildly), and it's likely a release for you from studying. Promoting healthier habits is definitely the way to go, not dropping it completely. There are always positives to come out of most things, gaming included! It's always okay to game (and therefore socialise, etc.) so long as it doesn't interfere with your main goal (unless you're a streamer or something, then it is your goal). Here, it's pretty obvious that you want to study, and gaming shouldn't interfere with that. The easiest way to curb gaming when you know you should be working is giving yourself a better intrinsic reason to study that isn't the due date.

The good news is you want to find a solution and you started looking for one early. The bad news is there's no concrete solution that works for everyone. Hopefully, you can feed off some of the responses here and see what works for you!

To answer your other questions:
- Is gaming really bad for your academic success? Not at all. If used correctly it can help you out immensely. Just make sure it's not as a study break (it will overstimulate your mind before going back to study + increased screen time) and instead plan out when you want to do it.
- The easiest way is to restrict access to games then roughly schedule when you'd like to game. Too rigid a plan will definitely stress you out and make you prone to gaming unplanned. Be careful that you aren't too lax (if you are scheduling) either, as this will have the same effect
- Yes, I do continue to game (as people who have seen my Switch profile can attest to). It's part of a mildly healthy study lifestyle that ensures I minimise stress (amongst other things).

It's been a really tough ride balancing everything out (it definitely hasn't been a perfect ride for me, nor do I expect it to have been for anyone else), but the sooner you start figuring it out the earlier you're going to fit all the pieces together.

Hopefully this all works out for you, good luck!