Vanguard Vision

This week, we highlighted mymentalspace, a new app that helps students manage their time on the web so they can learn to be productive without the distractions.

We think that this app and others like it can be beneficial when it’s crunch time for midterms or finals.  We’ve all fallen victim to the dreaded Facebook procrastination.  We’ll write a paragraph of a paper, go on to Facebook for 15 minutes and repeat the cycle with other sites such as Pinterest, YouTube or Twitter.  And we’ve had Facebook cut into our sleep time at some point.

But while we can stumble in our attempts to be productive, we realize that time management skills are learned through situations like this.  Part of being successful in college is learning when to buckle down and when to relax.  We question apps like this mostly because it does this learning for us.

We’re also wary of trusting someone to be the administrator of the app.  You have to know your friends pretty well to give them control of your free time on a computer.  Our board is one made up of people who enjoy control over their own lives.

We aren’t willing to give up the little control we have to someone else during the chaos that is college.  We realize the value in learning how to control our work time and our free time.  It will be us, not someone else, who is the ultimate admin of our time after we leave college.

However, the one thing we really appreciate about this app is that it values the power of motivation and inspiration.  When someone attempts to go to a website blocked by the app, it provides something inspirational.

It’s this type of positive thinking that we’d like to see more in college.  It’s so easy to be burdened down by the load of work that comes from jobs and classes.  We should learn to never underestimate the power of accepting positive thinking, especially when we are burdened.

That small positive can go a long way.  It’s easier to feel like being motivated when we’re around others who are motivated, just like it’s easier to feel like procrastinating when we’re around others procrastinating.

Even though this app emphasizes the need to be productive, we have to realize the necessity of taking a break as students.  Our brains are not meant to study for hours without end, just like our rear ends are not meant to sit for hours without end.  Attempting to do so will only lead us closer to being burned out, which is something we never need in college.

While we are happy that mymentalspace can help curb the dangers that come with procrastination, it can be beneficial to take time away from our studies.  Figuring out how to balance that time is key.