After a Spring semester full of work at college, everyone certainly deserves a nice Summer break. While a lot of students work jobs over the summer, they most likely still have a lot of downtimes that they do not have to use for studying as they would during the school year. Although bingeing a new show or an old favorite on your preferred streaming service is not typically frowned upon during this time of the year, it never hurts to keep your mind fresh and do something more productive. Here are five great ways to use your downtime this Summer break to stay productive and hopefully have fun doing so!

1. Exercise

Exercising is a great way to use your time in the Summer. The weather is far friendlier for outdoor activities such as running, cycling, hiking, or swimming compared to other months of the year. The outdoors are readily available, and many gyms have discounted membership prices for college students home for the season. Depending on what kind of exercises you are doing or where you are doing said exercises, you can still watch your favorite shows, but feel far more productive while you do!

2. Switch out music for podcasts every now & then.

Everyone has those days where you just want to lay down and listen to some music. Music is a fantastic way to relax, but instead, try listening to a Podcast. There are tons of Podcasts around with topics on essentially anything you can think of. Listening to a Podcast requires a great deal of focus on what you are hearing which keeps your brain acute, and there are Podcasts on many education topics from economics to history to manufacturing. Try some different ones out and find your favorite! There are a lot of fun ones out there too.

3. Read or write.

Reading is a great activity to entertain, find inspiration, or teach yourself something. Reading a book also feels very productive compared to watching television. Like Podcasts, there are books out there on essentially any genre or topic that you may find of interest. Reading is a personal favorite activity for trips to the beach. Either use your tablet as an e-reader or get a print book to enjoy. Going hand in hand with reading is writing. It does not matter whether you are writing for yourself or for others; when you are writing about something you are passionate by choice and not because it is an assignment it feels phenomenal.

4. Teach yourself a new skill.

There are so many skills to learn that could help you in life, it would be impossible to take courses on all of them in college as well as all of the classes for your major. Furthermore, it would definitely be much more expensive! Use your summer to teach yourself a skill that you find interesting. If you like computers try to use online resources to teach yourself a coding language. If you like traveling or immersing yourself in other cultures utilize resources to learn a new language. There are plenty of skills you can start learning over the summer including but not limited to cooking, photoshop, art, or playing music. There are plenty of videos and other resources online for free for you to learn what you want at your pace.

5. Take more college courses for free.

For those of us who really miss learning all of the time, this one is especially for you. Many colleges release their courses to take for free online. Top notch Universities such as MIT and Yale release some of their courses! Coursera and edX are two of the most popular websites with free course directories where you can enroll for free in courses that you want to learn more about. They do not have to be within your major area of study. The free course range on everything from policy to computer science to literature to chemistry. Certainly, there is something that you find enjoyable. If you do not like the course, or simply do not have the time to complete all of the lectures, there is no pressure at all. You can enroll in or stop taking a course at anytime you want, but Summer is the perfect time to take a free course online as they typically last about 8 weeks for a few hours each week.