In 2007, when Peter Chernin of News Corp. and Jeff Zucker at NBC created Hulu, a site that allows you to watch television shows that are airing on TV currently without a fee, the website seemed like a terrific idea to viewers. People could watch television from anywhere at any time. Shows from channels such as Fox, NBC, TBS and ABC have full seasons of shows on Hulu which can be viewed at home, hotels, work or anywhere with Wi-Fi.

But that also means students can view Hulu at School.

While Hulu has been useful for people who travel a lot, hours spent online have started to hurt students’ academic results. Whereas students used to use free periods for homework, this 75 minutes of “School” time has been consumed by sites such as Hulu. Episodes are about 20, 45 or 60 minutes long, so the free period flies by before students even realize they haven’t completed any of their assignments. Also, because there are many seasons of shows available on these websites, some students can get hooked on series and feel inclined to watch all seasons. Shows such as One Tree Hill and Grey’s Anatomy have nine seasons and can consume hours on end of students’ time. The excessive time spent online leads to loss of homework time, which means little effort put into assignments and to grades being lowered in time-consuming classes.

Although these online television sites have negative effects on students, there are ways you can stop yourself from going overboard on the amount of episodes you watch online. Here are some tips on managing your time:

1. Set yourself a certain amount of time of television you can watch per week. You can then assess whether or not you have too much homework to watch any TV. This may be anywhere from one to five episodes per week, but if you start watching much more than that, you should reflect whether or not your grades have been affected by the excessive time spent online.

2. Separate yourself from your computer during free periods. If you leave your computer in your locker downstairs if you aren’t using it, you will most likely be too lazy to go and get it when you remember that you wanted to catch up on Pretty Little Liars during your free instead of finishing that Algebra homework due tomorrow.

3. Have a responsible friend remind you that you have that quiz coming up tomorrow for English when you have watched more than one episode of television online.