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Time Management on Neopets: Juggling Your Neopets and School (or Work)
Written by bumpty85
Sometime last week I was clicking mindless through the repository (this is being
written at the time of the Lost Desert Plot) at around 2 in the morning when I
realized I had a lab report due the next day that I hadn’t started on. It came
to me that I was spending hours on end playing on a website that had no direct
effect on my life or future. I did, however, enjoy the time I spent on the site
and so wanted to continue playing there. But I needed to learn how to manage my
time correctly.
That site, of course, is Neopets. And all who own pets know that it is possible
to spend all 24 hours of a day doing things on the site and never finish doing
them all. There are so many games you can play, so many shops when you can wait
for restocks at, and so many things things you can do for your pet. How do you
know how much is too much?
First of all, we want to minimize the time we spend on Neopets, so my first tip
is to use quick links. Almost all Neopet-related websites have them, but I have
my own list in my favorite folder. One folder is named “dailies”, and in it is
all the things I do once a day. Another folder is called “timed” and include
things that are restricted by time (other than the things in the “dailies”
folder) such as the healing springs, the wheels, scratch cards, etc. Also, the
games that I play are in this folder so I don’t need to surf the site
needlessly. Of course, I limit the number of games I play so that I can make the
most neopoints possible without spending a lot of time.
This is what I do everyday to make sure that I’m taking care of my pet as well
as making a decent amount of neopoints (and keeping up with all the events) in
the process:
Check my pet. Feed and play with it as needed.
Do my dailies and timed items
Check my stocks/Buy new stocks (Neodaq spreadsheet is excellent for this!)
Play games
1) Playing games: weekdays
So which games should you play? It’s always up to you, of course, but make sure
you’re not spending all day playing games. Here’s my list:
Hannah and the Ice Caves (only the last level): 3000NP
Crossword: 600NP
Dice-A-Roo
Ultimate Bullseye - ~1500NP
Fast high return Sponsor games (ones that are 500+ each time… examples are the
matching games like Hilary Duff’s and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well
the PBS Cyberquest Puzzle): 1500 x 2 = 3000NP
Along with this, I usually have an HTML game I play for random events and
trophies. For a while, it was Cellblock until I got the gold trophy (so another
5000NP) and then Go! Go! Go! (~2000NP for 4 games)
So, if you assume that your daily/timed events (and Dice-A-Roo) come out even in
terms of cost and reward (which usually they don’t – you’ll win more than you
spend), you’re still making around 11,000+NP a day – probably in less than 30-40
minutes.
2) Playing game: Weekends
I have more time on the weekends. Some people don’t, but if you do, you still
need to manage your time well. Typically, I do everything I do on a weekday, but
also:
Other sponsor games, such as trivia (900NP for 3 plays) and personality quizzes
(600NP)
Quick NP games (Whack-A-Kass, Volcano Run, Meerca Chase, Dubloon Disaster, etc.)
– for the purpose of this article, you shouldn’t keep trying over if you don’t
get an awesome score. Just play it, send your score, and be done with it.
Other HTML games (for random events)
Also, on the weekends, I price items in my shop (you might need to get a bigger
shop if you only price on weekends) as well as catch up with the current plot.
So this article was written so that Neopets doesn’t cause anyone to lose their
job, sleep, or future. Have fun! Remember, everyone's schedule is different on
different days. If you have more time (but ONLY if you really do have more
time), spend more time on it! If there’s a special event that day, spend some
time on it. But remember this is only a game and your pet will still love you
even if you’re too busy to spend all day with it!
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