I love playing World of Warcraft. It is a great release for me from the everyday pressures of going to college and working a regular job. It gives me a chance to socialize without any of the normal pressures of meeting people for the first time. I don't worry about my hair or make-up, or if I want to stuff my face un-ladylike while in midsentence.

But I did realize that all the time I was spending online was conflicting with my real life schedule. So I went about setting down a few guidelines that I would try and follow to better maximize my play time.

One: Set a cut-off time. I know this sounds so simple but I don't know how many nights I've swore I would be off by a certain time and still find myself talking and playing into the early morning hours. For me the lack of sleep only added to my decreased willpower in enforcing the time for me to log off. So by all means set a cut-off time and try and stick to it.

Two: Make a character that noone online knows for selling and organizing your auction house transactions. I found that I wasted more time talking and replying to tells while trying to get these jobs done so I could play again the next day. With an auction house character that no one knew was me things went so much faster. I would send all my items for sale to this one char, list them on the auction house, and then send back money or supplies my other characters needed thru the in game mail system.

Three: Schedule raids and instances in advance. So much time is spent looking for a group that sometimes by the time your underway your cut-off time has arrived. Use some of the great guild calendar add-ons for World of Warcraft or your guild website to make scheduling raids and groups so much easier. Knowing that you are expected at a certain time makes everything so much easier to organize in you real life.

Last but not least make sure and check out some guides and tip websites for World of Warcraft. A little research into where you are raiding or doing goes a long way in reducing the time you waste.