By Isabelle Ruff | Copy Editor
It can be hard to stay locked in on homework for an extended period of time, but the second you start scrolling on your phone for a break, there’s no going back to productive work. My favorite remedy for this problem is the New York Times puzzles.
The Crossword has been a staple of The New York Times since 1941, but to this day still requires a subscription to solve. But have no fear. There are free games that stimulate your mind like the Crossword does.
The New York Times has free, daily games that became popular with the creation of Wordle. Wordle allows six attempts to guess a word, highlighting letters in yellow that are in the word, but not in the right order. When a letter is in the correct spot, it will be highlighted in green. Since Wordle blew up in January of 2021, The New York Times has added more free games like Connections, Spelling Bee, Strands and Mini Crossword.
Connections is a tricky, thought-provoking and deliberative test of separating 16 terms into four sections, each with progressively difficult categories. My personal most frustrating experience was when the most difficult (purple) category was words that could be spelled upside down on a calculator. Who’s going to figure that one out?
Spelling Bee, though it needs a subscription for unlimited play, is a test of creating as many words as possible from a set of seven letters. If you can find a word that uses every letter, you have found a pangram (or pananagram, pronounced like bananagram, as I like to call it).
Strands, the newest addition to the free games, looks a bit like a word search, except you are looking for an overarching topic — the spangram — and words that fall under it, until the whole grid has been filled. Sometimes this game makes me feel like a genius when I immediately solve it, and other times it makes me question if I know English well enough.
Mini Crossword is just as it sounds, a much smaller version of the Crossword. But don’t underestimate the difficulty of its clues — they are still challenging puzzle pieces to put together. My friends and I love sharing our results to see who solved it the quickest.
These puzzles require that your mind is engaged and using all of its muscles to figure them out. They are my favorite homework break. I can set aside the assignment that I am stuck on or dreading while still keeping my brain active. When I scroll on my phone, it feels like there are no active brainwaves. Everything has turned off.
According to Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, crossword puzzles are the second most effective method for improving brain functioning, the first being learning a new language or instrument. Although the second most effective, puzzles are the most popular.
Another struggle I have when taking a break is getting caught up in distractions until I’ve lost track of time. Before I know it, a full hour has been wasted, and I’m no longer in the zone to doing anything academic. But there is only one new puzzle for each game a day, ensuring I can only do the Wordle once. And sure, there are other versions of these games with unlimited puzzles but, it’s never as satisfying to solve a bootleg version than the actual one.
Take a break. Keep your mind engaged. And feel rewarded for your genius when you figure out the purple category in Connections.
