​Hi all, Lord of Coffees reporting in once more. Even as a senior, I’m never able to get my perfect schedule: despite praying to the gods of Telebears (whom seem to never receive my prayers or actively ignore them) and finangling with ScheduleBuilder for hours on end, I always either end up having 0.5 – 1 hour gaps between classes: not enough to adequately study, but simultaneously too long to simply sit and relax without feeling like a lump (or maybe that’s just me). I know it’s not just me too; many of my friends have expressed similar sentiments.

So what should you do during those gaps? Here are some ideas, developed over the course of 4 years:

Grab some food! It’s almost always a good idea to at least have some food over the course of the day, and this applies doubly if your break is between noon and 2 PM. lunch seems like a no-brainer a lot of the times, but you’d be surprised at how many people skip lunch because they think an hour is not enough time. Even if your break is between 9-10 or sometime in the afternoon, a quick snack is never a bad idea.

Power napping: studies have shown that a quick 20-minute nap in the middle of the day improves cognitive function and overall long-term recall, so bunker down in your favorite library and take a snooze. Note that it’s not good to nap overly often, so if you have multiple breaks throughout the day, it’s probably not the best idea to nap during every single one of those breaks.

Study: I know that an hour doesn’t seem like that long, (and this applies even more for those half-hour breaks), but quickly reviewing the subject material that you just covered in class, even if it only takes ten minutes before you rush off to your next class, can really help you retain information and can make overall synthesis of information better when you go back later that night and study the material again.
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As a whole, there are many things you can do, but anything’s better than vegetating for a half hour!