We’ve all been there: you’ve just staggered out of an 8:30 am lecture feeling half dead, and you realize you have an hour-long void before your next class. You don’t have enough time to go home, you don’t have enough time to do a flow-state study session, but you have more than enough time to doomscroll through Instagram reels.
If you want to use that time in a productive way, here are three practical tips to conquer that awkward gap.
Batch your quick tasks
Instead of letting errands bleed into your weekends, evenings, and study sessions, where you need uninterrupted blocks of time, use your gaps for these tasks. Finish those quizzes, answer that email from your manager, pick up conditioner from the store, finalize that weekly grocery list; do whatever little chores you need to finish. This not only genuinely knocks responsibilities off the dreaded to-do list, but it provides a necessary “I did it!” shot of dopamine and relief, which will help remove that nagging sense of unease when you do sit down for your study sessions.
Get your workouts or physical activity done
Sitting in lecture halls, labs, and seminars all day listening to complex theories makes your body ache and your brain feel like it’s crawling through thick mud. So it makes sense to use these gaps to reset physically and mentally. Jog around campus, try getting five more seconds on your planks, hit the treadmill… Even a simple five-minute session in that terrifying, mysterious plant-infested area with a ball of light in the sky known as “outside” stimulates that sluggish noggin and genuinely helps to reset your mental state.
Use these gaps to help manage burnout and exhaustion
Let’s face it: that panic-fuelled part of your brain telling you if you aren’t revising flashcards, re-reading your assignment rules for the fifth time, or pumping out Einstein-level performance every hour of the day is straight-up lying. If your brain is deep fried, trying to force a hyper-productive study session where you crush two weeks’ worth of content is like attempting to squeeze 3D rendering out of your uncle’s ancient Windows XP laptop. Sometimes the best way to beat the burnout is to surrender to it. However, resting doesn’t involve a gaming session that leaves you feeling even more hollowed out. Give yourself permission to just kick back in a quiet place and listen to a podcast or some music, finish that one fanfic chapter you’ve been meaning to read for weeks, watch other burnt-out husks scuttle about looking for their midterm room, or lie on a cushioned bench to let gravity undo the achy hunch. Honestly, give yourself some time to mentally check out, because if you don’t, your brain will pull the plug at the most perfect time: during your three-hour long midterm.
The awkward gaps between classes don’t have to be misery sessions of awkwardly lingering like a stalker outside of your classroom and brain-dead doomscrolling. By implementing some of the above suggestions, you’re taking control of your life, grades, and sanity without attempting to turn yourself into a productivity bot. By being healthy regarding these gaps, you can manage the chaos of student life so that when 7:00 pm rolls around, you can close your laptop and pretend your lecture notes don’t exist.