Minding the Gaps

By Shawna Buck

Too often students become bogged down by papers, tests, and reading they have to do and feel like they have no time to themselves. As college students, sometimes our go-to response for “Hey, how are you?” is simply “Busy.” But what would happen if in that small twenty-minute break between classes you read ten pages out of a history book, or you wrote a page of an essay while sitting at breakfast in the Bon?

All of us experience these gaps in the midst of our busy schedules; we simply need to learn to use them to their full advantage. Even I sometimes blow off a half-hour break between classes to grab a cup of coffee instead of doing something productive, which seems harmless at first, but those gaps add up and pretty soon I could have accomplished an entire assignment instead of consuming five cups of caffeine.

Using these gaps more productively results in better time management overall and makes for less homework in the evening so you can spend more time socializing or Facebooking. To achieve better productivity during these gaps, make a checklist of everything you want to accomplish throughout the day or write down one assignment to work on during each gap in your planner. Writing these goals down makes you more accountable, and who doesn’t like to cross things off lists? We all like having breaks during the day, but making these breaks more productive will yield more time off in the evenings, resulting in a longer break rather than just thirty minutes here or there. You’re already up and running, so you might as well put that time to good use. Plus, if you have more time at the end of the day, chances are that will be a better time to hang out with friends or go to an event without feeling overwhelmed by homework.

Don’t get me wrong, it is still important to use those gaps for some “you time." Just be intentional about which breaks you want to be productive and which ones you want to grab coffee. Sometimes it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day, but being intentional about what you want to accomplish—and when—makes the small amount of time you do have count for more.