Anyone who’s been in college for more than one or two semesters understands the pain of having an awkward, long gap between classes. I’m talking about the dreaded one-hour or 45-minute gap where you don’t have enough time to run back home and take a quick nap or stand in line at the food court to grab Chick-fil-A. My first semester at college, I had gaps like this every day and sometimes twice a day. It was incredibly annoying because I felt like I was wasting an hour each time, not knowing what I could be doing instead. Now that I’ve had a little more experience, I’m here to tell you what I’ve found to be the best ways to spend small gaps between classes.Â
1. Planners and Calendars
One of the most helpful things for any young adult, including college students, can be starting a planner. As someone who always struggled with ADHD, I found it very difficult at first to keep a planner. I would forget about it, forget to check it and forget to update it throughout the week. What I’ve found that helped me to kill two birds with one stone was to start designating those short gaps to fill out my planner and update it with new events and assignments. This kept me checking it every day, updating it and knocking out those awkward class gaps. When I started doing this method, I found myself able to keep a planner for the first time in my life, so I highly recommend it.Â
2. Discussion Posts/Replys
 In my opinion, one of the most tedious homework assignments is writing discussion posts and responses. They are just inconvenient enough that I dread doing them, not to mention having to reply to other peers. I’ve found that a great time to knock these out is during class gaps because, unlike other homework assignments, they aren’t super time-consuming. Planning to do them during my shorter breaks allows me to get them done before I get home and need to focus on the longer assignments.Â
3. Making Flash Cards and Study Tools
 I have found that when I need to study, I do better when I can sit down and focus on something over a long period of time. This means that studying during shorter gaps between classes isn’t very effective for me. Instead, I’ve found that a good use of that time is to prepare myself to study later. In the past, I’ve done this by making flashcards and study guides. Doing this is what I consider to be second-hand studying because while I’m not going through texts and highlighting, I’m still interacting with the information, even if it’s copying and pasting from my notes into Quizlet. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power, but it sets me up for a successful study session later and makes good use of my time.Â
4. Read Your Textbooks
 Every college student I know has one thing in common, and that is that no one likes reading college textbooks. Unfortunately for a lot of us, throughout the years you will be assigned certain books, articles, or chapters you have to read for a class. These gaps are the best time I’ve found to get this reading done. You don’t have the distractions you would if you were home in your room, and you have a set time to do it so it doesn’t feel like you are wasting time reading instead of doing something else. You can also pace yourself this way if you have a large volume of text to read by just doing a little bit during each gap. It’s a good way to save yourself some time in the evening by knocking it out early, letting you spend more time doing what you actually like instead of staying up reading textbooks.
5. Brain Breaks
The last method I have to make use of those gaps is to take brain breaks. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in trying to do everything efficiently that more often than not we forget its ok to take time for ourselves and just enjoy the day. Maybe that means getting a coffee, playing a game on your phone or simply taking a walk. Regardless, it’s important to give yourself a chance to relax, and sometimes those small annoying gaps make for the perfect chance to do so.