Managing those Minutes!
BY ALKA SOOD, GUEST WRITER
8:30 classes? (How did we manage this for the past 12 years again?)… 5 hours worth of them in a single day (again, did we really do full academic days for so long?)… And worse, an hour break between each one? Ewe, gross.
Sometimes your schedule just isn’t what you want it to be - one hour gaps or long breaks that you would rather be without? Though it sucks if you can’t do anything to change it, I think there’s a little good that comes from everything.
What can you do with those one hour breaks? You might think that an hour is barely enough time to do anything. By the time you settle down and open your books, it’ll be time to head off to your next class right? It’s only just enough time to go back to your room and take a little nap?
Don’t believe that! An hour is 60 minutes of time! Even if your next class is on the opposite side of campus, you could still be productive for 80% of that hour. Here are some tips that any you could try to make the most out of your minutes:
1. Scope out the best study spots on campus
If you know that you’re a social person, maybe avoiding the student centre would be advisable. The MUSC is great to grab food with a friend, and run into people for a good chat, but unless you head straight up to the 2nd or 3rd floors, don’t expect to get a lot of work done there, especially during the lunch/dinner hours when finding a table is often more trouble than it’s worth.
Also, knowing your study behaviour can help you in this. If you get distracted easily, avoid places with lots of windows or sitting next to doors where people are constantly walking by. On the other hand, if silence makes you sleepy or causes you to zone out, find a place where there is some background noise that isn’t to distracting.
Once you do all of this, you can keep this knowledge with you for all the years you are at McMaster and you can factor in your mood, your deadline and whatever else you need to worry about and always know the best places to go.
2. Think about where your next class is in an hour
There are 4 libraries on campus, each in various corners of campus. All of them have computers, study carrels, and group study rooms, so go to a location closest to your next class. That way, when your hour is almost up, you won’t have to trek back the opposite way through campus to your class, you’ll already be halfway there!
That being said, if your class is around MDCL, the hospital, the psychology building, or the life science building, maybe the Health Science Library is your best option. If it’s near the arts quad, within the Degroote School of Business or in the Iwor Wynn Centre, try Innis Library. If it’s in Hamilton Hall, BSB, or Divinity College, Mills Library is pretty close by. And finally if your upcoming class is in the engineering building or ABB, try using Thode Library. Of course, you may build a preference for one library over the other, but this is a great way to save some traveling time.
3. Pre plan what you can work on for an hour
If you know that you have an hour break between your classes, decide the night before what you can work on in that time. Maybe there’s a chapter of reading you can catch up on, or some practice questions you can tackle. This way, you won’t have to waste time deciding during that hour.
Also, in pre-planning, you’ll know ahead of time what to take to campus with you that morning so that you won’t have to run back to your room when you finally do make up your mind.
4. Just start!
Once you know where you’re heading and you know what you have to do, go, find a seat and just crack open the books! The hardest thing is pretty much just getting started. Think of it like the gym. Getting off the couch takes the most motivation, but once you’re there, you just want to keep going at it and you feel really accomplished.
Similarly, I guarantee that after having done something, even a little bit, you’ll feel great. After all you didn’t waste your time. If you don’t get as much done as you’d hoped, know that something is better than nothing. And in the end, the little time you put in here and there, once you do get started, really adds up and in no time that chapter or those questions will be done, and you’ll have more time after classes to do things that face it, you’d rather do…like taking that long overdue nap!
