The study break is a wonderful invention. So wonderful, in fact, that you probably don’t even realize how many of them you take. Since you are an intelligent Colgate student who never gets distracted, you earn every second of your breaks. It’s a fact that the human brain can only maintain high levels of focus for 20 minutes at a time. Between these 20-minute periods of laser-like concentration, students must take study breaks to rejuvenate the mind, body and soul. What should a Colgate student do during his ten minute study break that will afford their mind an opportunity to relax, and allow their brain to come back fresh and productive? Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your study breaks.

To start out, let’s assume that you haven’t been using Facebook, Facebook chat, Twitter, text message, Gmail chat, or AIM for the past 30 seconds. Clearly, the first thing you want to do during your break is to update and check all of these things. Maybe during this time you could do important things like change your Facebook profile picture. For girls, maybe you can add more photos of you dressed up and pre-gaming with all of your friends, or for guys you might want to add more pictures of you participating in sports or drinking beer. As you have probably updated and checked these things hundreds of times before, this part of your break should only occupy a maximum of two minutes.

The next thing you must do during your break, is get up from you seat in the library and walk around a little. What you want to do is find the most attractive guy/girl from your classes and begin to complain to them about the unfair assignment your professor just gave. After all, now you have an excuse to talk to this cutie. This accomplishes two devious goals. First, it “plants the seed.” It proves to them that you actually exist and that, indeed, you do have a name. Second, it gives you an opportunity to show them that you are in fact that witty, down-to-earth, cool, social person that your Facebook page makes you out to be. Of course, you are required to ask them three questions 1) How is your work going? 2) Have you done the class reading for tomorrow? 3) How much longer are you going to be in the library? Do not worry about remembering their responses, these are not important. All that is important is to maintain the false appearance of concern for the progress of their work. This multi-leveled interaction should take about four minutes.

Next, while you are making your way back to your seat in the library, you must incessantly check your cell phone for new messages. It is terrible for your image to be seen aimlessly walking around the library. If you do not have any new texts to reply to, it is important that you remain glued to your cell phone anyway. Maybe change your cell’s background picture or add some fresh new ring tones. As long as you appear socially engaged at all times, you are in the clear. And remember, if anyone you don’t want to talk to tries to strike up a convo, just ignore them. You have no use for this sort of time drain. Walking around the library should take around two minutes.

So by now you’re back in your seat and you realize you only have a few more moments left in your break. You must use them wisely. For ladies, now is the perfect opportunity to check the J. Crew and Banana Republic websites for any updates. This is also the ideal opportunity to search for dresses for next month’s formal, and order any shoes/boots that you may need in the near future. For guys, now is the best time to check sports scores, update your fantasy rosters and order the necessities for your protein shakes. Do this quickly because your break is almost over.

Now that you have updated everything you could possibly update, you have indirectly flirted, you have walked around the library while improving your image and used the internet to order whatever it is that you need, you should pat yourself on the back. You are at the conclusion of an amazingly productive study break. Put on those earphones, check the texts one last time, and take off those shoes. You are ready to work.