Lire & STYLE. Have a fitness tip or recipe to share? Contact the editor at lifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca ae a a c oo = pone “ ™ = a | Break it to make it lop five productive ways to interrupt your workflow By Sophie Isbister, Life & Style Editor ven though it’s only week three of the fall semester, it’s not too early to talk about effective study habits. The jury is back on the topic of breaks, and numerous studies agree that the best way to maximize your productivity is to take regular breaks. Lifehack.org reports that a single “microbreak” (a break of anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes) can improve your mental alertness by an average of 13 per cent. Good stats aside, breaks are just fun as hell. I’ve compiled a list of the top five ways to take a break (and none of them involve eating a Kit Kat bar). 5, Move your eyeballs. Constantly staring at a book or computer screen can cause eye strain, so the shortest of all microbreaks can simply involve moving your eyes around. Look out the window, look at your cat, or just look at the air in front of your face. 4, Hydrate. Water is the best thing for you. Your brain is about 77 per cent water, which makes the easily accessible fluid crucial for the brain’s proper functioning. Getting up to grab a hit of H20 not only breaks you from your work, it moves your body and provides you with hydration—an added boon to your brainpower. 3. Tidy up. Tear your eyes away from your blank Word document and look around at your workspace. Are there empty glasses (from all that water)? Scattered coursework? Wayward pens and pencils? Do a five-minute clean blast on your desk—not only will it help you focus on your studying, it'll clear some physical space to help you breathe easier. 2. Make a change. Are you currently studying 18th century British literature? Take a break to do a Sudoku or read an article on coding HTML (wait, do people still use HTML?). Are you engrained in some heavy stats cramming? Set it aside to spend a few minutes sketching in a notebook, or writing a poem (wait, do people still write poems?). Switching the mind from a left brain (linear and analytical) task to a right brain (emotional and creative) task can provide some much-needed variety and stimulation. 1. Dance break! Topping the list of my favourite breaks is the classic dance break. It’s Photo courtesy of Sybren A. Stiivel (Flickr) exactly how it sounds—pick your favourite song, blast it from your computer speakers (roommates be damned!), and dance like nobody’s watching until it’s over. Moving your body wakes you up and stimulates your brain, and an upbeat song definitely has the power to energize you. Stopping for a break on the regular is one of the keys to academic success. When you're drowning in books, which you may already be, try to remember to be kind to your mind and engage in one of these popular breaks every hour or two. If all else fails, just have that Kit Kat bar. Planning for success How to get the most out of your organizer By Monica Rolinski, Columnist he fall semester has barely begun and already there are a lot of students—both new and veteran—racing around the concourse with scraps of paper clutched in their hands, knuckles whitening with anxious stress. Getting academically organized can be a daunting task. Once you factor in life’s pleasures and demands, even the better organized of us are, at times, juggling two full schedules. I don’t know about you, but I’m waiting for 10 someone to invent an app that'll allow me to be in two places at once! But, until said magical app is created, we have to muddle through to the best of our limited, and very human, capabilities. Luckily, we go to a college that provides a well- rounded experience, as well as the tools to get organized. The use of an organizer, also known as a day planner or agenda, can be incredibly helpful—and the Douglas Students’ Union (DSU) gives them away for free, along with many other helpful things. Here’s how, in three easy steps, you can be calm and collected (at least on the outside) the next time you cross through the concourse. You may even appear so put-together that you can help direct someone who’s still figuring things out, making you a leader among your peers! 1. Get your organizer. Pop into the DSU office, downstairs from the DSU main floor—you know, the place where all those great Pub Nights are held. Ask the nice, helpful people there for an organizer. If you have the time, take a tour while you're there! (Did you know the new computer lab offers 100 sheets of free printing per semester? That's definitely a service to take advantage of.) 2. Fillit up with your course material. Update it as you go along. It’s super easy because of the way it’s laid out. Unlike standard organizers, this is a student version specially designed to aid you, the student. The bonus of getting an organizer from Douglas College is the handy school info at the front that you can use all semester. There’s also a sheet of bright, colour-coded stickers for things like assignment due dates, important deadlines, exams, and holidays (so you don’t end up in class when you could have stayed home and watched Friends reruns). 3. Use your organizer to its full advantage. In order to get the maximum benefit from your agenda, you'll need to take it to school with you. Sounds like a no- brainer, right? Well, since working with this helpful tool may be new to you, it might take some getting used to. Apparently, it takes three weeks to replace an old habit with a new one. The best way to make sure you get off to a good start is to keep your organizer with your school supplies. Give it a nickname; for example, “my assistant.” Then, when you don’t know how to say no to something, you can say, “My assistant says my calendar is full, but thank you for the offer.”