Don’t let SNL keep you from your A and Bs.

The SNL standby line is a special place. 

For those unfamiliar with it, the standby line is for prospective audience members of Saturday Night Live. If a person wants to see an in-person taping and be part of the live audience for the show, they must enter a lottery system at 10 am on the Thursday before a taping. After receiving a number in their email (and hopefully it’s a lower one), the person will arrive at West 49th and 6th Avenue on Friday night around 6 pm and wait in a line up according to their assigned number for six hours to receive a standby card for potential access to the live taping.

It’s these six hours that make the standby line experience. While it’s encouraged to bring a chair, blankets, snacks, water, and a dream, six hours is a lot of time to wonder whether it’s worth it to sit in the cold for six hours, exactly who the musical guest is, or if you should pitch that week’s musical guest to Bacchanal. 

But there’s also time to do work. 

Obviously, no one likes to think about productivity on the weekend but think about it. You’re spending six hours in line and will need to set aside about 4 hours the next night. That’s 10 hours of your time gone. 

The best method is to use your six hours of line time to study. Here’s how.

Bring a chair. You’ll need a comfortable surface to do your work. For best results, I would bring a foldable mesh camping chair. It’s moderately cozy and likely has some cup holders for drinks.

Bring water. No place to refill a bottle (to my knowledge), but you can focus if you’re not 100% dehydrated.

Have a study buddy. Even if the person you go with has nothing to do, give them something to do. Working with someone keeps morale high. This is no Butler study date, but it’s enough. Braving the cold with a friend while the wind whips your face as you finish an essay just to make sure you have enough free time to see Charli XCX is all that’s needed. 

Bring a ground blanket. It’s cold, and, if you don’t have a chair (and are too cheap to buy one), you can lay on the NY sidewalk with a thin piece of fabric between you. 

Bring portable chargers. If you like to work on your iPad (or play games on your phone), bring a portable charger to keep your electronics all charged up.

Print your work. If you want to stay offline, you need to make sure you are offline. This means printing out your PSet (and maybe just giving up on it). 

Wear noise-canceling headphones or earbuds. It’s loud. You are quite literally sitting on the streets of New York. So, just in case that’s a problem for you, wear some headphones and put on some music.

Dress warmly. Now that it is getting a little chilly out, make sure you have layers, warm socks, a hat, and maybe even gloves with a touchscreen capacity. 

Leech off the Rockefeller Wifi. If you are lucky enough to be close to Rockefeller, use that wifi.  If not, try using a personal hotspot, or make sure to download any materials you’ll need offline. 

Consider not doing work at all. You can bring the laptop… but do you have to see the laptop?

The SNL line is no joke. But, it can be the most productive thing you can do. Personally, I finished 3 assignments just by laying in that line. So, the next time you think you need to lock in, try locking in at SNL.

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