Even if you've decided not to talk during the break, you should both pick an eventual date to check in, Chlipala says. "It might also help to give a deadline, so to speak, to complete the goals of the breakup in the first place," she says. If you choose not to communicate at all, and you don't pick a day to finally touch-base, then that defeats the purpose of going on a break, and you might as well just break up, Diaz says. "This is why establishing clear ground rules is essential to any progress you will have," she says. When you do eventually meet, you should try to be open to the possibility that the relationship might be over; and more importantly, be true to yourself, Brateman says. "Don't go crazy trying to change in order to make this relationship last, because inevitably it might not," she says. "People work too hard on relationships that will fail."