I'd say take it as needed.
They key word here being "as needed". For example, you might not actually "need" the whole .5 mg football as a single dose - for someone without a tolerance, a .25 mg dose of xanax is plenty for getting someone to relax, unless we're talking about an actual panic attack.
At a dose of .5 mg per day (.25 mg twice per day), xanax is actually pretty sustainable. Perhaps sometimes you'll need .75 mg per day, perhaps some days you can make do with just .25 mg or none at all. Also, try to keep track of your intake.
If you keep doing more than 1 mg per day, tolerance is just going to catch up with you quickly.
I'm not a fan of the idea of taking high doses for several days, then having 3 drug-free days - what are you going to do if you have a spike on one of said drug-free days?