Throughout my entire academic career, I have never “pulled an all-nighter.” And, quite honestly, I do not know if I actually could. I have found that in order to be functional and productive during the day, I need to sleep for some amount of time the night before.
Luckily, throughout my years in school, I have developed strategies that enable me to sleep every night, no matter how many assignments, papers, or commitments I have each week. The following five habits I incorporate into my daily routine have enabled me to fulfill deadlines and sleep each night:
- Plan for Large Projects *Long* in Advance: At the beginning of every semester, I enter every significant assignment in my calendar and begin planning when I plan to work on or study for the problem set, paper, or exam. This enables me to prepare long in advance for weeks that are densely populated with large assessments and projects.
- Set Achievable, Small Goals Along the Way: Similarly, I make sure to examine the syllabi of each of my classes and section each large assignment, paper, or exam into smaller tasks.
- Time Block on Google Calendar: I then rely on my online calendar to establish personal check points and deadlines for each large task. I rely on the Google Calendar feature of “tasks” to monitor my progress and celebrate “little” milestones throughout the semester. During my most taxing weeks, I schedule my days down to 10 minutes so that I know when and what I intend to complete by the end of the day. This allows me to simply execute, and not worry about scheduling, my pressing tasks and deliverables.
2. Maintain Regular Exercise *Even* on Busy Weeks: On my busiest weeks, I rely even more heavily on regular exercise to relieve my stress. Although it might only be for 30-40 minutes, I find that this intermission from studying actually makes me more productive and also improves my mood, enabling me to be more focused and productive during my “study” time blocks. There exist many studies which affirm that regular movement improves your mood and productivity levels.
3. Go to Bed & Wake-Up Early: In the worst of cases, I will simply go to bed and set my alarm for 5:00am or 6:00am. I find that I am more productive early in the morning, after some sleep, than I am late in the evening, after a long day.
4. Stay Fueled & Hydrated While Studying: It is also important to drink plenty of water and stay fueled with healthy snacks and meals on your busiest weeks. Maintaining regular eating and exercise habits during times of increased stress are two very helpful ways to maintain a sense of normalcy and optimize your study sessions.