We’ve all had one of those unwavering situations in our academic career when we are loaded with piles of challenging work, stuck between staying up those extra couple of hours to complete them on absolutely no energy or calling it a night with a “I’ll just wake up early and do it tomorrow.”
In these moments, it becomes so easy to just keep your eyes open and do everything it takes to complete your assignments. It seems like many students would opt to knock out the tough labor, draining themselves and their minds of any productivity; however, staying up all night isn’t the right way to complete these tasks.
As a college student who knows the pain of leaving work to be done at the last minute, I have found a pretty simple alternative to going for an all-nighter: sleeping a healthy amount.
Now I know how crazy that may sound, as there is usually never enough time to do work that warrants overnight attention in less than an hour, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
To most people, time feels more like a restraint than it does an opportunity to see your ability in a measured arrangement. This means that a person who concentrates on the factor of time when doing work is only focused on how long it will take them, not the work that they are completing.
Focusing solely on time distracts in the same way that music, friends or a phone would when doing any regular assignment. No one can resist the pull of Instagram, Snapchat or Spotify while doing work, especially a bored college student.
The best solution to this problem is to limit as many distractions as possible, making the student primarily focused on their work and nothing else. So, with only 45 minutes to go until class, and a strict deadline for an assignment, the only thing to focus on is the work.
Applying this pressure convinces said student to do their work as quickly and as efficiently as possible, thoroughly attempting to complete everything that they can with swiftness.
Not only will their brain solely be absorbed in the content of the material, they also won’t have to deal with the deterioration of their mind at 2 or 3 in the morning! Being well-rested and in a hurry makes for a surprisingly good combination. Letting the information sit in your head while you doze off for a normal amount of sleep can help you retain it better as well.
In the end, it all comes down to what a person is willing to do to fight for an A on their assignments. All I’m saying is that the best method for working on those late-night, forgotten tasks is to procrastinate until the morning, and use the knowledge and time you have remaining to your advantage.
