You know you’re a college student when you find yourself guzzling your third Bang Energy drink at three in the morning just to finish an assignment that you procrastinated for three weeks and is now due… today. While many college students experience this level of stress at some point in their college careers, this is preventable (believe it or not) with proper time management skills. While it might be difficult to break the habit of procrastination, a few minor tips and tricks might be all that you need to get to bed at a decent time. In this article, you will learn how to conquer your to-do list and to avoid all nighters once and for all.
Use a planner
Whether you prefer a digital or physical planner, investing in a planner can be life-changing. The brain was not made to store as much information as your to-do list might include, but putting the information down on paper will keep you from forgetting it. Not only can you write down your assignments, but you can also include important events and dates. Just remember that once you have written in the planner, make it a habit to check the planner frequently–otherwise, you will still forget things. This will help prevent all-nighters because you will know well in advance that you have an assignment to do, which will make you more likely to get it done in a timely manner.
Schedule time for studying and time for resting
Throughout your day, you are given many opportunities to choose whether you will study, sleep, watch Tiktoks, exercise, or relax with your friends. All of these are fine activities, however, you might feel like you’re often choosing some of these options over another. Rather than allowing yourself to choose between these activities based on how you feel in the moment, you can plan beforehand what you are going to do by making a clear schedule for your day.
For example, maybe in between your first and second class, you have an hour-long break. You can make the most use of your time by scheduling that hour as a study session. Then in the evening, rather than only working on homework, you will have a couple of hours to schedule as rest. Having a plan will keep you focused and decrease the amount of decisions you have to make during the day. It’s all about being intentional. By the time you get to the important deadline or exam date, you will already have spent many hours studying, and there will be no need to pull an all-nighter.
Take a Break
Maybe the reason you are always having to pull all nighters all of the time is because you are simply burnt out and cannot get yourself to study until the very last minute. Burnout is a natural part of college, but that doesn’t mean it's completely unavoidable. One way you can help prevent burnout by taking frequent breaks.
As said above, it is important to schedule time for work and time for rest, and if you fail to give yourself rest, you might find yourself burnt out. Even in an individual study session, a short break might be all that you need to reset your focus and put yourself in a better mental space to work on your assignments.
One common method for incorporating breaks into your studying is the Pomodoro method, where you spend 25 minutes working, followed by a 5 minute break. Having these frequent scheduled breaks will help make studying a little more appealing, which will keep you from putting it off until you are forced to stay up through the night.
Apart from taking breaks throughout the study session, your body and mind will also benefit from the longer breaks that are built into the school year: Winter break, Spring break, Summer break, Fall break, Thanksgiving break, etc… When you finally get to these much-needed breaks, take advantage of them and give yourself some rest. Your body and mind will thank you for giving them some time to think about and do other things not related to school, and you will feel much better about resuming your studies after you have recharged.
Stay Away from Your Phone
You’re going to hate this (sorry), but do you ever check your amount of screen time on your phone during the past week? (I do–I despise that feature). Even worse, do you ever check to see where the time was spent? (For me, it is definitely the dictionary app and NOT Instagram…) If you really want to get your work done, you will need to get your phone away from you. This might mean placing it in your bag when you enter the library, putting it on airplane mode and facedown on your desk, or even leaving it in another room entirely.
Your phone is a useful tool, but it can also be a distraction. All of the school-related things that your phone can do can also be done on your computer (such as playing music, writing essays, Google searching). Don’t let your phone be the reason you have to stay up all night finishing an assignment. While your phone may not get to participate in your study routine, you can always check it during the study breaks you remembered to schedule for yourself. :)
5. Do less
Yes, that’s right. Do less. In our American society, hustle culture is prevalent–everyone wants to do everything–but that doesn’t mean you have to conform to this norm if it is causing you to take on too much. If you really want to take control of your time, you might have to make some sacrifices; you just might have to say ‘no.’
Rather than doing everything, you can put more effort into less. This might look like dropping a few credit hours, decreasing your work hours, or staying in on a Friday night because you’re tired and need to rest. FOMO (fear of missing out) is bad, I know, and academic FOMO is real, too, but good time management requires that you pick and choose how you will spend your time. It’s not about how much you do, but about how well you do it.
I hope you found at least a few of these tips helpful. I can’t promise these will prevent you from ever having to stay up all night again, but I do encourage you to try using some of these tricks and see what works for you.
I love the Pomodoro Method. Thank you, Anne. This is very informative.
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