Do you want to avoid pulling an all nighter at work or home?

Do you want a more comfortable way to complete your work?

Tired eyes, an aching body, a throbbing headache…sounds like the symptoms of an illness, right?

Actually, you can exhibit those very same symptoms when you stay up an entire night to complete a report, essay, term paper, or assignment.

This is also known as pulling an all-nighter.

All-nighters don’t just happen out of the blue.

They are the cumulative result of many days’ worth of poor time management.

In this post, you’ll find steps you can take to prevent yourself from ever having to pull an all nighter.

Here are a few key tips to help you organize your work and better manage your time.

Begin an assignment as soon as you receive it.

What’s the best way to make a dent in an assignment? Why, working on it as soon as possible, of course!

The sooner you begin, the more time you’ll have available to you to complete the assignment. 

Kick things off by thoroughly reviewing the details of your assignment. Preferably, you should take a look at an assignment the day you receive it.

If that isn’t possible, reviewing the assignment within the next couple of days will do.

Review your assignment and make sure you fully understand what is being asked of you. What do you need to read, research, study, or write?

If things are at all unclear, speak with the person who assigned the work to you so that you can get some solid answers.  

Schedule time in your calendar to work.

“That which gets scheduled, gets done.” It’s a simple fact, but when you schedule time to work on a project or assignment, things get done.

This is a much better work approach than just winging it. Or saying something along the lines of, “Oh, I’ll start working on that project in a little bit.”

Don’t feel as if you have to schedule a giant chunk of time each and every day in order to make progress.

If you set aside just thirty minutes each day to work on your project, you’ll be that much closer to finishing your work.

Don’t skip this step: pull out your schedule and write in exactly when you are going to work on your assignment.

Avoid spending too much time in one assignment area.

It’s all too easy to focus your attention on a particular area of an assignment.

For example, you might feel at home doing research in the library, but you completely balk at the thought of sitting down at the computer to write a paper.

As uncomfortable as you may feel, it is imperative you push through your discomfort zone(s) if you are to make progress. Time is of the essence.

You don’t have forever to complete your assignment; you must complete it by the due date.

If you’re still hesitating when it comes to starting a new section or area of your assignment, take a deep breath, and just dive in!

It’s far better to get started now, than to wait until the last minute.

Regularly review your calendar…and your progress.

So, when’s the due date for that assignment? If you haven’t yet made note of it in your calendar, do so now.

You might have been given smaller due dates, such as research or draft due dates. If so, be sure to mark those dates down in your calendar, too.

In addition to all of your project due dates, make sure you set aside weekly or daily check-ins for yourself to track your progress.

How about you? What steps are you eager to take to prevent an all-nighter? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!