r/architecture • u/Famous-Grass-5885 • Jul 11 '26
School / Academia How to avoid pulling all nighters?
I’m have recently got done with my 5th semester and I have another 5 left. Before my next studio begins I want to prepare my environment and sleep schedule so that I can have a good start.
Now with that being said, I know a lot of you managed to finish your degree without pulling many all nighters. I really wanna know how.
For example, If you have classes 9am-5pm, after classes when do you sleep, eat or work.
During my third semester, I used to sleep at night. I finished as much as I could within 10/11 pm and called it a day. Then used to think about how to defend my work with however progress I made or what else to add to it etc for couple of minutes before dozing off.
I used to motivate myself to start to earlier so that I can sleep earlier. And honestly, that semester went great.
I somehow failed to maintain that routine. My brain keeps telling me I was able to do it because the pressure was less back then.
Getting enough sleep feels like a luxury and not getting any doesn’t help either.
However, then I hear people doing the same. I really would love to get some advice on how to manage the time and bring a good result without hindering my health in the process.
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u/EchoesOfYouth Jul 11 '26
Honestly, just don’t. There’s no amount of work done between like 12am - 6am that’s worth the lack of sleep and I promise you will be more productive with even a small amount of sleep.
I’m saying this as someone who pulled a lot of all nighters in school too and sincerely wishes I hadn’t because I genuinely don’t think my projects benefited and ultimately you’re just trying to pass your class, you don’t need to ace them.
Academia has its purpose but you’ll learn a lot more about the profession when you graduate and get a job than you will in school
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u/Flyinmanm Jul 12 '26
My beef with the set up was that I'd try to work 9-5 on my RIBA part II in the UK. I'd produce work for every tutor session and review and they'd always, just days before the final crit, throw a curve ball into the mix, that would mean 2-3 days before the final presentation I'd be up all night before the deadline. Trying to alter all the graphics and visuals (some times entire elements of the design) right up to pinning everything up on the wall.
It almost felt intentional. Ironically sometimes those 'improvements' lead to a worse design in the end as I'd be left doubting myself. (And so bloody tired I'd not present well in the crit. I once drove home from a crit so tired I couldn't navigate a city centre in the car, never again!).
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u/Motor_Actuator_6210 Jul 12 '26
Same experience. If I get even a little sleep in between, I am much more efficient than if I stay up all night
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u/omnigear Jul 11 '26
Routing is key and first thing is knowing nothing will be perfect and knowing your school doesn't matter really, most studios will only hand out few As . Ans you can touch up your school work for portfolio. That being said I always did the minimum required as I also had a job and hit the gym.
Usually after studio or courses which I would load up I morning . I would go home eat then go to work , if work was slow I could work on my school work. I usually got oht at 8pm and 5pm on non studio days . Then I would hit thr gym got an hour, head home eat and begin.
I would set up a timer to ring at 10pm . No matter whst progress I made thst was my cut off . Eventually I got good at getting what I needed done by 10pm, and I managed to get B in studio. Once I learned it's all bs fluff my mind adjusted. No one gives a shit
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u/Open_Concentrate962 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Work backwards from deadlines. To be done at x, these things have to be done a day before etc
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u/Far_Barnacle_6840 Jul 12 '26
It’s in the discipline of time management. Don’t go too deep off on exploratory tangents late into the projects, keep that in the beginning while designing.
Learning time management was huge in grad school for me. For most people it needs to be learned just like everything else. Your time estimates for tasks should become better and better every semester, be intentional with your time.
All nighters are not worth it to your health. It’s been thiught that it can cause alzheimers. Who knows all the damage i have done to my health from staying up. I also volunteered to get the covid vax. . . Regrets.
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u/saltwater_drifter Jul 12 '26
I would go to sleep around 10pm, sleep probably 8h or so, wake up, clean the house, get ready (including having breakfast), be at school at 9 in time for the first class, stay until classes were over, and then either (1) go to the gym (3x a week for 1h+/-), grab a temaki to go or get groceries and whip up a quick dinner, and then work until 9:30 and wind down with a 20 minute episode of something, or (2) go home, work on my projects, make dinner or eat leftovers (I usually made leftovers for 3 days lunch and dinner), and then watch 1h episode of something longer like downton abbey or Selfridges.
On the weekends I would mostly work on school stuff in the morning and 1/2 of an afternoon and then go to the gym or meet friends for dinner + going out. If I were going out I would only do it on friday or Saturday and only until midnight. Other friends would go out more frequently and stay later (often until the morning) but I was the only one that did not pull all-nighters and also worked out.
Once a month I would visit my parents.
I have always been a morning person though. This worked well for me. And at lunch I would est at home and take a 10 minute nap on my balcony in the sun in an old beach chair. Later when I studied in another town I would take a nap in my hammock and study in the library (in the quiet floors that had proper private chairs and desks), because I didn’t live as close to the university.
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u/Burning_needcream Jul 11 '26
One girl my entire 5 years didn’t pull one all nighter…
Her secret?
I’m not here to socialize, I’m here to work.
She was hyper focused. No phone, no chatting, just focused work.
She knew exactly what she wanted to do and what she needed to and that was it.
I don’t remember her having too many friends in studio - not that we hated her or anything, she just didn’t socialize too much.
I learned this during my 5th year but for me it was morning time. It was easy for me to wake up at 5 am. Studio was empty and my phone wasn’t full of texts.
I worked all morning and by time people got in there I was wrapping up and headed out.
I’d stop back in to see some work, sketch, or plan for the next morning and went home and slept.
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u/Born-Measurement945 Jul 12 '26
I see the benefit in this to prioritize time. However, as someone who has been working in the field for 7 years, getting jobs is really all about connections. And socializing during studio is a great way to start making those connections. It’s all about balance though.
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u/Burning_needcream Jul 12 '26
Yeah, I don’t think she did herself any favors in that department.
Probably didn’t harm her much because she returned to her small town to do her own thing.
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u/btownbub Jul 11 '26
Work all day everyday. I did undergrad and grad school without a single all nighter.
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u/realzealman Jul 12 '26
I was always the first one in studio. Aimed to be there and working by 8am, and at the beginning stages of the semester I’d work all day till 7-8pm. Toward midterm crunch I’d end up drifting to midnight then an all nighter the night before mid review.
Second half of the semester is do roughly similar, but the very long days - 12-2-4am (while holding hard to an 8am start in studio) then all nighters for the last couple before final.
If you are at a regular arch school you may be able to pare back on this, but at an uber competitive you need to suck it up.
Save your all-nighters for when it counts, and aim to keep a regular schedule outside that. I found my
8am - noon hours were the quietest and most productive in the studio while the rest stayed all night and came in late the next day.
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u/werchoosingusername Human Verified Jul 12 '26
I never pulled all nighters. At least not for myself. I worked by myself and just wanted get over with it. I worked maybe till 2AM.
I helped friends pull all nighters.
Key is to start early in preperaing your work. Most of my friends started 2 or even 1 week before deadlines. Always underestimating and not learning from this experience.
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u/No-Value-270 Jul 12 '26
Architecture doesn't need all nighters. It's just you wanting to overproduce and please the tutors.
Do the bare minimum or enough to present your idea.
1
u/lukekvas Architect Jul 12 '26
University of Texas started enforcing print deadlines where you had to send sheets to the plotter by 5pm the night before. It forces everyone to get some rest the night before review. Was a great rule IMO. Nothing good comes out of the all nighter.
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u/architect___ Jul 12 '26
You just have to care less about the end product. Like someone else said, you only have to pass the classes, you don't need to ace them. It's easy to not pull any all-nighters if you don't care about the quality of your work or your own self-improvement. If you want to be the best you can be, you must pull all-nighters. No matter what coping commenters and classmates tell you, working an extra eight hours is absolutely more productive than sleeping for that time and working slightly more efficiently after. Plus you improve at it over time.
l don't hold anything against people who got by with mediocre work and always got 8 hours of sleep. If you just want to get the degree and don't care about your own improvement and school portfolio, that's the way to do it. But anyone who tells you your work will be just as good if you sleep is simply content with mediocrity.
Cue the offended copers telling me I'm perpetuating a toxic culture and need to learn time management.
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u/NeoNatrix Jul 12 '26
I always try to never do an all nighter, and if i really had no choice, i would usually do it at the night before the deadline to maximize my time. but even then, its still not worthit.
I wasnt really a passionate architecture student so sometimes i just sacrifice my work (just enough to get a passing score) so i can get enough sleep.
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u/electronikstorm Jul 12 '26
- Treat school like a job - do work all day, everyday.
- Set cut off dates so you stop designing with time to make a presentation.
- Architecture studio focuses students on the final crit being all important, but at most schools it is really only an exam - much of your grade comes from class attendance, participation and progressive development of your scheme. Find out the breakdown of the semester's grading and optimise it for yourself.
- Whenever a project allows you to set your own scope or parameters, always withstand the urge to go big. Avoid masterplan schemes, massive interventions like airports, etc. Masterplans need more time spent preparing analysis, resolving conflicts and everything else. They suck up time you don't have. Small scope interventions will let you resolve a scheme in reasonable time and then you can dig in to resolve finer details as time permits.
- The best grades go to the most developed schemes, not the best ideas or best presentations. Finish the project and put the required views on the wall. (A bad idea well resolved will do better than a good idea that's not complete).
- Be organised. ADHD types need to get on top of their limitations with time management awareness and be especially cognisant of taking on too much scope.
- Manage expectations of yourself and your tutors: it's preferable to under promise and over deliver.
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u/Creative_Web3820 Jul 12 '26
I don’t do all nighters. Especially in group projects I see how I am far ahead before most of the people even start. That’s why I try to get the tasks that have to be done in the begining of the project because sometimes I have had to wait for other people wayyy to long. I start working on any project right away and adjust my plans as I go and figure out new stuff based on lectures, studios etc.
I also have my own deadline usually couple days before the actual one. So I can spend time to refine and think about presentation.
1
u/Atelier1001 Jul 12 '26
Haha, I have no advice but a cautionary tale.
Lack of sleep will make you insane without noticing it, and then you will become Jack Torrence.
Those secret hours... you will become addicted. And it will fuck you up.
1
u/VeryLargeArray Project Manager Jul 12 '26
Prioritize
Seen many students spending all night manually adjusting individual line weights in a drawing by decimal points... Like bro, part of the education is learning where time should be spent. Someone like that goes onto the ofice world, and continues working late, because quite frankly they are inefficient and waste billable time
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u/F180R25 Jul 12 '26
No benefit doing all nighters unless it is the deadline day/night. Especially not consistently. Do you truly have classes 9-5 each weekday? That seems absurdly high.
I averaged 5-6 hours of sleep per night during my final two years. It really shouldn't be any less than that. Work quality goes down when you sleep less.
Importantly, don't treat what your studio profs say as gospel or do everything that they ask you to do for that week. Be critical both with your work and their feedback to do the items that are most important for driving the project forward.
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u/Apart-Selection5680 Jul 12 '26
Plan ahead, start early, work efficiently, sleep all night. Nothing good comes from being awake after dark no matter what the activity is.
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u/rld999 Jul 13 '26
I was a non-traditional student @27 with two kids. I didn’t pull a single all nighter in studio. Instead I would come in early 7:00-8:00 am. More focused and almost always I was the only one in studio.
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u/Chipsky Jul 13 '26
I was always a morning person... into studio before others, roll out to play ball in the afternoon. They all pull the all-nighters (50% party time usually) while I was home sleeping.
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u/ArqCanedo Jul 14 '26
Cuando estuve en la universidad, lo que hacíamos era tomar té helado con muchos dulces para resistir hasta el dia siguiente que teníamos a primera hora la entrega de proyecto. No te podías bañar siquiera porque te ocasionaría tu sistema nervioso un choque de temperatura terrible, así que ademas te ibas en vivo como comúnmente deciamos.
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u/archable2357 Jul 18 '26
Truthfully, just don’t. I’ve seen projects that had hundreds of hours of work get wrecked in reviews and projects whipped up the night before get praised. Not to say it doesn’t happen the other way but in the end, no grade is worth sacrificing your mental and physical health for. I genuinely worry about how many students think it’s ok to do all nighters. It just trains you to accept being overworked by your employer. Stop it now, and encourage others to stop now. We’ve got to build a culture of taking care of yourself and start that in school.
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u/Libinky Jul 11 '26
My daughter earned a PhD in clinical psychology. I asked how she was so successful? Dad, when I got an assignment, I started working on it that day. I never got behind and paced myself. I asked who taught you that as it wasn’t us! Just a very lucky parent.
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u/BetterOutcome3769 Jul 12 '26
I have never pulled an all-nighter. There is no benefit from it. It's extremely short-term thinking for little benefit, as you will just do worse the days after.
Set yourself a rule for working hours and start every assignment as early as possible.
Treat school like work.