Pulling an all-nighter

Double Z

How do you do it? How do you keep your spirits high to keep going?

Right now I got the greasiest tacos I could find at this hour and a Red-Bull like energy drink, but twice the size. I listen to a lot of music to keep me from killing myself and every few hours take a break to watch something funny on Youtube.

lackofcheese

Well, your strategy is pretty good.

Personally, I don't find pulling all-nighters to be excessively taxing; Once I start working on something I generally will keep going for a long time.

Funfetus

I find that whenever I'm stuck sitting at the desk all night, it helps a lot to get up and stretch for a few minutes every hour or so. Not just a stretch-the-arms-and-walk-around thing, but really do some stretches. I do some yoga-like stuff we used to do in Jiu Jitsu. It keeps you from getting all stiff (my back tends to hurt when I sit in the chair for too long) and reinvigorates you a bit.

whatever

If you feel super tired, take a shower.

Funfetus

Also, it helps a lot to enjoy what you're doing. Make it game! See how many all-nighters you can pull in an hour, and then try to beat that record!

Double Z

Also, it helps a lot to enjoy what you're doing. Make it game! See how many all-nighters you can pull in an hour, and then try to beat that record!

Heh. The Simpsons FTW.

I like the shower idea, but what if you are at school? There is no shower at the robotics lab, unless I go to the chemistry labs.

EsonLinji

I try not to pull all nighters. I've found that the extra work I do during the night is always negated by the lack of work I do the next day due to how tired I am. Sometimes the best thing to do is stop and recharge.

lackofcheese

I try not to pull all nighters. I've found that the extra work I do during the night is always negated by the lack of work I do the next day due to how tired I am. Sometimes the best thing to do is stop and recharge.

Generally all-nighters are pulled in situations where work the next day would be pointless or risky because the deadline is too close.
Also, I would say that a solid block of work is always good. Unless you have a tendency to get a decent amount of work done on a daily basis, worrying about "negating future work" by doing a significant block of work earlier is foolishness.

Coldguy

All nighters never work! It will just make you tired for when you are taking the exam that you spent all night studying for, there is no point to them.

What you should have done is use better time management skills so that you would have avoided staying up all night, a good night sleep is better for your brain to process information then 20 coffee and red bull shooters.

lackofcheese

All nighters never work! It will just make you tired for when you are taking the exam that you spent all night studying for, there is no point to them.

I do agree that for exams, all-nighters often do more harm than good. However, generally all-nighters are pulled for assignments rather than exams.

Sail

My strategy is pretty much the same as yours. Caffine, food, and music.

Li_Akahi

The only all-nighter I have pulled was when I camped out for my Wii. The only way I stayed up all night was because it was amazingly cold that night.

Erwin

How do you do it? How do you keep your spirits high to keep going?

Right now I got the greasiest tacos I could find at this hour and a Red-Bull like energy drink, but twice the size. I listen to a lot of music to keep me from killing myself and every few hours take a break to watch something funny on Youtube.

why are you pulling an all nighter?

Double Z

Well the all nighter sort of failed, I passed out somewhere around 4:30am. Well see how today goes.

why are you pulling an all nighter?

I've got two projects due on Tuesday. On one of them, the grade I get on the project is the grade I get for the semester on that class. The other just counts a part of the final grade, but since I slacked off during the semester I have to get a 100 (Perfectly doable). Plus this is my last semester, so if I wanna graduate I need to pass all my classes.

And my teammates are fucking morons. Yesterday they managed to set us back on one of the projects.

Erwin

Well, that sucks. The only thing I can tell you is keep on going and do not give up remember your diploma at the end of the road, that will give you enough motivation to not fall sleep

lackofcheese

And my teammates are fucking morons. Yesterday they managed to set us back on one of the projects.

Bad luck mate. Still, keep up the right attitude, and I hope you'll do well.
At university, we had one project where while the teams were chosen for us, they were grouped based on grade point average. I reckon that was a good way to go about it.

Double Z

At university, we had one project where while the teams were chosen for us, they were grouped based on grade point average. I reckon that was a good way to go about it.

I don't know about that, sometimes the guys with the highest grades are the ones that simply don't know how to work and interact in teams.

lackofcheese

I don't know about that, sometimes the guys with the highest grades are the ones that simply don't know how to work and interact in teams.

You have a point, but that wasn't the case for me at least. In my opinion it's probably best to say that a GPA says basically nothing about your ability to work in a team.
However, if you're in a team with poor teamwork but good individually, at the very least you can split the work up and they'll get it done by themselves.

ColdfireSerge

A few weeks ago I stumbled across this page. "How to Pull an All-Nighter".
All of the tips there seem good.

Σπεκωσποκ

Extremely hot coffee (if it doesn't burn you, it's not hot enough) followed by extremely cold water to the face in large quantities keeps me awake for hours. Also, ice cubes to the eyes work well to ward off "droopy eye". Just be careful not to have a heart attack.

Boy Blue

Typically coffee keeps me up... but when it's "go time" and I gotta actually finish work, the stress and pressures to finish in time is enough to keep me up.

Dkong

If you feel super tired, take a shower.

This could be bad. There have been times that while showering at 3am, I've dozed off. Sure, I'd wake up 10-15 seconds later due to the water...but if you're really fucking tired (which I'm not at 3am), you could fall asleep and then who knows what would happen. Maybe nothing. But maybe you could slip and fall or something like that...
Not worth the risk, IMO.

...

If you feel super tired, take a shower.

This could be bad. There have been times that while showering at 3am, I've dozed off. Sure, I'd wake up 10-15 seconds later due to the water...but if you're really fucking tired (which I'm not at 3am), you could fall asleep and then who knows what would happen. Maybe nothing. But maybe you could slip and fall or something like that...
Not worth the risk, IMO.

You shouldn't be putting the temperature to hot then. I personally get tired and sleepy when I take a nice and warm shower.

Churba

I pull them all the time - Hell, I pull them all the time even if you discount the fact I spend half my working life hopping timezones like a lightspeed jackrabbit.

Zeehat

like lightspeed Jazz Jackrabbit.

mattman

Only time I pulled an all-nighter was back was when I had to write an English paper that I wasn't confident about. The procrastination was able to keep me up until about 6:00am.

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

There was one week where I procrastinated for the entire week beforehand on something like three papers. I ended up staying awake until at least 3 AM three nights in a row in order to finish them. I never want to do something like that again.

Linton

I slept only four hours one night and then pulled two consecutive all nighters to finish my uni portfolio. I survived on continous coke light and it wasn't too bad. If you're going to take the caffeine approach make sure you drink it pretty much continuously, not only when you start to feel tired. I find when my eyes start drifting there's no going back from there.

It wasn't too bad, i think it helps when you're doing something that you're interested in though. Don't worry about being too tired for whatever you have the next day if it's quite a short exam (or in my case interview). If its under one hour then adrenaline will carry you through, but otherwise you will fade significantly.

Viga

I did an all nighter once during the dead artist week. (What I call the week before the student art show and animation showings.) Never again! I didn't want to touch flash for awhile afterwards. *cowers from memory*

CHOIS CHOIS CHOIS

I go to the gas station, I buy 2, 4 packs of monster energy drinks. I chug the first 2 and then every two hours drink another. It gives me a buzz like no other.
I pull all-nighters at least once every two months. My teachers think it's a great idea to give you a 2 week worth project and expect it to be done in 2 days.

Σπεκωσποκ

By the way, try not to sleep after about noon on the day afterwards (before you would normally go to bed), or your biological clock will get fucked up.