Despite consuming what must be a dangerous amount of coffee, you still can’t manage to keep your eyes open for more than thirty seconds. Grainger is mostly empty by now, with just you and a few unfortunate souls remaining. Right as you finish that last problem set, the sun is beginning to show itself. The dreaded all-nighter — we’ve all been there.

Well actually, I’ve never been there. I pretty much pieced that scene together from stories I’ve heard from friends. As my penultimate semester at the University comes to a close, it’s beginning to look like I will never have to give up a night’s sleep for the sake of my studies. Friends chock this up to luck, or laziness, or the fact that I’m just an English major. There may be some truth to the last one, but it mostly comes down to a few time management tricks that I’ve picked up over the years. With three high-stress, low-motivation weeks left in the fall semester, a lot of students see an all-nighter or four in the near future. But if you follow my simple advice, you can still make the grades and still get that much needed shuteye.

*1. Make an overly ambitious schedule.*

Faced with a mountain of homework, a lot of people like to make a schedule of work to do in advance. Say you have a seven-page paper due on Tuesday. You might decide to write four pages on Sunday, because you also have an exam on Tuesday. That sounds good in theory, but I’ve learned from experience that self imposed deadlines are really easy to break. Once Sunday rolls around, I quickly discover that the Bears, “The Walking Dead” and naps all seem a lot more pressing than a paper that isn’t even due for two days; after a paragraph or so, I decide that I’ve done more than enough. Around 10 on Monday night, I’ll realize that I made a mistake. So instead, I tell myself that I am going to get the entire paper done on Sunday. Won’t it be grand to go to class on Monday without that paper hanging over my head? I’ll never really know if it’s grand because I will not actually finish the paper on Sunday (“The Walking Dead” is a really good show). I’ll still break my deadline, but instead of just a paragraph, I’ll actually write about four pages before I decide I’ve done more than enough. This way, instead of choosing between grades and sleep the next night, I’ll have left myself with a completely reasonable amount of work.

*2. Use whatever time you have.*

We all have those sporadic breaks throughout the day. An hour between two classes, a 90-minute gap separating class from work and of course the completely useless 30-minute break. It’s tempting to tell yourself that there’s no sense in doing homework at these times — they’re too short to get any real work done. But these little breaks add up; an hour here and an hour there becomes two more hours in bed. I know, you’re exhausted, and it seems a lot better to sink into the couch and find something to watch on Netflix. But think how much better it will feel to finish your homework by 11 p.m. and then sink into the couch and find something to watch on Netflix. As a bonus, once you find a movie you can go on Facebook and enjoy the creative ways people find to inform their friends that they’re spending the night at UGL, with no “I should really get back to work” guilt.

*3. When push comes to shove, pick sleep.*

This one applies to exams more than papers. If you have a final paper you obviously need to stay up until it’s done. But I firmly believe that after a certain point, sleep becomes more important than studying. I’ve never stayed up all night for academic reasons, but I have gone without sleep a few nights in my life. No matter how much coffee I drink, I know I would not feel mentally prepared to take a test that could make or break my grade. So if you’re approaching 2 a.m. and you have a test at 8 a.m., just call it a night. The sleep is going to do you more good than those extra few hours of cramming.

These last few weeks are definitely going to drag, and with winter break just out of reach you probably won’t feel like working very hard. It won’t be fun, but just follow this advice and you won’t lose any sleep over it.

_Kevin is a senior in LAS._