deadlines – The Orbital

Beth Carr on why we need to stop the habit of staying up all night to complete work It’s 3am on a Wednesday night and campus is buzzing. But it’s not the SU that’s full: it’s the library. Not so much buzzing with activity but buzzing with caffeine. This is a picture of end of term deadline season and it’s worrying to think about. A second year historian floats into her sixth consecutive all-nighter. An MA student spends 50 hours awake to complete an essay and falls asleep in the SU. Even first years don’t escape the lure of skipping sleep in order to complete work on time. Third years in the midst of dissertations keep the quietest about their essay writing habits, but with the increasing trend of squeezing work into the night before the due date, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of t...

After previously studying for a year at another university, and then completing my first year at Royal Holloway - I have had to learn the hard way that you need to look out for yourself. By this I don’t mean force yourself to be horrible to people. I’m simply suggesting, the times when you really know you can’t afford to deal with other people’s problems, choose not to! Many of us will stress over things like course work and money troubles, but you don’t have to put more on your plate when it’s full with everyone else’s problems. Even now, I still feel awful when I’m deliberately not replying to a message from a friend who may be going through anything from a break up to an existential crisis. But the truth is, this then means I can get on with that essay that was due without rushing to d...

Tag: deadlines

The Perils of All-Nighters

It’s Okay to Be Selfish and Say No