The all-nighter is a common occurrence in architecture today, especially in school. We briefly explored the reasons for this growing phenomenon in The Architecture Student's Guide to Studio, but let's dive a little deeper into the issue. Here are 2 things you should ask yourself before you decide to pull an all-nighter:

Would I be better off getting rest and returning to the work?

Tiredness is one of the primary factors in decreased performance, both mentally and physically. We think we are "sticking it out" and "working hard" by staying awake for 48 plus hours with no sleep. We even brag about it to each other. During school, I'd always show up to studio early in the morning and one day, a colleague who had been up for around two and half days came up to me visibly exhausted and told me she kept hallucinating and having "visions." After she told me this she walked back to her desk and continued working.

I've done this before too (not to the extreme of my colleague). I stay late, trying to "be a good worker" and end up sitting there staring at my computer screen, dozing off, spacing out, or cutting myself with an xacto blade (this happened twice while in school, both times because of tiredness). In most cases, getting some sleep and returning to your work will allow you to do in an hour what your all-nighter self would have to do in two.

How can I manage my time better next time?

Almost universally, scrambling to finish a big project at the last minute (the typical reason for an all-nighter) is a result of bad time management and planning. There is a quote I always share from Tim Ferriss: "Being busy is a form of laziness — lazy thinking and indiscriminate action." If you constantly find yourself stressed out the day before a presentation or deadline because you still have a ton of work to do, it is time to have a serious time of reflection.

Do things come up? Of course. And all-nighters are sometimes necessary to transform something good into something great. In this instance, it would be a free choice that you decide to make, not one that you are forced into because you did not plan well. It takes discipline and maturity to stick to a plan; to tell people that you have to skip out on going out for drinks because you haven't hit your production goal for the day or that you have to be the first head back to studio when everyone else is still eating lunch. It may not be the popular thing to do, but in the long run, it will be better for your health and your work ethic.