What My All-Nighter Taught Me About Myself

For the last day and a half, my schedule was out of whack. On Sunday, I was working diligently to meet a deadline for a client’s project. I’ll admit, I had partially procrastinated on it, but reflecting on it now, I had just moved earlier in the week and was scrambling to get settled. So, it was a mix of procrastination and exhaust.

All of Sunday, I was typing away on my laptop trying to write these long form articles. It became clear in the afternoon that I would need to pull an all-nighter if I wanted these articles to be delivered on time the next day. And so, I did just that.

It felt like I was back in university, at UW in Odegaard library, with my coffee in hand for the long night ahead. What was interesting this time around was how unusually calm I was about the whole situation.

In the past, whenever I found myself in a bind for a deadline, I would criticize myself endlessly for mismanaging my time. I’d become so hard on myself for choosing to put tasks off and then basically stress work until it was done.

And I hate to pull all-nighters. I’m a “sleep now and wake up early to finish,” type of person. It was only because I knew I had a deadline that I pushed myself to stay up.

However, there was no putting myself down. I acknowledged how I should’ve incrementally worked on the articles, but I kept my energy light and reminded myself to just keep at it.

I was proud of how I handled it and even found humor in the situation. I even tried recording myself doing a Tik Tok dance during my breaks but eventually decided against it. Y’all not ready for that.

This was a moment, I acknowledged, as one of growth for me. I felt myself consciously let go of tension that wasn’t serving me. I couldn’t be more proud.