All Nighters

So, i'm assuming that most of you are college students.
And as such you are probably forced to do the occasional, (or freq if major == X.enginering)
So whats your plan of action when you have to do so? How do you guarentee that you will both be able to
work effectively and be able to stay awake the next day?
Myself, I make sure to drink a cup of coffee every 2 hrs, and eat food constantly. I've found that this is guaranteed to keep me awake for at least 50 hrs when neccessary. And if programming, which is usually the case, I listen to music that has alot of energy, punk, metal, happyHardcore, NRG, etc...
I also usually take a break few hour or so for a few minutes to dick around online and get away from what I'm doing. for example, im writing this absolutely useless post..
Anyways, what do the lot of you do?

damn, try being an animation student. i had to go 4 days straight a couple times in addition to the regular 24-48 hour bouts with out sleep. i don't have any secrets other than just keep going. if you stop or really slow down u'll fall asleep or have a hard time getting your mind back up. and if i really got bad and just couldn't keep my eyes open i would work standing up or pacing if i could.

I've done four days once, studying for finals a few years back and shit got weird after the third day, I started seeing shadow figures in my periphery as well as hearing sounds when I was alone and in a silent environment, it was scary, nothings like pleasant halucinations, it was scary.
Pacing is a great idea, im jealous that you have that option available to you.

ahhh all niter as in study

lol i got the wrong idea, for a party all niter its easy, good friends, good chicks, good drinks

all nighters for study someone else will have to answer

Starting my 4th year of engineering have never done an all nighter.

ur kidding, where do you go to skool? what major?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Cal_kashi
I've done four days once, studying for finals a few years back and shit got weird after the third day, I started seeing shadow figures in my periphery as well as hearing sounds when I was alone and in a silent environment, it was scary, nothings like pleasant halucinations, it was scary.
Pacing is a great idea, im jealous that you have that option available to you.

---

Whoa, I'm not the only one! I was extremely stressed and sleep deprived last year at one point (probably a natural consequence of taking 7 engineering courses and having two major lab reports due right in the middle of exams) and I hallucinated like shadowy bugs/spiders. It was one of the freakiest things that's ever happened to me. At one point, I was so convinced there was a giant spider in my room that I got one of my housemates to come look for it. Then I realized that I'd been hallucinating.

I don't drink coffee, so I need to find other things to keep me awake. Food for sure works well. I used to drink vanilla coke to keep me awake too until I had a bad experience with drinking too much vanilla coke at once after not consuming any caffeine for a month. In the past year or so I've started powernapping too. Sometimes, I just can't figure out the answers to assignment questions at night if I keep working on them. But if I sleep for a few hours then get up early in the morning to continue, my mind works better and I can get more accomplished. Of course, that also brings the deadline much closer and takes away all the buffer time, but more often than not it pays off for me. Likewise, I also surf around my favourite websites once every hour or so to break the monotony.

The last thing I want to do is sound patronizing, or act like I know it all, but surely if you manage your time effectively you won't need to do all-nighters for study...

I know, I know, people have to work, go out, etc. Somehow I managed to do fine while I was at Uni, fitting everything in effectively. Then again, I was living at home at the time so I guess that means I had fewer daily tasks.

I heard that cramming the day before finals is supposedly bad for you. But I guess some people's studying methods are like that and they can't change since they are used to it already. Whatever works best for them I guess. Drink energy drinks, like Red Bull. JUST 1 DONT DRINK MORE THAN ONE OR YOU WILL DIE. I'm in engineering too and I can see next that next week I'll be doing the same, yikes =/

Red Bull, Bah, the little market adjacent to the ME and CS buildings sells this stuff called BOOKOO, its 2 bucks, 24 oz and has the saem caffiene per oz, ie 80mgish / 8oz as redbull.

CmDR_RavEn: I envy what you accomplished. I pretty much awaken -> read -> class -> lab -> read -> sleep, every day, and still am forced to do this shit at least twice a month, more when midterms, finals and projects are due. Also, In the last year and a half, I've never had a programming project that could be done in less than about 96 hrs of coding... *grumble*...

edit: w/ re: to cramming the night before a test, I have discovered that it will help a great deal for that test, but as soon as you wake up the following day you will remember NOTHING that you had studied.

I've never done more than 3 hours of studying at a time, but I've done a day and a half without sleep while playing poker.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: ChiaCheese
damn, try being an animation student. i had to go 4 days straight a couple times in addition to the regular 24-48 hour bouts with out sleep. i don't have any secrets other than just keep going. if you stop or really slow down u'll fall asleep or have a hard time getting your mind back up. and if i really got bad and just couldn't keep my eyes open i would work standing up or pacing if i could.

---

Is it really that bad? Why is being an animation student so stressful?

I'm just asking because it's something I looked into, but never decided on (partially 'cause I heard stuff like this). Right now I'm just a liberal arts major, so I haven't had to stay up more than 24 hours yet. Which almost makes me feel like I'm not working hard, listening to these other stories...

any animation's a bitch. my ex took a computer animation course and it wasn't about just having a good eye. you really had to know your vector math and matrices =P which is why i'm so enamoured with pixar. mad props to u chia for being an animation student. despite the your non-sleeping marathons, do you love what you do?

i wonder how many of were/are engineering majors. i studied electrical (DSP concentration) in my undergrad and never pulled more than one all niter per semester. but when i did, i just plowed through it with sheer force of will. drinking coffee, for some reason, put me to sleep faster than w/o [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

I've done all-nighters, but they're not worth it IMO. What you might gain in extra studying is lost to sleep deprivation. If you're too tired you don't perform nearly as well. You're slow, easily distracted, and not as logical. If you've got a test coming up it's best to get a good night's sleep and eat a big breakfast so you have the energy and focus to make it through the exam.

never had to pull any all-nighters for my multimedia courses....although alot of people did find that lightwave animation course we had to be quite demanding. Luckily i only had like, 4 relatively easy classes for that semester

Then again, it also helped that I've taught myself 3d studio for the past 6 years

I am with Basey on this one.

I never really studied that much, I don't studying for prolonged periods of time is a good thing. There should be breaks in between, and good rest, otherwise I think it would be a waste, and I'd forget what I was doing on the thing before, heh.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Mae
I've done all-nighters, but they're not worth it IMO. What you might gain in extra studying is lost to sleep deprivation. If you're too tired you don't perform nearly as well. You're slow, easily distracted, and not as logical. If you've got a test coming up it's best to get a good night's sleep and eat a big breakfast so you have the energy and focus to make it through the exam.

---

Yeah I agree, I end up forgeting most of it the next day anyway. I think studying 3-4 hours before the exam works best when you need to memorize a shitload of stuff.

lol you people are forced to stay awake all night to finish your studies? Where do you live, in slave camps?

I finish my work during the day. I stay up all night to do music editing, anime watching, and talk to you people [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

I would agree that often studying through a night may not be beneficial, but occasionally in large programming projects, sometimes it has to be done. Especially when working in a group, and on that note, I haven't found that my ability to code diminishes w/ lack of sleep (as long as I stay energized). Yet, verily you ask what would demand this sort of suffering... I'll give an example. I was working in a class on Computer Architecture, (taught by Dave Patterson for those in the know) where the class was split into 5 groups of 5 and we had 13 wks to design and build a cpu on an FPGA. When the final checkoffs neared, my group (along with several others) lived on the lab for a week and a half, forsaking all other classes and working probably about 18 hrs a day (I swear its not a fucking exaggeration). We would break to eat, usually sleep in the lab, and occasionally retreat home for a few hours of sleep before returning to the Hell that had become our all encompassing objective to finish the project. By the end of about seven straight days of this the lab took on quite a party like atmosphere and everyone retained the ability to code their particular part, but not really do anything else usefull.

I've never done all nighters but I've gone to school on about half an hour of sleep on regular occations. Do that for a month or two and you feel that the world is three steps ahead of you all the time. I remeber after I finished collage and I hung out with my freinds they were surprised how diffrent I was from all the sleep I was getting. Food really helps keep you awake. eat like half a sandwitch ever hour and drink alot of water you can go for days like that with out any problems. I do that when I'm working on film's and we do like 18 hour days for like five days a week, really helps.

I have a major problem with insomnia to the point were i've be hospitalized as a result of severe sleep deprivation. Its not the staying awake i have a problem with

Soda, get the sugar in your system and you will be able to stay awake.

~1~

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Lefty
I've never done all nighters but I've gone to school on about half an hour of sleep on regular occations. Do that for a month or two and you feel that the world is three steps ahead of you all the time. I remeber after I finished collage and I hung out with my freinds they were surprised how diffrent I was from all the sleep I was getting. Food really helps keep you awake. eat like half a sandwitch ever hour and drink alot of water you can go for days like that with out any problems. I do that when I'm working on film's and we do like 18 hour days for like five days a week, really helps.

---

Food does the opposite for me. Whenever I eat I get food coma and ass out. Soda and coffee doesn't work for me either. If I get sleepy, nothing can stop me.

My question still stands: Why is being an animation student so demanding? 0.o

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: XanBcoo
My question still stands: Why is being an animation student so demanding? 0.o

---

it's alot of fun but also alot of work. my focus was mainly in 2d because i like drawing. i took a couple years of 3d animation but it's basically just like engineering. all math and such and i hated it. but going into 3d is just as demanding as going into engineering. 2d on the other hand, like i said before is alot of fun but also alot of work. 1 second of animation can contain 30 drawings. and i like to draw but i suck at it so it often took alotta redos of several drawings. pluss, when you start making short films for your finals, in addition to the animating, you need to write a story, storyboard, revise the boards over and over and over, film an animatic, make more revisions, make character and prop designs and make more revisions and you need to do all these things by a deadline. again, it's fun, it's high paced, but it's alotta work.
the downside is, there aren't many jobs in 2d right now. i've been applying at the studios for over a year now and still haven't been hired. all i've been doing is working freelance on whatever i can get (right now i'm currently working on a flash animation for a website) and running out to the studios everyweek picking up and dropping off portfolios. but if ur a kick ass artist you shouldn't have any problem getting a job. i'm not so the struggle continues.

My strategy for all-nighters = Loud music. Keeping loud, upbeat music going will really help you keep going. I've found that it's one of the few things that isn't a drug or caffeine that helps me stay awake. Lots of bright lights and the occasional splashing the face with cold water helps alot too.

You'll feel like hell the next day though. And pulling 2 all-nighters in a row can really leave you a frazzled wreck at the end of day 2

Man, if u guys don't sleep for 4 days at a time or only 30 mins a night per month, won't u look like shit considering ur eye bags and body pains?

Gotta write a paper so gonna be doing an all nighter tonight. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

I don't think it's even possible to do 30 minutes a night for a month or even 4 days without any sleep.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: ChiaCheese

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: XanBcoo
My question still stands: Why is being an animation student so demanding? 0.o

---

it's alot of fun but also alot of work. my focus was mainly in 2d because i like drawing. i took a couple years of 3d animation but it's basically just like engineering. all math and such and i hated it. but going into 3d is just as demanding as going into engineering. 2d on the other hand, like i said before is alot of fun but also alot of work. 1 second of animation can contain 30 drawings. and i like to draw but i suck at it so it often took alotta redos of several drawings. pluss, when you start making short films for your finals, in addition to the animating, you need to write a story, storyboard, revise the boards over and over and over, film an animatic, make more revisions, make character and prop designs and make more revisions and you need to do all these things by a deadline. again, it's fun, it's high paced, but it's alotta work.
the downside is, there aren't many jobs in 2d right now. i've been applying at the studios for over a year now and still haven't been hired. all i've been doing is working freelance on whatever i can get (right now i'm currently working on a flash animation for a website) and running out to the studios everyweek picking up and dropping off portfolios. but if ur a kick ass artist you shouldn't have any problem getting a job. i'm not so the struggle continues.

---

Oh my God I'd love being an animation student (2d, like you - I suck at math n' shit). That sounds so awesome! Mabye I will look into it...

Sucks about the job though, good luck.

thanks, you too

Staying up all night is something you should avoid at all costs. If for any reason you need to stay up all night, let it be for a damned good reason. If that's the case, just keep reminding yourself of what will happen if you fall asleep. That remains the single most potent stay awake technique for me.

I would say that the math for 3d animation and graphics isn't really that bad. Graphics uses matrices and vectors to represent everything that is happening. Once this basis is created, its all just a matter of simple linear algebra to determine how various things relate to each other. It seems like alot of math, which it is, but its all pretty basic stuff to apply.

alotta math is still alotta math.

tehres a huge difference between ur average math and say, fourier series, or differential equations.....a HUGE difference

i don't care if it's 2 + 2, i'd rather be drawing.

It's true, us animators are always pulling all nighters. In fact, I'm pulling one right now in order to get some storyboards done. (In case you're wondering, I'm currently an 2d animation student at Capilano College in Vancouver).

I normally just make sure I have plenty of snacks and liquids, the body requires alot of energy to compensate for the lack of sleep, either way though, your body's going to regret it the next day.

Well, back to storyboarding I go.

place a candle in front of you (in case you are sitting) and if you fall asleep you should wakeup quick enough.

I go to an art school and had to do all nighters all the time last year, I finished a painting in a sitting that took me 30 hours or so to complete, 3 in the afternoon till 12 in the afternoon the next day
All I need to worry about the next day is making it through my classes before I crash

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: hopeknight
It's true, us animators are always pulling all nighters. In fact, I'm pulling one right now in order to get some storyboards done. (In case you're wondering, I'm currently an 2d animation student at Capilano College in Vancouver).

I normally just make sure I have plenty of snacks and liquids, the body requires alot of energy to compensate for the lack of sleep, either way though, your body's going to regret it the next day.

Well, back to storyboarding I go.

---

nice. i had a friend that went to Vancouver to study animation. It's a very intense program they run up there, but they're turning out alotta great animation and animators. do you have a website with some exapmles of your work? i would interested in seeing some.
Good luck!

I don't have any animation work online yet (we'll be making portfolio websites sometime next semester). All I have up currently is a sketchblog, and the artwork on there is mediocre at best, with all the time I have to put into assignments, it leaves me little time to actually make nice pieces of art for the web.

If you want to check it out, it's at http://hope-knight.tripod.com

Strategy: coffee and walks [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Bump because I just pulled my first all-nighter ever. My head is starting to hurt and I'm probably not thinking straight, but I gotta keep going 'cause this bitch of a research paper is due in a few hours. I am truly a college student today.

Funny thing is, I only stayed up writing this paper because I put off doing it all weekend. I'm gonna hate myself later when I run outta steam...

Thanks to all the good advice posted in this thread too, as I used some of it to keep myself from dying. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

hymm get your hours messed up like mine are XD lol im sick atm so i keep coughing n cant sleep -.- i should rest but its to boring -.- lol, if your not sick just drink massive amounts of coffee or ice tea, or coke or pepsi n so on or the other way is just stay up t-.-t lol ( come to think about it i kinda feel like brisk icetea myself but got none nor any ice tea at all -.- ) Y ( or ice tea slurpees OMG they never have that flavour in but its like the godlyisteded~!

NOTE OMG~ : once u pull an all nighter your hour are evil, so just stay up one whole night n day then go to bed like at 7 pm ( i know its early but your gonna sleep more then 8-10 hours lol ) right now its 6:37 am -.- probbally gonna sleep for couple hours sometime in the afternoon lol, then il do that above to get my hours good once im not sick ne more n stuff XD.

SUPER EDIT OMG!~ : its not hard for me to stay up all night but it is for some people -.- so just set your alarm to go off every 10 minuts.. then if u fall alseep you can wake up angred and smash everything ( that should keep u up for an hour of smashing ~ XD ) Y ( usally i feel super pathedic and angry when awoken early in my sleep lol ) . ( also i look like a angry moron when i get wake up lol )

another edit -.- :

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: hopeknight
I don't have any animation work online yet (we'll be making portfolio websites sometime next semester). All I have up currently is a sketchblog, and the artwork on there is mediocre at best, with all the time I have to put into assignments, it leaves me little time to actually make nice pieces of art for the web.

If you want to check it out, it's at http://hope-knight.tripod.com

---

hmm about that disney mickey comic i mean omg its like ends when mickeys about to kick a$$ lol, i wanted to see all the disney characters in a battle royal -.-t lol you gotta finish that one XD

All nighters are avoidable if you studied properly during the quarter/ semester. And please don't give me any excuses or BS to counter, if that makes your ego feel better than so be it. I am not trying to sound like a prick, sorry if that is the case. But take it as a helpful tip next time: Study throughout the quarter/semester!

It might be because I'm suffering from a lack of sleep, but KoKo37's post just seems like an incoherent mess of jumbled thoughts, with random "lols" "XD's" and "-_-" thrown in.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Strike Freedom
All nighters are avoidable if you studied properly during the quarter/ semester. And please don't give me any excuses or BS to counter, if that makes your ego feel better than so be it. I am not trying to sound like a prick, sorry if that is the case. But take it as a helpful tip next time: Study throughout the quarter/semester!

---

I completely agree. This method works really well.
Regardless of me knowing this, I ended up doing a couple of all-nighters, due to laziness. I pretty much see it as all nighter people = lazy.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: XanBcoo
It might be because I'm suffering from a lack of sleep, but KoKo37's post just seems like an incoherent mess of jumbled thoughts, with random "lols" "XD's" and "-_-" thrown in.

---

lol actually the first one helps n the second one is a tip for if u get your hours messed, the rest is just spam and!!! if i just post the tips n stuff the post will be boring lol so i try to fill up the boringness with bunches of useless semi-funny spam lol, n the lols XDs and -.- if the post never had those... well i cant really think of anything to say lol but it'd suck XD <--- ( honestly could you live without this? -.- ) Y ( <--- or the -.- n so on -.- )

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Strike Freedom
All nighters are avoidable if you studied properly during the quarter/ semester. And please don't give me any excuses or BS to counter, if that makes your ego feel better than so be it. I am not trying to sound like a prick, sorry if that is the case. But take it as a helpful tip next time: Study throughout the quarter/semester!

---

Yeah, I'm pretty sure theres not a single one of us that doesn't know this, thus they don't need the advice you just gave. I'm sure you know that. Because you know this, and you gave no useful advice to surviving an all nighter once its in process, the whole purpose of your post is to point your finger and give the people in here the holier than thou attitude. Thats prickish. I know you apologized for it in advance, but its probably because you just don't feel like hearing a response to it. I'm not giving you that satisfaction.

I don't think you can reduce it all to a generalization like that, because there's a fair bit of variation between different schools and programs. If I was majoring in linguistics, I have no doubt that I could stay on top of all my work, get a decent amount of sleep, get good marks, and still have time left over. And yet these things together are unobtainable for me in engineering. Why is that? Because a normal coureload in the faculty of humanities is 5 courses, whereas a normal courseload in engineering is 7 courses. Engineering courses are also more likely to have labs, each of which is an extra 3 hours every week at my university, as well as lab reports that can range from 2 to 20 pages depending on the requirements of the course.

A couple years ago, I had a plan that I was going to avoid all of the common pitfalls. I decided to get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep each night, to finish all my assignments and reports well in advance, and to regularly review my course material. I was actually pretty good at it. I met these goals most of the time. But in exchange, I had to give up all of my free time. I was either in class or doing homework all the time. I'd get up early on the weekends to go to the library and stay there till closing. The only 'social' time I had was the time I spent talking with my housemates while I was making or eating meals. No tv, no video games, no anime, no extra-curriculars, nothing. It was miserable. Academically, I was doing great, but I can't say that I had any fun at all. I don't recommend it.

All nighters? wow. That sux for u guys. Drink Coke. That always keeps me up. Also, in the words of Luffy " MEAT!". Meat will solve all your problems.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Uchiha Barles

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Strike Freedom
All nighters are avoidable if you studied properly during the quarter/ semester. And please don't give me any excuses or BS to counter, if that makes your ego feel better than so be it. I am not trying to sound like a prick, sorry if that is the case. But take it as a helpful tip next time: Study throughout the quarter/semester!

---

Yeah, I'm pretty sure theres not a single one of us that doesn't know this, thus they don't need the advice you just gave. I'm sure you know that. Because you know this, and you gave no useful advice to surviving an all nighter once its in process, the whole purpose of your post is to point your finger and give the people in here the holier than thou attitude. Thats prickish. I know you apologized for it in advance, but its probably because you just don't feel like hearing a response to it. I'm not giving you that satisfaction.

---

Whether you believe it is "prickish" doesn't change my attitude regarding my statement. Now, I'm not going to sink down to your level and say your post is useless (i'll leave that to interpretation). And just because you say it is useless does not mean I see it the same way. There are enough people in the world that think things will not change and that saying things have no warrant, but I believe in speaking your mind and being open-minded. Granted, you may be right about my post, but I disagree with you whole-heartedly on your view, but I respect it nonetheless. Lastly, I knew there was going to be a response and I am very glad there was one. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Now, on to Kit Kat, you do make a great point. I know a friend who majored in Chemical Engineering and the poor lad had no life. But these are sacrafices we choose to make depending on our respective goals, ambition and views.

Very well. I had no intention of trying to change your view on the matter. Was just doing exactly what you did. "speaking my mind".

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: 2:25
Strategy: coffee and walks [img][/img]

---

Ooohh a walk! That's what I need right now! (if you can't tell, I'm pulling an all-nighter right now). It's 5:11 Eastern Standard Time and its a surprisingly beautiful night out for upstate NY.

Give me a fresh mind set to finish off my Social Policy Project (Is GW Bush's proposed Social Security change a good or bad thing for equity?... this is a question that entire think-tanks might fail to answer correctly, let alone a single college-student...)

And yes, I am a procrastinator and thats part of how I got into this little jam. But honestly, the Prof is a fucking absent-minded fool, failing to assign the project on time, promising to provide additional research sources and never delivering on it, cancelling classes and office hours on the final two days before the project was due...mother fucker is going to get it... when he's done giving me my grade, that is...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: masamuneehs
(Is GW Bush's proposed Social Security change a good or bad thing for equity?... this is a question that entire think-tanks might fail to answer correctly, let alone a single college-student...)

---

lol, all I had to do was 8 pages over Japanese art. I'm no good at Politics whatsoever.

And yeah, like I said, the only reason I had to stay up was because I put it off. I also took a walk, which really did help. So did the food, but I felt kinda dizzy the rest of the day regardless.

coffee...thats my tip lots and lots of starbucks triple espresso or mocha frappaccino.

Well if i know im going to be pulling an allnighter i start drinking energy drinks the day of b/c i read some where they do more good if you drink them before your actually tired. Anyways yeah eating and music all help me stay up so i use those and breaks for something besides the work as you mentioned are useful as well b/c its easier to focus after the break instead of hours of constant, mindnumbing work.

as long as i have a pack of cigarettes, a lot of food and drinks by my side with the occassional game break or whatever, then i'm pretty good for the next 8-10 hours or so.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: Strike Freedom
All nighters are avoidable if you studied properly during the quarter/ semester. And please don't give me any excuses or BS to counter, if that makes your ego feel better than so be it. I am not trying to sound like a prick, sorry if that is the case. But take it as a helpful tip next time: Study throughout the quarter/semester!

---

Complete... utter... total ... Bullshit. It has nothing with time management, or studying improperly. You cant make a generalization like that. For example...
When an EECS project takes about 1200 hours over the course of a semester, there are nights where you will not sleep to meet deadlines. Regardless of working almost every day with your group, you will miss sleep. When the quarterly progress checks come u won't sleep thrusday night. And when the final checkoffs come you likely won't sleep for days. Not just me, not just my group, the entire class.

Now ill admit that usually when I pull an all nighter its because I've been stupid, but maybe 1 or twice a semester there just wasn't time to juggle multiple eecs project classes, plain and simple.

I always felt tremendously guilty whenever I wasted time doing other stuff and neglecting an approaching project deadline. I have the mentality where if I don't do something productive, i feel like i wasted the whole day. Even being out of school now and sitting and playing video games for several hours still makes me feel like I should be doing something else.

It helps to have the right frame of mind.....I'm not sure how a person would go about adjusting that, but I'm pretty sure I used to be a big procrastinator years back as well.....so maybe it can be habit-forming?

Well.....yes. Being a procrastinator or being responsible is something ingrained in you by habit. If you habitually sit down to study or do what needs to be done, then yes, it won't be a problem. I can relate to what you said by the way, about feeling that a day was a waste if I didn't do anything productive. I'm happiest when I work hard for an extended period of time in something I have an interest in, and waste a day or two doing something non-productive, but totally fun. Its a reward system, and the fun part is guiltless.