Help me settle a dispute - finishing MSc dissertation with 10 minutes to spare

Sussex University celebrates last minute submitters in the form of the Dissertation Dash.

Like the other ADHDers who commented, I never work in any other way! Changing meds soon, maybe this will change 😅

It's not a race.
Obviously starting writing it two hours before submission is very not normal, but I don't think using all the time up to the deadline to do revisions to it etc is abnormal.

I think its very normal. Though even with my MBA assessments I do try to make sure that I'm submitting them at least an hour before they are due in, just in case the system/my wifi/my PC goes funny. But ask me about my dissertation in 10 months time!

Good for you.

OP I have two masters and both were handed in as the clock was striking midnight.

Good luck!

I remember doing essays/ projects we had to hand in at University.

I'd always be in the computer labs on the last day and then there would be a huge queue to have it bound before you could hand it on.

I'd always hand it in at least an hour before, but 10 minutes is risks and dangerous- never been that close to a deadline.

This.

Electronic submission and technical incompetence have made me leave a bit more than 10 minutes these days just in case of tech problems, but otherwise, to the wire here.

I work far better under pressure and always have. I work in a very deadline-heavy industry and rare is the document that comes in way ahead of time. Most stuff arrives just before.

Please google inattentive adhd

Interestingly DD1 just started down diagnosis route for this thanks to college suggestion though it's done via GP - though she may age out of disgnosis process before she gets to front of the queue and this area has no adult equivalent service.

Once your actually working handing in projects and data in with 10 min to spare when you have a deadline will not go down well.

if only that were true @humdrumholybean
i worked in tenders for more than ten years. People missed internal deadlines the whole bloody time with no consequences for them. External deadlines were usually achieved with very little, sometimes seconds, to spare. It is a normal human thing.

Oh, lord, this is me. Every single time I'd convince myself it was going to be different, would work to a proper timetable and not have to finish in a rushed panic. Never happened.

You finished, within the deadline. Congratulations 😃

My MSc diss was the only time I have ever gone in early - the deadline was midday on the Monday, and at one point on the Thursday evening I realised I was done with editing. Printed and bound it on the Friday and had no mates at the weekend because everyone else was up to it. But that is the only time in my student or professional life I’ve ever managed it.

Please google inattentive adhd. It's a misconception adhd is hyperactive. Plenty of bright, capable calm people have undiagnosed inattentive adhd - chemical brain imbalance equalling struggling to be motivated / manage time etc.

My favourite phrase was
"Don't give me an extension, give me a deadline"

If it makes you feel better, OP I recently did a degree and...

a) I worked from home in a easy job, so was often sat at a desk all day with time to spare
b) I STILL spent almost every pre-deadline night up until late finishing off

I don't know if it's age, perimenopause hormones, the advance of technology or what - but I am clearly less able to focus on one thing for any length of time as I did when I did my firs degree at 18-21.

It's how I did it, I think I had about 20 mins to spare. I need the adrenaline to focus and get it finished.
I actually wrote mine in 3 days from start to finish and had to print and travel 1.5 hours to hand it in before noon too.
Got decent marks though.

I have handed things in early but it's when there's no more work time because of other things or next deadline and I need it handed in so my focus can move on.

I don't think it lack or work not starting early enough or planning though do have dyspraxia and dyslexia so it could be but I do tend to plan more because of that - I just seem to have this optimism that more work will make it better and thus reluctance to stop to early.

Though I aim for tinkering nearer deadline rather then major re-writes and time enough to cope with printer breaking or running out of ink etc. One way to do this is lots of mini self imposed written down deadlines that I refuse to budge from and will break my neck to reach.

Blimey OP, just reading your post has given me a surge of adrenaline. I’ve got just under sixth months before I have to submit my masters dissertation and I’m about half way through writing it.
Never in a million years could I leave it to the last minute. I’d never be able to sleep for a start. I’m aiming to get it done with at least a month to spare for emergencies.

Your post is just the motivation I need to get off mumsnet and go and write a few more hundred words. Urgh. But it’s grim. Congratulations on finishing the damned thing.

I did a part time MBA, 2 years taught plus 16 months to submit the dissertation. All of us working full time.
Me and my mate from the course met on the final handing in date to hand in. Both of us had finished the day before. We looked at the hand in sheet. All but one had handed in that day or the day before!

Snap. Couldn't focus if the deadline wasn't looming large on the horizon.

A small but not insignificant number of academics still work like this.

This is so true!

These - not the OP - are the students you want to murder ...
Hope it worked out okay though