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

[iloveruby]

So, I've just submitted my dissertation with 10 minutes to spare. I've been up since midnight finishing it.
My partner thinks that lots of people work like this - I think he's wrong. So, what do you think?

YABU - lots of students will be finishing in a rush
YANBU - being so close to the deadline isn't typical.

To avoid dripfeeding - I have worked so hard on this and felt I had enough time but really struggle with concentration, especially when I'm stressed. Sometimes can only focus for 10 mins at a time. I feel really disappointed in myself because I just wanted this time to be different.

Don’t be so ridiculous, it doesn’t say anything of the sort 😂

It's definitely not 'normal' for most people but it is for me. I have 4, done over a period of 20+ years and I was the same for every one despite promising myself I'd do 'better' this time. I don't have a diagnosis but wouldn't be surprised if I have ADHD.

Exactly! If you want it earlier than the deadline, then set the deadline earlier. Otherwise what difference does it make.

Some of the worst dissertations I've seen were submitted very early, I remember this because I remember thinking, I wish you had taken the week that was left and done a better job of it.

If it's in before the deadline, then it's nothing to do with levels of professionalism. It's just what deadlines are for. The person who sets the deadlines does so to give themselves ample time to deal with the documents assuming they arrive at the time of the deadline.

I work in news publishing and we are incredibly deadline-driven. If it arrives before the deadline then that's what matters - the deadlines are set with the assumption that material will arrive any time up until that time. If we needed it earlier, we would set an earlier deadline...

Yep.

If being a last-minute person was a disqualifier for professional work, I wouldn't be sitting here marking dissertations right now.

@Thatswhyimacat There is a difference between not managing time correctly and workstyles, the OP even admitted she has not managed her time. It also takes a good manager to get all their facts straight too before jumping to conclusions maybe you are not as good as manger as you think.

Also I think my results and team speak for themselves, but then again you would not know would you as you make assumptions without know the facts or me, based on a comment on an online forum 😚

Yet you thought you could judge my professionalism based on one comment on an online forum.

when I have to hand in an big piece of work I usually start work right away fire of inquiries for missing informatio, make lists and get a good skeleton going.

and then I put it in the drawer whilst getting on with my day job and get in a right panic a couple of days before report & presentation are due.

Like I said upthread, it's not a race and nobody gets extra marks for being early. The deadline exists for a reason.
Who cares if it's a week before or a minute before? It's done. Submitted. Equal.

I submitted mine 2 weeks early so I'm probably at the opposite spectrum to you. I factored in a lot of time for issues which didn't ever arise!

I think most students will finish the night before or morning it's due in, probably within hours of the dead line, but literally 10 minutes is cutting it a bit fine. The day mine was die in I spent nearly an hour queueing up to get it bound, along with everyone else who finished it last minute, which seemed to be half the uni.

May I ask your age?

Having done degrees at 19-22, 24-27 and 28-29 (well, BA, MA and then PostGrad), I think it was really typical for people to rush their hand-ins during undergrad, but less so at Masters level and beyond. When you're younger you're still learning time management and self-directed study, but when you're older you're expected to be a bit more on top of it. I'd be unsurprised at a friend handing it in so close to the deadline at 21, but if a friend of 30 did it I'd be looking at them a bit askance!

You're robbing yourself of the opportunity to digest it and look at it with fresh eyes, to let the material percolate in your head and come back to it with new insights. You've also giving yourself an awful lot of stress and adrenaline that might not lend itself to doing your best work. Handing it in the day before is fine, but ten minutes before is a massive gamble as you just don't know what could happen in that ten minutes. I've known people's printers fail, transport break down, suddenly witness an emergency, all sorts. You have to build in some buffer! Bit too late now though I know.

I've always worked like this. Even when I've been finished well in advance, I have to have that last-minute panicked check, change and submit thing.

@flossyfloss432 i don't really care about your work, go ahead and fill your team with people who think and work exactly like you for all I care. Neurodivergence of course need not apply.

with work thoigh you always need to build in a ton of buffer so you can still hand in X when you are also asked to do y at last minute, it looks a bit rubbish if you avoided doing x for a week, then now can't do it due to y.

So you may get away with it most times, but not all the time. then you look not so professional as you need to let something slip.

I also can't think that something re-eidited up to last second, would not be a bit better being done 24 hours earlier, then re-read with fresh eyes and last minute silly errors removed. Thats the marks that gets you from 68-72 and across those grade boundaries.

Congratulations on submitting on time.

Why give yourself a hard time? You managed it 'just in time' JIT which is all that is really required. JIT is a recognised system in manufacturing and other industries.

Might it have been less stressful to get it done sooner ? Maybe. Maybe not.

Some people thrive on deadlines, others not so much. [says a self confessed adrenaline junkie].

In working life, in some roles there might well not be the luxury of 'allowing plenty of time'. I'm in media/technology and this is just how it is. Not everyone can survive in this kind of environment. The trick is to find the kind that suits you.

When you end up having to pull and all nighter to get something in, it's good to have some stories to share with colleagues about 'just how close to the wire it went' on previous projects and how it all worked in the end. Or to know that that is not for you, do you know to steer clear of that kind of field

Congratulations again. Now is your time to celebrate your success in submitting. Enjoy.

It was the same for me and I had to hand in a bound paper copy by (I think) 4pm.

that makes me sound ancient but it was only 2006! Mine took ages because of course there was only two places you could get a dissertation bound and every course wanted there’s on the same day. God I’m getting palpitations just remembering it!

I remember running up to the door
of the department office where I had to hand one of my dissertations in as they were about to lock it! I’d had printing and transport problems but finally made it! In terms of work progress though, we had regular sessions with a tutor throughout the year and staged deadlines (title finalised, bibliography researched and submitted, first draft submitted etc) and I had regularly emailed myself the latest version so I had something backed up.
Also, unless there are practical problems like disability or childcare issues, I think why not use the full time available?

yes but i don't think most of these examples are using the time fiully.

Changing it all around and adding things to it last minute is very different to a final sense check - reading outloud to spot word choice errors and clumsy sentences.

if you are adding stuff in last minute, you will add in more mistakes (and not have time to correct)

I sent mine in right on the deadline and my supervisor said, "Oh think you have sent a first draft by mistake", I hadn't but inadvertently & very luckily got a days extension and finished all the hideous referencing properly overnight. So your experience sounds very familiar.

Laughing at all the people who think age brings some magical power over time.

Go on to the Mature Study and Retraining board:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

and see just how many posters found, as I did, that middle aged study was hampered by a strange inability to sit up all night, or to work productively for hours on end.

By the close of the taught section of my MA I was beyond exhausted - the five weeks that followed when I was completing my portfolio were the most terrifyingly painful (intellectually and in terms of energy) of my life.

I think they knew, kimfox! They just very kindly ‘gave’ you the extra day.

Yikes 10 minutes is extreme. Plenty of ‘morning of’ essay submissions at my end, usually after a 4am finish and a 9/10pm check over for a missing deadline- but actually finishing 10 minutes before must be incredibly stressful. Especially for a dissertation!

I don’t think it’s a good thing to normalise - I wrote a lot of MA essays in less than 24 hours and they were all fine/good and it’s not about professionalism - but I really don’t think anyone will do as well as they could have done if they were right to the wire. I know for me it’s a deep-seated form of self sabotage and protecting my esteem (oh well I did all in one night anyway vs. see I’m great I can bash out a distinction in no time at all) and in terms of reaching my potential I know I could do better by making some changes to the way I do things.

@shrodingersvaccine I think you are an unusually kind department! We got absolutely no truck with late submissions owing to tech failures at the 3 unis I attended. It was capped at 50 for my masters. I once called the department secretary in Hysterical tears the day before a deadline and got mitigating circumstances but no one would be getting an extension if they submitted it late because of tech.

My flatmate’s uni had a deduction system so you could submit late but had to be penalised a few percent of your mark which increased per day.