The Last Minute

I believe in the last minute, the thirty minutes you spend cramming before a test, the night before your term paper is due. Throughout school teachers never forget to remind their students “don’t put this off to the last minute, you’ll regret it.” When someone says that to me whether it is a teacher, boss or parent I always think to myself, “I’ve got plenty of time to do it.” As the timer ticks down and due date is closing in on me I always remind myself “Oh, I still have enough time to finish” or the more commonly used excuse “I’ll do it later.” In theory it’s a good idea to plan and do your work ahead of schedule but that’s just not for me.

Throughout high school I would always make the effort to start my homework or papers earlier than the night before it was due. About ninety-five percent of the time I would be sitting down writing or typing late into the night to make the deadline. In my senior of high school for the first time I took my teacher’s advice, made a plan, and started the paper ahead of time. Each night I would sit down and work on the paper, read through what I had already written the previous night. After doing this each night I for the first time I can remember finished a paper on time, in fact early! It felt like such an accomplishment, I didn’t have to deal with the stress of working with a deadline. But the whole process took longer; I continuously lost my train of thought because I would only do a little each night. I realized then that I enjoy working on something the night before it’s due, everyone tells me it’s a bad habit. However it works for me the thought of knowing you have to finish keeps my ideas flowing, and distractions down. On that senior year paper I accomplished considerably less in an hour than I would if I was doing it the day before it was due. When I have extra time to do something it always takes longer for me because I think to myself “I still have enough time to finish.” On the other hand if I wait to the night before the assignment is due it will I never loose focus or my train of thought. Waiting to the last minute has always worked for me, and if you wait till the last minute it only takes a minute.