In high school, I was one of the worst procrastinators in my class. I would wait until the last minute to do absolutely everything, whether I was waking up at 4am to start a paper that was due at 8, skimming over my notes to try to cram minutes before a test, or turning in forms that I needed to graduate on the last possible day. Despite feeling stressed, panicked, and fried every time I was struggling to meet word counts and deadlines, my grades never suffered because of this habit. I was able to get in the headspace to do my best possible work when the pressure was on and I took pride in being able to get A’s on assignments that I had spent the bare minimum amount of time on.
My habits have not changed in college, with the possible exception of becoming even worse than they were before. Sometimes, I feel frustrated that I cannot motivate myself to do anything unless I feel the crushing weight of an impending deadline because I feel like I am not a serious student. Especially being in JMC, I feel like my peers are far more put together than I am and maybe even judge me for my disorganized and last-minute habits.
But the truth is that nobody cares how much time you spend on something and all that matters is that you get it done. If you are getting the grades you want, don’t beat yourself up for procrastinating and if you aren’t doing as well as you like, first recognize that it is still okay. You’re doing the best work that you can at the moment and you deserve to feel proud of yourself for that. I know the feeling of scrambling to turn something in and just knowing that it was absolutely terrible quality. But, at the end of the day, I gave it all I had and did my best.
These last days of the school year are some of the toughest and hardest to get through and it’s inevitable that something is going to get put off until the last minute. Just give yourself grace for pushing through anyways and don’t feel like you’re a bad student or a train-wreck just because you didn’t finish your homework days in advance.