When I was a student, I was a terrible procrastinator; I needed the urgency of a deadline to make me get started on even the biggest project. As such? I spent many late nights and even a few all-nighters getting my work done at the very last minute.
Quality-wise, I often felt it was a trade-off. The pressure inspired me and I came up with a lot of stuff from who knows where, not all of it bad. Of course, time to edit, revise, and polish my work would have been nice, but back then everything had to be typed on a typewriter or written by hand, and so those stages of the writing process were time-consuming and laborious. I probably would have stuck with an early draft even if I'd had more time.
These days, I find myself in a similar situation at the end of each quarter. For example, I finally finished grading the last of the argument essays today, which was a good thing, since grades are due at midnight. But happy ending! I'm all finished and ready to head home.
After 50 years or so, what's the point of changing now? As awful as it was to have all that hanging over my head, the liberation of having it done is kind of exhilarating.
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