Imagine it’s junior year, the most stressful time of high school, and I am at a coffee shop casually drinking a white chocolate mocha with almond milk and writing a 12 page Kirkwood paper on health and pyschosocial rehabilitation. I am calm, cool and collected even though my paper is due in three short hours. Some of you might be saying to not wait till the last minute, get stuff done, or work ahead so you are not stressed. For me, this is not the case. While this may stress some out, it is the only way I can work on school. Last minute projects allow me to think more creatively and focus on the task on hand.

If I start too early on assignments, I am constantly thinking about all I have to do instead of focusing on the quality of my work.

If I had not wrote my Kirkwood paper in three hours I would not have gotten the grade I recieved or wrote to the best of my ability.

Now I’m not saying procrastination is key, but if that is how you create your best work then do it. In school, we are taught to be able to manage eight classes worth of homework, a social life, a job and sports but what we are not taught is that if it is not due until that night, it can wait. So often we see our to-do list and assume we must cross off everything, even if that includes a research paper, service hours, a group project and three math retakes.

I’m here to tell you it’s okay if you cannot get a million things done in one night. We are expected to have time management skills, but they have to fit the individual and what works for them realistically. If it works best for you to accomplish applying to college, working out, completing homework and keeping a social life all in one night then, good for you.

Do what’s best for you. If you are an extremely organized person , way to go. If you almost barely make deadlines that is okay too. Go outside of the social norm of being extra accomplished. Embrace being a little messy, a tad late, and do what works for you.