In true Jon Abdnor fashion...

A journalist is stimulated by a deadline; he writes worse when he has time.

-Karl Kraus

I suppose this is my defense for always procrastinating. I've always been one to cut it close to deadlines and never seem to get an early jump on things. I claim that this terrible habit doesn't hurt my work. Yes, there have been times where I wish I could have had another half hour or so for tweaking, but I've never changed my ways. For as long as I can remember, I've always gotten late starts on assignments and have many times fought off sleep and pushed through the night to meet deadline. Am I addicted to the rush of pounding out a few thousand words as the sun rises? Maybe. I'd rather think of it as training for working in a world where every deadline is short and there isn't any time to waste. If I were to sit down at my computer a week early to write sometime, I would be terribly unproductive. When I know I have time to spare, I, well, I spare it. Thus, I put myself in situations where there is no time to waste.

I know this isn't sane. It's definitely not a healthy study habit. Still, it's one that has adapted to fit my night-owl lifestyle and it for whatever reason has worked-- so far, at least. So maybe Karl Kraus is correct. I certainly agree.

Notice he doesn't say the same for editing. (I haven't read otherwise, at least.) Stories often need to be edited in a timely fashion in order to meet deadline. I've never been stimulated by a deadline in editing, however. I like having time to thoroughly read an article and carefully consider making changes. In class, for example, we have turned out edited stories within short deadlines, but I'm sure most of us wouldn't mind having a little more time to look things over.