I know there are some of you out there that are just like me. I know that you're probably sick of people giving you a hard time and saying "you're such a procrastinator." This is false; I am not a procrastinator. Stop labeling me. You don't know my life!
I have never been the person who started something in advance. Do you remember all those college courses where the professor would assign a semester-long project and say, "Don't save this until last minute. This is not something you can do the night before"? Well, I promise you, I can, and I will.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this to be a rebel or because I don't feel like doing the work. I just know that if I try to start this project three weeks in advance, it is not going to be good. Do you know when it's going to be good? When I start it at midnight the night before, that's when. For some reason, my creative juices start to flow when that little adrenaline rush kicks in. The tiny whispering voice in the back of your head that says, "Will you really be able to finish this?" It's almost like you're competing against yourself.
I've done this before. This is my preferred method of operating. It works for me, just like some people need to start working on things in advance. While I think that's crazy, and I know it would never work for me, I don't judge. People will always say they're "planners" or "so on top of it." Whereas I like to work under pressure and get called a "slacker" and "procrastinator." Such dirty words, such bad connotations. Why does everyone think my life is in shambles because I prefer to do certain things last minute?
You know who's giving people like me a bad name? It's the people that put things off knowing that they aren't going to do them, or they have no desire to. I am a rare breed that has the drive to do things... just not right now. When I'm sitting on my couch watching Netflix instead of doing my work, it's not because I don't plan on working. It's because my best work is done under that intense pressure that drives me to do my best. I have never been the person that's known as being tardy or constantly flaky. In fact, I am always punctual and my friends always refer to me as "the put-together one." I keep my last-minute strategies to myself because it freaks everyone else out. Not many people have the gift of keeping calm under intense pressure. It scares people knowing that everything I do, which always turns out great, was probably done super last minute.
So, to all my fellow thrivers-under-pressure out there, keep doing you! Don't let people mislabel you as a procrastinator or a slacker. You are a highly-functioning human being that is able to turn stress, which most people cripple under, into a motivator. So go out there and get things done... eventually.