I'm not going to lie — I procrastinate. A lot. Especially when writing this article. My deadline was actually yesterday, at midnight, but it's only now, Sunday at 11, that I've begun typing this. But even while I'm typing this, I'm still procrastinating on my hefty school workload that I had a full, week-long school break to get started on.

While there's no glory in the former, there's definitely some in the latter. And it comes in the form of this: "The Glory One Achieves By Procrastinating Almost To The Point Of No Return On Something To Be Taken Really Seriously At School, But Getting An Excellent Grade Regardless." It's a tad wordy, not going to lie. And all written out, it sounds pretty dumb.

But it most definitely exists within my friend group. And if it exists there, I'm sure it exists elsewhere, lingering in the shadows of other groups of overachieving students.

Before I can introduce you to this (probably) familiar but generally unnamed concept, I need to establish some facts about my friend group. First, we're probably the ones you consider "nerds." (If you don't, you probably are one.) We take AP classes, advanced math classes and gifted classes. Second, all of us have been seen as the "smart ones" by some groups of people, possibly another group of friends. And sometimes, it gets to our heads, and we start thinking that we are nothing without our intelligence. Third, complaining is probably our favorite pastime — not including procrastination.

Which brings me to the star of this week's article: procrastination and the role (and the toll) it takes on this friend group, in particular.

We all know that procrastination is bad. Procrastination leads to long-term anxiety and stress, which sometimes leads long term wack: eating habits, sleeping habits, social schedules and guilt. Then there's always the kick — the one that makes you realize that you can't afford to procrastinate any longer unless you're at peace with seeing your grade take a nosedive. This leads to the inevitable "day before," the day (or week) where you sacrifice eating and sleeping in favor of doing the very thing you procrastinated to the ends of the earth. Which leads to a finished outcome of sub-par quality, which leads to anxiety and more stress.... that is, until you get the grade.

If your grade sucks, blame it on your procrastination. Your friends will laugh, shake their heads and tell you, "Idiot. Don't procrastinate so much. But they'd understand."

If your grade is amazing, you get bragging rights. Which doesn't sound like much, until you realize the profound effect of waving your last-minute achievements in everyone's face.

I'm sure you've all heard of the Butterfly Effect, in which the smallest action by a person, any person, has the greatest effect over time. After all, in the status quo, we are the victims of our actions.

When you wave your last-minute work in the face of someone who actually tried, and you both scored the same (or you scored possibly higher), it makes them feel inferior. It makes them feel dumb and unintelligent, and it makes them feel like all their hard work has gone to waste if they didn't do nearly as well as someone who started studying literally the morning of.

As a general rule, people like to think that they're not dumb. But in my friend group, that desire heightens to unfathomable degrees. And it's not just a desire, it's something nameless and so much more. For a nerdy kid, who is only ever recognized for their brainpower, to feel dumb is more than disheartening. It's devastating. It feels like they've lost the only part of themselves that matter.

Which, in some ways, is true.

SEE ALSO: What It's Like To Learn You're Not The Smart Kid Anymore

I know a kid who tries so incredibly hard. He never procrastinates and always finishes his work in a timely fashion. And yet, he doesn't score nearly as well as the people who procrastinate and copy other people's homework. To the majority of his friends in non-gifted, non-AP and non-advanced classes, he's the token nerd. But to all the other nerds, he's just someone who tries so hard, but never makes the cut.

Now, he's become ashamed of the way he works. He doesn't talk about his results or the way he worked in a timely manner. Because he knows that everyone sees him as a try-hard who doesn't have the mental capability to quite make the cut, unlike so many others who do without even trying.

When people exercise their bragging rights and talk about how well they did despite their borderline insane amount of procrastination, what they are indirectly saying is essentially this: my haphazardly thrown-together work is veritably better than your formulated, thought-out and carefully planned work. My effortless inherent talent/IQ is better than your effort and your talents combined. It's never outright stated, but it's definitely implied: I'm smarter than you, and I didn't even try.

This is a social issue not strictly limited to my friend group. Nothing is ever limited to one friend group, and I want to showcase it, to showcase the toxicity that ignites whenever people procrastinate, then brag about it later. To showcase the self-loathing and the group pity that ensues around the people who try but don't quite achieve.

If anything, procrastination should have the long-term positive effect of reinforcing the importance of time management and improving student capability and self-esteem. Instead, it's doing quite the opposite, shaming the ones who try and celebrating the ones who don't.