I have been in college five years now and the further I advance I've realized that procrastinators are not a rare breed, but in fact a common species. As an English major I've learned the hard way that putting off assignments—specifically essays—until the last minute only hinders my performance. I'm completely baffled (more like annoyed) by those who can write an effective paper in a day or two and score a higher grade than me. When I say paper, I don't mean a simple three to four-page response essay, but a research paper that is at least eight pages long and requires a decent amount of, well, research.
I understand that some work better under pressure, but can you really call that paper you worked on at the last minute your finest work?
First of all, researching scholarly articles alone consumes a lot of time because you must read through others'—usually long and dry—essays (most of which you may not even decide to use as a secondary source). As soon as an essay prompt is available I go into research mode that same day.
Not to say that you should read your findings in depth, but rather skim through them or simply search through databases to see how much you can find on your topic in order to prepare yourself early. After all, if you wait too long you're only prolonging the amount of work you'll have to put in.
Once you've done your research it's time to buckle down and figure out how you're going to organize your essay—unless writing is your forte this can be a long and difficult process in itself. I find that people often struggle the most with their introduction and thesis statement; however, once you find your flow it's easier to get the ball rolling. With that said, I suggest working on your introductory paragraph immediately so you at least have the basis of your paper down and from there you can keep adding to it over time or attempt to complete it in one sitting—an objective I've yet to accomplish.
You may have all the time in the world to get your assignments done, but I ultimately feel it's more of a relief to finish them early so you have more time to relax between tasks. However, there's no doubt some prefer the satisfaction they feel after completing a paper at the very last minute.