Last minute work

[Esotera]

What's the stupidest thing you've ever left until the very last minute? It could be coursework, revision for an exam, or pretty much anything under the sun (doesn't necessarily have to be academic). Include details of how much work there was, time restraints, and anything else worthy of note...really good stories get bonus points. Also, any good tips on how to be productive will get some.

As for me, I made this thread because I lost my usb with two months' worth of coursework on it, so have to do it all again within a week. So I could use some tales that are much worse...

 

[Sonicron]

And the Lord looked upon mankind and said, "Go forth, my children, and create regular backup data."

Procrastination is probably one of my more irritating vices. Back in July, for example, I put off writing my BA thesis (for which you have 2 months) until one week before the deadline. It was a real pain, writing 5-7 pages a day on average while checking and double-checking for correct citations and everything, usually spending at least 12 hours a day on the project... but in the end I came out of it with a 2.3, which isn't bad at all considering I'd never written a paper of that size before.

 

[Mr Thin]

The stupidest thing I've left until the last minute would probably be defusing the bomb most of my assignments during high school. Of course, by last minute, I mean last day, or last weekend, or whatever. Nothing particularly interesting or noteworthy.

I used to tell myself I left them that late because I knew I could do them easily, and that if I actually started them early I could do a great job. Looking back, I suspect I secretly knew I would never do a very good job, and simply left things until the last minute as an excuse for giving a mediocre performance.

As for advice on how to be productive; well I don't want to be a dick, but getting off The Escapist and actually working on your stuff would probably be a good place to start.

Also, attaching some sort of cord to your USB (most of them have a little hole for this purpose) makes it a lot harder to lose them. And make backups on your PC!

 

[teqrevisited]

I handed in a piece of my English GCSE coursework about a month or two late. Got me an A-. We had to write a short story to a high standard and consistent style. I always left it to the last minute anyway, but I left this until the night before the absolute final deadline, literally days before they send them off for external examination. Since I never liked writing short stories I decided to present it as the first chapter.

I started writing at about 10PM and didn't finish until 5AM. I spent the first half of the day in an adrenaline-fuelled haze and, as is often the case, it wore off just after lunch to leave me to sleep through the afternoon classes, stagger home and collapse as soon as I reached my bed.

Being as laid back as I am, seeming wired one minute, half asleep the next and nearly walking into things only wrongly reinforced some people's opinions that I indulged in illegal substances.

It was certainly worth the expressions on their faces when I told them how long it had taken.


As for any advice, you can probably do a lot better than to go by my methods. Worthy advice in itself I think we can agree.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

i was writing once, doing a couple chapters in my book and hadnt been saving my work, finally finished up what i wanted to get done, about 150 pages, and saved. LITERALLY 3 minutes later, my computer crashed. scared the crap outta me.

 

[mexicola]

Last year we had a whole semester to write a paper, I put it off again and again until literally the last day. I started off around midnight and stayed awake writing it for 12 straight hours until noon next day. Then I had to go out of my way to print the thing, which almost made me late for the class in which I had to turn it in.

Yeah I have great working ethic.

 

[Cazza]

I once put off reading the book that I needed to do my eassy on until the last week. I only read a few pages gave up. I used all the notes I took from class of people talking about the book. I got a B for the eassy.

 

[Esotera]

As for advice on how to be productive; well I don't want to be a dick, but getting off The Escapist and actually working on your stuff would probably be a good place to start.

Also, attaching some sort of cord to your USB (most of them have a little hole for this purpose) makes it a lot harder to lose them. And make backups on your PC!

Generally there's nothing worthy of backing up, and I've only lost the USB as I'm in the process of moving house. Also that was very useful advice, got a fair amount of work done.

I handed in a piece of my English GCSE coursework about a month or two late. Got me an A-. We had to write a short story to a high standard and consistent style. I always left it to the last minute anyway, but I left this until the night before the absolute final deadline, literally days before they send them off for external examination. Since I never liked writing short stories I decided to present it as the first chapter.

I started writing at about 10PM and didn't finish until 5AM.

This is the exact story of every piece of A-Level English coursework I did. There's something about it that's easier doing it all in one go.