Procrastination.

Here are how the deadlines for our moot court competition look:

Week 1: Statement of the Case (basically, a summary of the facts and the major arguments for each side)
Week 2: Outline of brief
Week 3: Rough draft 1 of brief
Week 4: Rough draft 2 of brief
Week 6: Final draft of brief

At the outset, our moot court editor advised us to front-load the work: "the more you do now, the less work it will be later, so make sure to do a good job on your outline."

Of course, having a general tendency to procrastinate, I always punt on the earlier assignments, vaguely promising myself that I will make up for my shoddy work later. So I basically blew off my statement of the case...and then my outline...and now the rough draft that was due this past Monday. I always handed something in, of course, but to say that I put in an honest effort would be a stretch.

The problem is this: I never really get around to making up for my initial, shoddy work. This doesn't go over too well in a long-term endeavor like moot court, where each week's assignment builds off of the previous week's. My thinking process goes something like this:

Week 1: Statement of the case? Whatever, I have to write the outline next week anyway. Let me just BS something for now and I'll straighten things out later.
Week 2: Outline, huh? Well, my statement of the case is supposed to help me write this thing, but I guess I didn't do that great of a job last week. But look--it's just the rough draft that's due next week! And this is just an outline. And the class is pass/fail! Who cares!
Week 3: Uh oh, time to write the rough draft. Okay, so I'm supposed to write it based off of my outline. Hmm, my outline looks like it was written by an 8th grader. Well that's no good. But crap, this draft is due tomorrow! I guess I'll have to make do. It's just the first rough draft, after all--I still have 2 more chances to get it right!
Week 4: (hasn't happened yet, but I assume something similar to Weeks 1, 2, and 3)
Week 6: See week 4.

So that's the problem. It's like trying to build a house: I'm too lazy to lay a solid foundation, and instead of shoring it up later, I just continue to stack bricks haphazardly on top of an already-shaky foundation. However, the optimist in me always seems to have faith that one of these weeks, I will magically find the time to go back and make everything right. Well, maybe next week...right?

Anyway, some happy news: I have a job for the summer!