The time is 3:00 AM. You’re on your fourth cup of coffee. You haven’t showered, and you certainly haven’t slept. You have to be awake in four hours to take your history midterm, but instead, you’re trying to memorize two months worth of material in a single night. How did this happen? The answer is obvious: procrastination.

Time and time again, professors have given the tired old speech about how we won’t be able to start a project the night before it is due, or how we need to start our homework earlier, but we never listen. This isn’t, however, always a bad thing.

Procrastination can make for stressful days and long, sleepless night, but it can also provide the necessary pressure to create an amazing project that secures your grade for the semester. For many students, an impending deadline is the only thing that can get them to work. As humans, we seek comfort and avoid pain, and few people find more comfort than pain when reading through their Philosophy 101 textbook in an attempt to pass a class they never really wanted to take in the first place. This is the reason why procrastination happens.

Whether or not this is a good reason is debatable, but one thing is for certain: procrastination has a bad reputation. You’ve probably heard it called “lazy” or “irresponsible,” but it’s not inherently “lazy” or “irresponsible.” It’s just a fact of human nature. Procrastination definitely can be a bad thing, but that is only correct if too much time is wasted and there isn’t enough time to complete the assignment.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from those who procrastinate are those who get ahead. I’m of course talking about that one person in every lecture who is always on time, writes everything down and never fails an assignment. While it is true that those who actually stay organized and complete their assignments within a reasonable timeframe generally do better at school, this isn’t entirely feasible for some students. Besides, if every waking moment is spent being accountable and on top of your school work, how are you ever going to explore life?

Every single student at this university is fortunate enough to have the opportunity to explore the full college experience, and if too much time is spent on college, there won’t be enough time for the experience. Sometimes assignments can wait, but your life can’t. That’s okay, just so long as those assignments do get turned in. So should students abandon any attempts at improving their time management skills? Absolutely not. The time management skills that we learn at this point in our lives as young adults will carry us throughout life and help to guide us in our careers.

Everyone should strive for improvement, and college would probably be easier without the stress of near-due assignments lurking, but what is the fun in that? So next time you’re writing an essay while the birds are chirping, the sun is shining and your friends are knocking down your door, go ahead and close your laptop, step outside and live life to the fullest. It’s only natural.