Purely from a technical perspective, my writing habits are actually not that bad: I know how to free-write my ideas; I am good at organizing them into logical order afterwards; I make good outlines; and then, I am able to develop those outlines into rough drafts and a final product. The principal problem that I encounter in my writing is that all of that tends to occur within a much shorter time frame than necessary for optimal results because of my tendency to procrastinate. In fact, I realize that I am now so conditioned to procrastinating that it is very difficult for me to get into the right frame of mind for concentration on my writing task unless I am already under significant time pressure. Once in a great while, I have had the experience of misconstruing a deadline and believing that an assignment (or an exam) was scheduled earlier than it actually was. On another occasion, a deadline extension was granted, spontaneously, to the entire class the day before a major project was due. Those are the ideal circumstances for me to produce my best work, simply because I am forever handing in work or sitting for exams in circumstances where the work is complete or I am prepared for the exam, but where one additional day of preparation time would have made the difference between...
More often than not, by the time I complete my final draft, another day would have been very useful to do one more final edit; likewise, by the time my examination study outline is finally ready, another full day would be necessary to reap the full benefits of studying from it.
It is no coincidence that on the rare occasions when I had more time all along without realizing it until the last minute or where a deadline was unexpectedly extended, I received higher grades than I usually receive for my projects and on my examinations. I realize, at least consciously, that this problem is one that I could solve relatively easily with better time management skills and habits. However, it is, admittedly, very difficult for me to imagine conquering this particular problem because it seems so much a part of my natural makeup. Finally, the fact that I am sometimes able to achieve good results anyway only makes it harder to break the habit because it reinforces it instead.
