Every academic guide I’ve ever read offers the same kinds of tips to improve your study habits. Make a checklist. Pace yourself. Be sure to take breaks. These are probably helpful to a lot of people, but quite frankly, when it comes to work, my ideal pace is rushing through everything the night before it’s due. Over the course of my time at Case Western Reserve University, I’ve realized that this is just how I do things.

Since coming to CWRU, I’ve realized that just like the academic guides say, I often make my checklists. But instead of using them, I ignore them and feel totally guilty while still wasting time. Alternatively, I could do things the way I’ve always done them, with the clock steadily ticking as I wonder if it’s worth it to grab another hour of sleep or if I ought to just chuck any remaining good habits out the window. I know how I operate now, and I’m going to make the most of it.

I know on some level that putting things off is the “wrong” thing to do, but the fact remains that I still churn out good quality work this way. I think that a lot of CWRU students do this. Procrastination is not inherently a bad thing, and in the right circumstances it can produce higher-quality work than working “properly” would.

That isn’t to say of course that doing things “properly” is inferior. Instead, I’m trying to say that everyone should find their own way of getting things done. It lifted a burden off of my shoulders when I realized doing things in chunks isn’t for me. I stopped trying to cram myself into an incorrectly-sized box. As finals descend upon us, I hope that you can find your best way to do things, too.

Danny Miles is a second-year student, who manages to turn everything in on time despite the way he does it. You can do it too.