4:00 AM

I did it! I stayed awake until 4 o'clock in the morning! (Well, I also finished my essay and turned it in, but it's good to put the important things first.)

Before I can claim the rightful reward of my efforts, I still have one last piece of writing to finish up: this blog.

Overall, I think this situation would have gone a lot better if I had motivated myself to get working before the due date. Unfortunately, the best way I’ve found to get myself motivated is with deadline panic. After all, it's much easier to work once you've already started, but just getting started is difficult, especially when it seems like there is plenty of time left. Still, I’m glad I stayed up and kept this blog. Looking over the hours I’ve spent, I realize that this tells me a good deal about what helps me work, what doesn’t, and how I can best get myself to work under pressure.

My hope is that after this experience, I and others after me will learn an important lesson about staying up late at night to write whole essays due the next day: Never do it. I'll be sure to keep it in mind once I head off to college. Of course, I'll never have to resort to such extreme measures in college, right? Right??