With bloodshot eyes, a nest of disheveled hair and an espresso mustache, you sit upright in your seat, fingers stabbing at the keyboard to push out the last few words of your term paper.

Which is due in two hours.

Though it may seem like a cheap thrill for the soft-core adrenaline junkie, some produce their best quality work under the pressure of a fast-approaching deadline.

“I’ve had students spend lots of time on an assignment and others, it’s pretty clearly done at the last second,” said Joseph Janes, professor at the Information School at the University of Washington. “But I’ve had not-so-good work in both directions.”

Waiting until that last moment serves to replace the urgency that hunting for information in stacks of books once posed. Racing the clock to make a deadline provides that extra push.

It is thus a terrible misconception that people who procrastinate are lazy and it is unfair to stereotype them as “slackers.”

Most students have jobs to help fund their education. Others may have families that they have to care for.

The need to cram is simply a norm for the modern scholar.

Alison Head, James’ colleague at the University of Washington’s Information School, has co-directed Project Information Literacy. Her ongoing research alongside fellow Information School professor Michael Eisenberg aims to look at being a student in the digital age from the students’ perspective.

As a precursor to their own work, Head and Eisenberg looked at a 1984 study which asked students why they procrastinate. The majority reported a lack of confidence or fear of failure.

“When we asked the same question (in our study), it wasn’t that they had a lack of confidence or a fear of failure, it’s that they were juggling work from other classes,” Head said.

Students decide what needs to be done now, versus what can wait until later.

In a sense, it becomes planned procrastination.

Some students study by burying themselves in stacks of flashcards. Others set up camp in libraries behind towers of books and periodicals.

And then there are those for whom the last-minute cram session is the driving force behind quality work.

One student participant in Head and Eisenberg’s study summed up the exhilaration of this state of mind.

“I really love functional anxiety. That’s when I’m my most productive – I really get off on being stressed and worrying, ‘Am I going to fail, or am I even going to get this done?'” she said.

As a practicing procrastinator, the awareness of an approaching deadline nurtures the same impulsive productivity that a timed exam does.

Some of the best ideas come to us when we’re under the pressure of a deadline.

It is okay to admit that procrastination works for you.

Besides, what would college be without lattes and sleep deprivation.

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