Magical elves will write my exam!

I have two take-home finals in addition to my two in-class finals, and I've now been working on one of the take-homes for four days. I actually have been working. I worked on it for 7 hours on Thursday, 5 hours on Friday, 6 hours yesterday, and 7 (so far) today. My only prayer at this point is that magical elves will write my exam. (Can the elves turn on my computer, or do I have to leave it on for them?)

My real hope, of course, is that the procrastinator's panic will set in, but my friend R has noted that all of our panic thermostats seem to be out of whack this time around. I'm trying now to just outline as much as I can so that when I can finally write, I won't be wasting time looking stuff up.

And it strikes me that actually, that's my usual law school writing process. Assume there will be horrible procrastination, but do enough advance work so that once the panic sets in, you can take advantage.

I'm going to start thinking of it that way.