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There was an interesting experimental psychology study done by Baumeister (I think) that looked into the notion that chronic procrastinators work better under pressure. I don't remember the details but the basic idea was that two groups of procrastinators were somehow made to work on tasks with or without some sort of pressure condition. He found that, contrary to common belief, pressure reduced the quality of task output.
I understand that in clinical practice, a common approach is to cognitive-behaviorally produce change by explaining to the procrastinator why working under pressure is a bad thing, and then somehow forcing procrastinators to work on things early and observe the quality of their work (and compare it to how bad they thought it would be without pressure).
Procrastination is also correlated with measures of fear of failure and vulnerability to shame, and the hypothesis is that some people procrastinate because they believe they may do poorly and wish to delay the shame that will result from poor performance.
Of course, the above observations are true only in general, and may not apply to a particular procrastinator. I'm sure that some procrastinators do perform better under pressure and have confidence in their abilities. Procrastination is difficult because so much can go into it.
If you're a student at a college with accessible professors, it can help to schedule a meeting with a prof a week or so before a due date to "go over a rough draft" because it gives you a new deadline to meet (or risk angering your prof by standing him/her up).
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