Eleventh Hour Never Does It Well, It Rather Harms Us

An Insightful Series of Life Lessons That My Life Provided As I Lived Understanding Its Psychology and Philosophy Improving My Mental Health in The Process.

Jun 19, 2026

LIFE LESSON STORIES SERIES

Eleventh Hour Never Does It Well, It Rather Harms Us

I was in my 10th class when I entered 15th year of age. The two classes, 9th and 10th together, were called high school. The final exams of 10th weren’t conducted by the school. They were rather conducted by the board of education that the school was affiliated with.

I had grown up learning new subjects at my leisure without any pressure of time to prepare them for exams. That was why I never limited myself to my textbooks alone. I would often pick up books on those topics and go into their depth. When my class fellows were busy completing their homework, I ignored it and kept reading extra-curricular stuff on the topic.

My teachers asked me why I didn’t do the homework they had given. And I always told them I thought it was a waste of time. Why should I have solved fifty odd sums employing the same methodology when I knew it once? I considered it to be learning by rote. It was without any insight into deducing the method from the basic principles as and when it was required.

That was why I never really worked hard and enjoyed reading what I felt like learning my own way. And that was why at times I could solve sums that even the teachers had found tough to solve. Also, that was why they never really forced me to do their homework as a commandment.

Eleventh Hour Was Never My Hour

The benefit of learning my way was that I was always ready to take any test without any preparation. I never prepared for exams whereas my class fellows studied only when the exams came closer, at the eleventh hour.

They took huge stress of exams, studied day and night in the last month of the session but performed poorly. Often the stress of exams also took its toll on their health causing loose motions, constipation or acidity to them.

And I always easily learnt what I studied in my school without working hard at all. I still remember all those subjects in all their details even after 50-60 years today.

Mathematics Bore The Main Grunt of The Eleventh Hour

Mathematics was considered to be the toughest of all the subjects in the entire syllabus. But I somehow found it to be the easiest of them all. That was why in my board exams of 10th class, I went to watch a movie a day before my math exam. Within hours, the news of my watching a movie during my board exams spread like wildfire in that small little town.

I went for a walk in the evening. Evening walks on the mall road were the hallmark of my hilly town culture. Everyone came out on the mall road that was more than two kilometers long. And everyone knew everyone else by name. Hence the evening walk served as a walk club where we socialized every evening.

The News of My Watching A Movie at The Eleventh Hour

That day every single person concerned with my welfare stopped me on the road. They wanted to confirm if it was true that I had watched a movie earlier in the day. When I replied in the affirmative, different people had different reactions to it. But none of them was ready to take it easy. Majority advised me not to be so careless. Some of them asked me if I had lost my mind. A few more sympathized with me thinking I had lost all hopes of passing my math exam and gone berserk.

Only my principal still had his faith intact in my action. As he met me on the road, he asked me the same question too. I told him I knew everything, got bored and hence felt like refreshing myself by watching a movie. He started laughing as he had an insider’s knowledge of my academic capabilities. He wished me good luck for my exam the next day and went his way.

The Eleventh Hour Moves to The Twelfth

In the examination hall next day, I finished my paper meant for three hours in one and a quarter hours. In another fifteen minutes, I re-checked all my answers if they were absolutely correct or not. One and a half hours were still left. And I had nothing to do except for getting bored keeping glancing here and there.

The invigilator curiously came to me asking me if I didn’t know what to write in my answer sheet. I told him I had finished my paper. He didn’t believe as he picked up my answer sheet and scrolled his eye through all its pages. With a surprised look, he gave it back to me suggesting I should revise every single answer very attentively. I said I had already done that and asked him if I could leave the exam hall. He very hesitantly took my sheet and allowed me to exit. I took a deep breath as I came out in the open and made my way back home.

This was another news that went viral by the evening without any social media support those days. I had to answer the same number of queries as those of the last day during my evening walk again. People didn’t tend to believe me if it was possible. They had all their doubts and apprehensions about how my performance was going to be as the result went out. It was only my principal again who looked at me, smiled a bit, gestured thumbs up and went his way.

Futility of The Eleventh Hour Exposed

When the results came out after around one and a half months, I had stood first in the entire district. Everyone was wonder struck including my competitors in all three hundred elite schools that our town was famous for. It is still internationally famous for its high-end boarding schools with their sprawling hostels in them.

It came to me very naturally not to postpone things to do at the eleventh hour. Maybe it was so because I loved doing what all I did throughout my life. Of course, I did have to pay the cost of opting for doing what I always loved to do. If we love doing something, we never tend to postpone it. But if we don’t, we do tend to postpone it to the eleventh hour which never produces very good results. On top of it, it becomes a stress not only for mind but also for the body turning it ill.

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