My wife sometimes accuses me of procrastinating when I’m doing something at the last minute, but I will explain to her that that was actually the time I had scheduled for the project. It wasn’t poor planning – it was the actual plan. Prior to that time, I had other priorities, and it would have been irresponsible to have put those off to do the thing that wasn’t due yet.
A good example is some of the continuing education classes I teach. I have a lot of classes, and in most cases the presentations are already put together, but if it’s been a while since I taught a class it usually needs to be updated. I normally use the hour prior to my presentation to update my powerpoint.
Yes, for some people this would be stressful, but I like doing it that way because it allows me to include the most up-to-date information and gives me a chance to review the slides and refresh my memory right before the class. I wouldn’t suggest waiting until the last minute to start putting a presentation together from scratch, but last-minute editing works for me. I know a number of other speakers who do the same thing.