Starting early isn’t about being a nerd. It’s about having time to fix the stuff you didn’t know was broken.

Starting early is about discovery rather than virtue. Problems you cannot see from the outside only announce themselves once you begin, and the whole value of an early start is that there is still room to deal with them when they do. Leaving it late does not shorten the work; it removes the repair time.

Begin whatever is due next week today, badly, just far enough to find out what is harder than it looked. Note what surprised you. Keep the remaining days for fixing that rather than for starting.