Late assignment submission tendency of students

I have given an assignment on Feb 2, 2011 to my students and deadline of assignment submission was Feb 08, 2011. Today is Feb 12, 2011, but still some of my students are submitting assignment.

I have seen this earlier also. Most of the students has tendency of doing their assignment just before the deadline. And they submit assignment on the deadline or after the deadline. I have seen the same practice in the software companies also. Web developers or Software engineers give more time just before deadline and take lot of load before deadline. But why so?

Why don't you do the exactly opposite which is my practice in my regular life. Whenever I am assigned for a task, then I give full effort at the beginning and try to complete the task many days ago of deadline. And at the time of deadline, I take rest by saying my top management that I completed the task in advance. In this case, they are also happy and I am also happy because of avoiding the load of last days.

I have followed same strategy during studying in my university and working in different software companies. So according to my understanding, the way I follow is much better and safe way. Try to follow this.