Thanks all for the advice.
Sometimes I do end up doing like @nikipedia said and I just go ahead and do the whole thing. Frustrating, but it works. How,ever sometimes projects are assigned to a group simply because they are far too big to be done alone. My current predicament is building and programming a robot and it’s just a huge task. Fortunately my partners have been pretty good, they just don’t always want to work as early as I do which stresses me out.
I try to be a leader, but it just feels a little awkward for me to assert leadership over my peers and delegate tasks – what gives me that kind of authority over them? I feel like they’d just end up hating me. But @Pied_Pfeffer‘s idea is nice, having people to volunteer for specific tasks. So long as people actually see it through!
I’m really tempted to do my share and then sit back and say “alright, the rest is up to you guys.” But I just don’t trust that the work will get done if I do that, not with any level of quality anyway.
And here’s why I feel that way. We have group lab assignments due every week. They’re extensive, and it is common to run into unexpected problems, so I like to start them with time to spare. They are assigned on Wednesdays and due the following Monday, and I usually initiate contact with my partners on Wednesday or Thursday to set up a time to get started. One Wednesday, I started feeling crummy. I went to the lab anyway to get a start on the assignment and ended up puking on the ground outside the building. That evening I felt worse and worse so I went to the hospital and had to be admitted for a few days because it turned out I was having a little surgical complication. I put the lab work out of my mind; I had enough else to worry about with getting well and catching up with other work I was missing. My lab partners would surely take care of most of it. I get back on campus on Monday – lab due date – and talk to my partners. They had done NOTHING. So what, if I’m not there to initiate meetings you just won’t do anything, is that how it is? So I went and talked to the professor and got a two day extension and ended up hurriedly finishing up, mostly by myself, while still feeling a little under the weather and having a shit ton of other work to catch up on. Thanks guys. Sorry about the rant.
I think better organization is going to be key. I do really like @Pied_Pfeffer‘s idea. It’s a little late in the game to implements something like that on my current project (due this Friday), but next time I have group work I’ll definitely give it a shot. Thanks everyone!