i think there are multiple reasons, one of them being that we underestimate. i doubt you really thought this homework would take you 36 whole hours, and i’m guessing you estimated 12 at the very most.
also, as a society, we run on little sleep and a lot of coffee and overtime. we’ve been trained and told that it’s allright to work ourselves half to death and do things like this. this way, we can have fun and not worry about work until the very last minute and just enjoy ourselves. instead of taking one hour a night, we watch tv or have a round of drinks that hour and put that hour off until the very end. we trick ourselves by saying “well, it’s only one hour, i wouldn’t have gotten much done anyway. as people, we give into temptation too easily and do what we want a lot, instead of fulfilling our obligations.
and the answer, in reader’s digest version, is this: would you rather hang out with your friends, or do homework?