SpongeBob is assigned an 800-word essay at boating school about what not to do at a stoplight, which is due the following day. Unfortunately, SpongeBob's initial excitement about the project is not enough to overcome the writer's block he experiences as soon as he sits down to write. After hours of procrastination, followed by a dream during the night about his inability to finish the report, SpongeBob wakes just in time for school to begin. In an effort to overcome his procrastination, he writes about everything that happened in his dream as ideas of what not to do at a stoplight. After rushing to boating school, full of excitement at having completed the assignment just in time, SpongeBob learns from Mrs. Puff that she has a teachers' meeting and the class will be going on a field trip to a stoplight instead. Stupefied by his unnecessarily bizarre night, SpongeBob rips his essay in half and also splits himself in half.