Make yourself accountable
Set a writing deadline write my paper (apart from the paper’s due date) them a draft on such-and-such a date for yourself by making an appointment at the Writing Center or telling your TA (or a former TA) that you’re going to give. If you make your Writing Center appointment for several days prior to the paper flow from, then you may be motivated to possess a draft finished, in order to make the appointment worthwhile.
Maintaining your work (books, notes, articles, etc.) physically out, in full view, offers you a reminder which you come in the midst of the paper, or you need to start. Also, it can be helpful to leave off in the middle of a paragraph and leave your ‘tools’ where they are if you write in more than one shift. When you return to the paper, you’ll be able to “warm up” by finishing that paragraph. Starting a new section cold may become more difficult.
Focus on improving your writing once you don’t have a deadline
Investigate your writing process. First of all, you might not think you have got a thing called a “writing process.” You do—everyone does. Describe your writing process at length.
Once you is able to see your writing process, then you can make a choice to improve it. But take it easy with this—only work with one part at the same time. Otherwise, you’ll get overwhelmed and frustrated—and we all know where that leads, straight down the procrastination road.
If you aren’t ready to evaluate your writing process completely (and it’s okay if you aren’t), then you might try just listing your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. For example, you may be great at creating thesis statements, but you have trouble arguments that are developing. Or, your papers are particularly well-organized, but your thesis and argument tend to fall just a little flat. Identifying these issues shall help you do a couple of things: 1) When you write, you can easily play to your strength; and 2) You can choose one weakness and take action you DON’T have a deadline about it when.
Now, doing anything once you don’t have a deadline may sound strange to a procrastinator, but bear with me. Let’s say you’ve decided that your particular writing is just too wordy, and you also want to work on being more concise. So, some time whenever you don’t have a paper—but you do have a free hour—you waltz to the Writing Center and inform your tutor, “Hey, I want learn how to write more clearly.” You confer, and you come away with a few simple approaches for eliminating wordiness.
The following is why this could really make a difference the time that is next write a paper, regardless of whether or not you have got procrastinated (again!): You print out your draft. It’s 1 a.m. Pay a visit to bed. The morning that is next you read over your paper (it’s due at noon). You say to yourself, “Hmmm, I notice I’m being too wordy.” BUT, rather than concluding, “Oh, well, it’s too late, there clearly wasn’t anything I’m able to do about that,” (since you may have in the past), you can easily elect to employ a few of everything you learned (previously, once you weren’t beneath the gun) to make your writing more concise. You edit the paper accordingly. You turn it in.
If your instructor hands the papers back the week that is following there are far fewer cases of “awkward,” “unclear,” etc. in the margins. Voila! You’ve made a change that is positive your writing process!
What does this want to do with procrastination? Well, making one small change in your writing process creates momentum. You start to feel more positive regarding the writing. You begin to be less intimidated by writing assignments. And—eventually—you start them earlier, because they just aren’t as big a deal while they was previously.
Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses in your writing provides you with a feeling of control. Your writing problems are solvable problems. Working on your writing once you don’t have a deadline helps you gain insight and momentum. Soon, writing becomes something which, it, you don’t dread quite as much while you may not look forward to. Thus, you don’t procrastinate quite just as much.
This strategy also is the reason the fact in the past, you aren’t going to give it up right away if you perceive procrastination as having been successful for you
Hone your proofreading and editing skills
Because you don’t like to re-read what you have written, the good news is this: you can learn specific proofreading, revising, and editing strategies if you procrastinate on writing. In the event that you finish your paper in advance, and you also re-read it, and also you don’t want it, you’ve got options. Writing a first draft which you don’t like doesn’t mean you’re a terrible writer. Many writers—in fact, i might venture to express most—hate their drafts that are first. Neither Leo Tolstoy nor Toni Morrison produce(d) brilliant prose to begin with. In reality, Morrison (a big fan of revision) said recently because you wrote it that you don’t have to love your writing just! You may feel more comfortable with the idea of re-reading your papers if you practice some revision and editing strategies. You’ll know that you will), you can do something to improve those areas if you find weaknesses in the draft (and.
Among the best ways to combat procrastination is to develop a far more understanding that is realistic of. Procrastinators’ views of time are usually fairly unrealistic. “This paper will still only take me about five hours to write,” you think. “Therefore, I don’t want to start upon it before the before. night” What you may however be forgetting, is the fact that our time is generally filled with more activities than we realize. On the night in question, as an example, let’s say pay a visit to the gymnasium at 4:45 p.m. You work out (1 hour), take a shower and dress (30 minutes), eat dinner (45 minutes), and head to a sorority meeting (1 hour). By the right time you can get back to your dorm room to begin work with the paper, it is already 8:00 p.m. But now you ought to check your email and return a couple of phone calls. It’s 8:30 p.m. just before finally sit down to write the paper. If the paper does indeed take five hours to write, you’ll be up to 1:30 each morning—and that doesn’t include the time that you will inevitably spend TV that is watching.
And, as it turns out, it will require about five hours to create a primary draft regarding the essay. You have forgotten to permit time for revision, editing, and proofreading. You can get the paper done and turn it when you look at the morning that is next. However you know it isn’t your best work, and you are clearly pretty tired from the night time, and so you make yourself a promise: “Next time, I’ll start early!”
