How to Stop Procrastinating and Get Your Essay Down in No Time
Your essay is due this week. You sit down to write. You open your word processor and start staring at the blank page. The excruciating agony of coming up with stuff to write begins.
You sit there for a minute, maybe typing a few words. And then you realize that you have almost a whole week to get it done; so you close the word processor and hit the world wide web for the latest. Later, you feel guilty about not having done your work.
Hey, I’ve done it a thousand times. In fact, I didn’t use to like writing at all. It used to be the most painful process in college for me. So, I know exactly where you’re coming from.
I’d like to teach you a very simple method to end procrastination and make writing that essay at least 50% less painful. It’s a two-step process:
Step 1: Instead if procrastinating, just write your paper pretty much last minute.
Contrary to popular belief and all the advice out there, it’s actually a great idea to write your college essays last minute. Here’s why:
There’s nothing morally wrong with writing your paper last minute
It will save you the constant mental nagging
It will rid you of the unnecessary guilty feeling that you are not doing what you’re supposed to be doing
It will end procrastination – you can’t put off something you don’t intend to do until last minute
It will make you resourceful mentally when you actually sit down to write
When you decide that you’ll write your essay just a couple of hours before it’s due, you must make sure that:
You allow sufficient time to write the necessary number of pages
You either know the subject well enough to write it without much research, or you’ve done your research beforehand, and now all you need to do is write
Make sure your printer has enough ink and paper to print your paper for submission
Step 2: Spend at least as much time writing your thesis statement as you would on writing the rest of the paper.
How easy it will be to write a 1 to 5 page paper will depend on the amount of time you spend writing your thesis statement. You see, your thesis statement dictates your support (the body of the essay). Therefore, if you get the thesis right, you’ll get the paper right. If not, then you won’t.
I’ll keep coming back to this issue because I get a lot of questions about how to write thesis statements.
If you spend a lot of time on that first paragraph, which is your thesis statement, you will:
Have the outline for your entire paper
Know exactly what to say in each part of your essay
Have much easier time coming up with all the words to meet the word count requirement
Keep Writing and don’t hesitate to post a comment or ask a question right here.
Tutor Phil
Comments
Zhaij Jiasays
Hi,Tutor Phil
I am coming.
I will go to another city for my new job after a few days. I got my master degree in engineering in 2008. After graduation, I entered one Startup Company which engaged in researching & producing materials for new sources of energy. 2 month ago, I resigned. Then, I came back to my hometown and got a job near my home.
In my hometown, I have abundant time to learn and play. And it’s also a good chance to improve my English.
It comes to TOEFL, the essay should be accomplished in 30 minutes and be more than 300 words. So, if we take the into consideration both time and word count ,approximate 350 words should be a good choice.
Your blog is very interesting and helpful. I can see the instructions in it, but could you give us some essays which follow your instructions.
Hi.
You surprise me.
It needs correcting and editing before it can be posted.
In the sam time, its TOEFL background shoud be concealed. Because if it is adopted by TOEFL takers in the test, the Electrical-Raters of TOEFL will find the similar ones form million essays easily. And these will be cosidered as cheats. It had happed in TOEFL test very time.
Hi Phil,
I have a question on writing and doing other homework assignments; do you think listening to pop music (or which ever music you like) helps you do homework? I think it helps me feel less lonely and frustrated with the stack of homework papers I have, but at the same time, I think it might be a distraction to be singing and tapping to the beat while writing my essay or doing my math homework. Music or No Music?
Thanks,
Kat.
No music for me – definitely. I’ve tried the most unobtrusive and relaxing music while doing any kind of intellectual work. Doesn’t work for me. I need total silence and no distractions.
I’ve seen people listen to loud music and read or write at the same time. It’s beyond me how they can concentrate. Kudos to them 🙂
I want to say that this post is amazing, great written and include almost all significant infos. I’d like to look more posts like this. Research Writing Reviews
I do not know the exact amount of students who write their own essay. I also look to their service. Great post, easy writing style as well as clear content.
I’m impressed. You’re truly well informed and very intelligent. You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. I’m saving this for future use.
Procrastinating has been an issue especially for a student like me. With your article, it will help me defy this academically-challenged dilemma especially with writing essays.
I really appreciated this wonderful article about essay writing.You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. Please maintain the good work.Thank you very much.
A new writer isn’t likely to have reliable information sources for the content they need to write – and it may sound silly but few of them actually consider utilizing a much underrated place known as The Library. Many new writers start sifting through content online and wind up swiping content from article directories (like this one). Some will completely rewrite the content; others may use poor quality spinners or simply copy and paste. Consider that a new writer may not necessarily provide the best research for your content.
If you are procrastinating a little too much, maybe that’s because you make it easy to procrastinate. Identify your browser bookmarks that take up a lot of your time and shift them into a separate folder that is less accessible. Disable the automatic notification option in your email client. Get rid of the distractions around you. I know some people will out of the way and delete/deactivate their facebook accounts.
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Hi,Tutor Phil
I am coming.
I will go to another city for my new job after a few days. I got my master degree in engineering in 2008. After graduation, I entered one Startup Company which engaged in researching & producing materials for new sources of energy. 2 month ago, I resigned. Then, I came back to my hometown and got a job near my home.
In my hometown, I have abundant time to learn and play. And it’s also a good chance to improve my English.
It comes to TOEFL, the essay should be accomplished in 30 minutes and be more than 300 words. So, if we take the into consideration both time and word count ,approximate 350 words should be a good choice.
Your blog is very interesting and helpful. I can see the instructions in it, but could you give us some essays which follow your instructions.
Hi.
Maybe what I’ll do is I’ll just take the essay that you posted, edit it, and post is as one of the model essays on my blog.
How about that?
Tutor Phil
Hi.
You surprise me.
It needs correcting and editing before it can be posted.
In the sam time, its TOEFL background shoud be concealed. Because if it is adopted by TOEFL takers in the test, the Electrical-Raters of TOEFL will find the similar ones form million essays easily. And these will be cosidered as cheats. It had happed in TOEFL test very time.
Hey, Zhaij Jia,
Here’s your sample essay:
http://www.tutorphil.com/blog/sample-essay-1/
Do you recognize it?
Tutor Phil
You made some great points here with your post. I got to say i like visiting and reading your opinion Please maintain the good work.
Hi Phil,
I have a question on writing and doing other homework assignments; do you think listening to pop music (or which ever music you like) helps you do homework? I think it helps me feel less lonely and frustrated with the stack of homework papers I have, but at the same time, I think it might be a distraction to be singing and tapping to the beat while writing my essay or doing my math homework. Music or No Music?
Thanks,
Kat.
HI Kat,
No music for me – definitely. I’ve tried the most unobtrusive and relaxing music while doing any kind of intellectual work. Doesn’t work for me. I need total silence and no distractions.
I’ve seen people listen to loud music and read or write at the same time. It’s beyond me how they can concentrate. Kudos to them 🙂
TP
I want to say that this post is amazing, great written and include almost all significant infos. I’d like to look more posts like this.
Research Writing Reviews
I do not know the exact amount of students who write their own essay. I also look to their service. Great post, easy writing style as well as clear content.
I’m impressed. You’re truly well informed and very intelligent. You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. I’m saving this for future use.
I also very often do the things in last minute, just because i understand that my efficiency is higher near the deadline.
Procrastinating has been an issue especially for a student like me. With your article, it will help me defy this academically-challenged dilemma especially with writing essays.
hey this is wonderful article I really appreciated this essay Writing thank you very much such an amazing blog…
I really appreciated this wonderful article about essay writing.You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. Please maintain the good work.Thank you very much.
After seeing it, i realize that i can understand more
Glad it helped 🙂
TP
Nice and useful article. Can we use it in our blog as a source?
You sure can. Thanks…
A new writer isn’t likely to have reliable information sources for the content they need to write – and it may sound silly but few of them actually consider utilizing a much underrated place known as The Library. Many new writers start sifting through content online and wind up swiping content from article directories (like this one). Some will completely rewrite the content; others may use poor quality spinners or simply copy and paste. Consider that a new writer may not necessarily provide the best research for your content.
If you are procrastinating a little too much, maybe that’s because you make it easy to procrastinate. Identify your browser bookmarks that take up a lot of your time and shift them into a separate folder that is less accessible. Disable the automatic notification option in your email client. Get rid of the distractions around you. I know some people will out of the way and delete/deactivate their facebook accounts.
Great advice, Andrea!