It’s 9:00 p.m. Your twenty-five page paper is due in exactly twelve hours, and you still have to write twenty pages, miraculously produce some sources you can actually cite, and maybe, if you’re lucky, squeeze in eight minutes for a quick proofread. A familiar feeling of panic is setting in, and you know you’ve got a long night ahead. This is not the first time you have pushed a paper deadline. You think, “How did I get myself into this situation again?” Then you remember that in the three months since the paper was assigned, you did everything you could to avoid working on the paper. And now, even though you have only twelve hours left, you’re still not doing what you know you should be – making a pot of black coffee and settling in to work. Instead, you’re staring into your refrigerator wondering if, despite having had dinner an hour ago, you’re already hungry enough to take a sandwich break. Does this scenario sound familiar to you? Most of us have been guilty of procrastination on one occasion or another, particularly when confronted with an unfamiliar writing task. The tendency to procrastinate may stem from anxiety, fear, embarrassment, or discomfort. The end result of procrastination may be a missed opportunity, a frustrated goal or a low quality work product. Whatever the causes or frequency of their occurrence, episodes of procrastination need not be terminal. With a small amount of reflection upon your particular modes of procrastination, you may be able to identify techniques that will help you enter the writing process with less stress. Here are some tips to help you end the vicious cycle of procrastination:
1. Break the Assignment Into Small Pieces
When you initially get a writing assignment, do you immediately think that you will be unable to finish such a big or complicated project? Do you panic at the thought of everything that will need to get done before a major assignment can be handed in? Stop. Try to remember that not everything has to be completed at once (unless you wait until the very end!). Make a list of the separate steps involved in the writing process (e.g., researching, generating a thesis statement, outlining, writing a first draft) and think of each step as an individual task. Just breaking up the idea of a paper in your mind can calm you down and help you feel more equipped to handle the task ahead. If you still procrastinate on the task after breaking it down, break it down even further. So, break “researching” down to “find ten relevant cases” and if that still seems unmanageable, break “find ten relevant cases” down to “run a Westlaw search.” Or, break “proofread” down to “check Bluebooking,” and if that still seems unmanageable, break it down still more to “make sure all case names are underlined.” Once your tasks are as simple as possible, you’re much more likely to sit down and complete them right away.
2. Make a Detailed To-Do List with Specific Deadlines
Is your only goal to complete the paper by the day it is due? Having a single, large goal with one deadline is a common mistake that facilitates procrastination. Break your assignment up into small tasks (see Tip # 1), then structure your to-do list around those specific tasks. For example, if you have completed your research and want to begin writing your first draft, set a goal of writing two pages a day, so that you can have a first draft in two weeks. Don’t forget to include specific personal goals in your planning. If you schedule time to exercise, do laundry, and go grocery shopping along with your project goals, you will increase your overall sense of control and your feeling of accomplishment. Remember to be realistic in your goal-setting – there’s no point in making overly optimistic to-do lists, because you’ll only feel discouraged if you don’t meet all your goals (nobody can write a first-draft, run five miles, walk the dog, and bake a layer cake in a single day). Finally, many people find that it helps to write a to-do list down and cross items off as they are completed – there is something intrinsically satisfying about marking off achievements, and this visual reminder of your progress is likely to inspire you to stay on task.
3. Make a Time Schedule …
You’ve probably got a daily planner (if you don’t have one, you need to get one, or the electronic equivalent). What do you write in your planner? Do you write, “Work on first draft” each day for a full month? Instead of setting aside this type of general time to write your paper, set aside a specific time period (i.e., “Monday 7-9: Write two pages for first draft”) and make yourself adhere to the schedule. Some writers find it easier to plan if they work backward. That is, set a deadline for the project and then work backward to set interim deadlines for defined tasks that need to be accomplished in order to meet the deadline. No matter which mode of scheduling you use, make sure you also schedule in some time to NOT work. The most important thing to remember when making a schedule is that writing is an intensely personal process, and everyone approaches it differently. Do you know that it takes you a long time to research but only a short time to proofread? Tailor your schedule accordingly. Do you know that you’ll be exhausted after finishing your first draft? Give yourself a day off instead of scheduling yourself to immediately start revising. It is often helpful to overestimate the amount of work you have so that you give yourself plenty of time to finish everything – i.e., if you think it will take you three to five hours to check for Bluebooking errors, err on the side of caution and schedule in six hours to Bluebook. Finishing something early is hugely satisfying; feeling as though you’re scrambling to complete a task that you didn’t give yourself enough time for can be frustrating and demoralizing.
4. …and Stick to It
Do you ever sit down to write – filled with good intentions – only to find that an hour has somehow passed and you’ve yet to write a word? It’s far too easy to spend two hours “writing” without getting anything done at all. To make sure you’re actually writing when you’re “writing,” eliminate as many distractions as possible. Sign out of gchat, turn off the movie you’re watching in the background, and resist the urge to compulsively check your email every two minutes. If you really need to, turn off your Internet altogether or work in a coffee shop that doesn’t have Wi-Fi. If it still seems daunting to do nothing but write for a two-hour block, break that block down into smaller chunks of time. Set a kitchen timer or an alarm clock for a specific amount of time (say, fifteen minutes), and tell yourself you will do nothing but write until the alarm sounds. You will be amazed at how much you can achieve in fifteen minutes of solid, focused writing and, at the end of the fifteen minutes, you will often find that you are eager to continue writing. If you hit a wall at the end of the fifteen minutes, don’t become anxious – working for fifteen minutes then taking a short break might not seem productive, but it is a much better use of your time than two hours of reading food blogs, checking Facebook, and taking an inordinately long time to type your name and the date at the top of your blank page.
Source:
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/academic-programs/legal-writing-scholarship/writing-center/upload/kaavya-just-do-it-tips-for-avoiding-procrastination.pdf
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