Friday, March 27, 2015

Tips for Focusing When Writing Essays

When you’re a student (especially in university), spring time can mean several things: nicer weather, spring break and one step closer to the summer holiday. It’s generally all nice and well but spring also means that an insane amount of work and essays are about to be due. The workload can be overwhelming at times and staying focus is key to writing quality papers. I know it’s difficult but procrastinating has to stop.  

Over the years I have discovered tricks that help me get in the zone and really focus on those papers. I’m the kind of person that always needs to have some sort of background sound to concentrate, a quiet library doesn’t work for me. So depending on your personality these can prove helpful or they simply might not work for you.


For me, the writing process has two sections: the research part and the actual writing part. I like to start by doing research because it makes it easier for me to write afterwards and it also helps alleviate the stress of having to find sources that substantiate your paper at the last minute. Spending hours online looking things up can get a bit boring, which is why I like to put a movie or a TV show on that I have already seen while I do this. Since you know what will happen it’s less distracting than having something random on and it makes the whole research process more enjoyable because you’re listening to something you like. Your favorite parts can also make for really nice breaks to have snack and stretch.


Once you have most of your references comes the most difficult part: coming up with an insightful, cohesive and well written paper. Depending on your topic this can turn out to be quite fun, but usually, for some mysterious reason, essays you write for university are hard to do. The word count seems impossible to reach, the topic is uninspiring or you can’t find anything on it. This is why you need to get in the zone, that wonderful place where brilliant sentences just flow and you can write thousands of words in an hour. For this, television becomes too distracting, I need something repetitive. I like to find a song that’s calming and will almost hypnotize me into focusing. One song I highly recommend for that is Erase by Hyorin and JooYoung (listen to it here), this is the song that got me through my final essays last semester. It allowed me to concentrate without having silence mocking me during my writer’s block.

I hope these tips will help you with any essay writing you might have to do. Most importantly, don’t worry too much and try to plan ahead so you have enough time and less stress on your mind. If you’d like I would love to share with you all other tips for essay writing, but for now good luck!
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