Academic writing often gives students headache. You know that feeling when you start your writing, but you end up just staring at the screen with no idea about what to do. Alternatively, you might choose not to get to your writing task before the very last moment; as a result, you will be rushing ahead panic-stricken. There is a nice recipe for those who cannot force themselves to write due to many possible reasons, including the two most common ones — writer’s block and procrastination. The tricks are shared in Robert Boice’s book titled How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency. He talks about writing and patience and in his words those are inseparable if you want to succeed in creating texts.
Impatience is the number one problem for everyone who struggles with writing. Fear and anxiety are making you insecure, unsure, and unproductive. You are procrastinating because you are not ready to deal with the process; at the same time, however, you still want to have your assignment done. You want a result, but you are scared of spending time on achieving it. The thought that you might miss the deadline probably makes you nervous. Still, if you simply calm down and start doing what you need in advance, gradually, then you won’t have to worry.
To write productively, a person should develop a habit of writing. If you treat the writing process as an integral part of your daily routine, it becomes an inseparable part of your life. In order to turn the activity that gives you the creeps into a norm, you should spend a certain amount of time doing it. For example, you can schedule 20 minutes daily and dedicate this time to writing. If you do it gradually and consistently, there is a great chance that you will do everything you need without any rush.
If you have large amounts of writing, you can divide the entire work into periods of time, so that you don’t do everything at once. It is important to note: when the time’s up, you should stop writing. This way, discipline is nurtured. Keeping calm and taking it slow is a way that leads you to the result. And it doesn’t only concern academic writing. You can practice patience and fluency in any other subject area. Just remember the rule: everything that you should accomplish should be divided into portions and distributed across the day. You will succeed if you make studying your habit, your routine.
While fighting procrastination, the author of this article tried the famous Pomodoro method. The main idea of the technique is to break the entire work into 25-minute periods. At the end of each, a small reward is expected. During a 25-minute period of productivity, you need to focus on your work exclusively, while eliminating all the possible distractions, such as social networks, messengers and other time-killers. After each of those 25 minutes, you can have a short break and turn to any of those distraction. It turned out that it is crucial to stop every 25 minutes. If you continue working, the sequence is broken, and you are urged to make longer breaks, which is not just unadvisable, but also unproductive. Even here, patience and self-control are the most important things.
Thus, when you are struggling with writing assignments or see them coming in the future, you should start building tolerance towards them. Begin with developing a habit of writing every day for brief periods of time and stop when the time is over. If you are dealing with complex assignments which require you to contribute significant time resources, then divide the time you will need to spend on them into shorter time periods. Interchange the periods of activity with periods of relaxation, and you will see that only the latter helps you keep the necessary focus and saves you from the common students’ panic when they have too much to do over a short period of time.