When you have a task that you don’t want to complete, just get started and keep going for 3 minutes. If you still don’t want to complete the task after 3 minutes, stop and start another task
This method can be very challenging during the initial stages of trying it
When you procrastinate, you tend to find something else to do first to dodge the main task at hand
This rule forces you to immediately avoid any deviation from completing the task for 3 solid minutes with the option to stop after those 3 minutes
Discipline plays a crucial role in this motivation technique as starting the 3 minutes requires you to overcome procrastination
Something that helps in this process is trying to slightly mentally detach yourself from the situation to have an objective view on it
You need to look at the situation and acknowledge that you have the freedom to stop the task after 3 minutes if you truly cannot complete it and that you absolutely must start the task immediately
Often times, I keep going once I start which results in significantly improved productivity
Flexibile Schedules
Often times, I plan out the perfect study and work session with my tasks and times detailed to the second
However, sometimes, life gets in the way of these plans and I’m forced to reschedule everything
Something like this can be extremely demotivating, especially if your day revolved around your very detailed plan
To help solve such issues, there are 2 options for 2 different scenarios
The first option is to prevent the situation from occurring at all
Extremely rigid and detailed plans are very easy to disrupt
Preventing the situation would be done by outlining more flexible study and work plans that can be done at most times and don’t rely on strict timings (I will post another article on creating a flexible and functional study schedule)
The second option is how to move forward if you do find yourself in a situation where your study plans have been disrupted and you’re demotivated
In this instance, the first step is to list the topics you need to cover and sort them from most important to least important
Estimate how much time each topic will take and look at how much time you have available
Evaluate if the time you have available is adequate to completely cover all of your listed topics
If not, choose as many topics with the greatest priority that will be able to be completed within your available time
Remember, these steps should be completed within 5 minutes at most to prevent you from losing any more time
There’s always a plan for every situation. It just needs to be found.
Justify It
If you truly feel like there’s no reason to compete the task, find a reason
If the task is important enough for you to lament over it, it’s certainly important enough for you to complete it as soon as possible
Clear your mind of any frustration and just relax
Think of what the purpose of the task is
Do you need to complete an assignment that will be a part of your final grade?
Do you need to complete a report for your job?
Will this benefit you in the future - near or far?
If you need to study, what is your end goal?
When I hesitate with my studying, I always remind myself that what I’m learning now will one day help me improve as a doctor
Once you identify a reason, act on it and complete the task
The reason will help you sense that what you’re doing has meaning and purpose, making the task less of an inconvenience and more of a duty
Every writer inevitably gets to that scene that just doesn’t want to work. It doesn’t flow, no matter how hard you try. Well, here are some things to try to get out of that rut:
1. Change the weather
I know this doesn’t sound like it’ll make much of a difference, but trust me when I say it does.
Every single time I’ve tried this, it worked and the scene flowed magically.
2. Change the POV
If your book has multiple POV characters, it might be a good idea to switch the scene to another character’s perspective.
9/10 times, this will make the scene flow better.
3. Start the scene earlier/later
Oftentimes, a scene just doesn’t work because you’re not starting in the right place.
Perhaps you’re starting too late and giving too little context. Perhaps some description or character introspection is needed before you dive in.
Alternatively, you may be taking too long to get to the actual point of the scene. Would it help to dive straight into the action without much ado?
4. Write only the dialogue
If your scene involves dialogue, it can help immensely to write only the spoken words the first time round.
It’s even better if you highlight different characters’ speech in different colors.
Then, later on, you can go back and fill in the dialogue tags, description etc.
5. Fuck it and use a placeholder
If nothing works, it’s time to move on.
Rather than perpetually getting stuck on that one scene, use a placeholder. Something like: [they escape somehow] or [big emotional talk].
And then continue with the draft.
This’ll help you keep momentum and, maybe, make the scene easier to write later on once you have a better grasp on the plot and characters.
Trust me, I do this all the time.
It can take some practice to get past your Type A brain screaming at you, but it’s worth it.
So, those are some things to try when a scene is being difficult. I hope that these tips help :)
Reblog if you found this post useful. Comment with your own tips. Follow me for similar content.
Relax Melodies is my favorite Ambient Noise app (available on Google and Apple App stores) - you get to mix and match a bunch of sounds, everything from snow falling on rooftops to campfires to cats purring.
Heyo, so school is fast approaching, and seeing as Tumblr is made up of a lot of younger users who will soon be shipping off to college or university soon, I thought I would take it upon myself to help spread my knowledge of essay-writing. Essay-writing is my thing. I love it. I live for it. It’s how I make up for my shitty test marks, and still get by with an 85 average+ in University classes. I’m a historian by trade, so perhaps this information will seem a bit off from what you’re used to, but hopefully, It’ll help you out. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an ask.
1. Consider your question and find your thesis.
I know, I know. People always say, no! Never start with your thesis/intro paragraph! Go to the body!! Well i’m here to say forget everything you’ve been told. Forget that, forget the stupid hamburger shit they teach you, forget it all and start reading.
I ALWAYS start with my thesis. Why? Because you cannot make good paragraphs without knowing what you’re researching. You need direction, and a thesis is your map.
So, the question we’ll use shall be: What is one way in which the Union won the American Civil War?
Now remember, your thesis is your map. It shows you where to go, what to look for. The thesis is the heart and soul of all your work. You want a good, solid thesis. What does that include, you ask?
An idea
A reason for said idea
Evidence to support said reason, and thus validate the idea.
So, lets do an example. Let’s say I’m writing on the use of media during the American Civil War. I like photography, and wrote a paper on this in my second year, but im gonna be doing this example freehand(idk where I put that essay lol) so lets work with how I got an A+ on that paper. This will be my idea:
“Photography during the American Civil War influenced the war’s outcome in the Norths favour.”
This is VERY vague. This is an example of a thesis in bloom! Let’s take it further. Look at the above. What questions would you have from this thesis?
-Who was taking photos at that time?
-Why did it influence the outcome?
-How did it influence the outcome?
-Who consumed photography as a media at that time?
This is where you STOP, and start the next step.
2. Research
Start your basic research with your idea, and the above questions in mind. Look at libraries, ask your professor or TA or librarian, or just do some basic google searches to get to know the subject(but for the love of god if you include a google link in your citation I will personally hunt you down and castrate you.)
I like to start with the basics of any inquiry: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, HOW. Who was taking photos? Where were they displayed that caused influence? ect…These, in relation to your beginner thesis, will help guide you in what form your thesis will take.
Once you’ve finished that, and have a general feel for the time period, go back to your thesis.
3. THESIS 2.0
Go back to your original question: What is one way in which the Union won the American Civil War? Now look at your thesis again. It’s too vague, isn’t it?
As you can see, our original thesis was too vague to be a real thesis. So, we NARROW IT DOWN using our WWWWWH progress we focused on during early research!
“Photography during the American Civil war influenced the war’s outcome by providing a visual for ordinary citizens about the horrors of war, and thus helping to increase donations and awareness to the cause.”
Great! But once again, too vague! Questions that may arise include:
Who was taking the photos
Evidence for donations?
Evidence for social awareness?
So, we NARROW IT DOWN again. I’m going to use Andrew Gardner’s photography during the Civil war, as he was one of the most famous and influential at the time.
“Andrew Gardner’s photography during the American Civil war influenced the war’s outcome by providing a visual for ordinary citizens about the horrors of war, and thus helping to increase donations and enlistment in the Union through awareness to the cause…”
The above then gives us the following(why and how are sometimes grouped together):
Who: Andrew Gardner
What: Photography helped the north win the war.
Where: Union-aka northern states
When: American Civil War
Why/How: Because Andrew Gardner’s photography raised social awareness through this new and budding medium
Use this sort of outline to guide you in the next step!
4. Now that we have a thesis, you need to do some more research and evidence gathering.
The way I like to do this is to go check out a few books from the library(look for text books in particular), and leaf through the index for matching terms. Our matching terms would be:
Photography, civil war, Andrew Gardner, media
From there, you read over the pages, and see if any of the info relates to your subjects. Copy down quotes, page numbers, book title, author, publishing date and publisher. You need these for your bibliography. Pick and choose relevant information. The filter for relevant information relies entirely on your thesis, because it decides what you need to be looking for—this is why I hate when people tell me to start writing paragraphs before I write a thesis! It’s simply impossible and counter productive, and will cost you hours in revision.
So, gather your information from the library, and cross-reference with peer-reviewed articles and data. For our thesis, we would need data on enlistment numbers in an area after a date of Andrew Gardner’s photography exhibit showcases. No matter what type of essay you’re writing, you can always back up your evidence with data, and it won’t hurt one bit. Don’t be afraid of the numbers, kids!
So, if we were to go back to our thesis, we could now expand on it like this:
“Andrew Gardner’s photography during the American Civil war influenced the war’s outcome by providing a visual for ordinary citizens about the horrors of war, and thus helping to increase donations and enlistment in the Union through awareness to the cause. An increase in donations and enlistment in relation to exposure to Gardners work is seen in data/evidence point A, as well as in data/evidence point B, which will be fully outlined in the points below.”
This gives you an example of how to lead from a thesis, to your opening paragraph.
5. Data and Evidence Justifications–Paragraph making
This is the section where you can branch your essay into your data and evidence points you gathered in steps 2 and 4. You can have as many paragraphs as you like, just make sure your evidence and data is strong and supported. I personally like to work with my thesis copied and pasted onto the top of every page I write on. This keeps you on track, with your clear goal in mind, and will help you from straying. I will give you an example of how a paragraph might sound.
Andrew Gardner’s photography during the American Civil War became heavily influential upon the American population at the time, particularly the north, wherein which his work was showcased. The influence of Gardner’s photographic works is seen in the _____, which shows us that without the influence of Gardner’s media influence, war efforts and awareness may not have been as successful as they had been.
This is an alright opener for you to work with. The ___ is where you could put in your data point or evidence piece. The point of the paragraph is to show your support for your thesis by confirming it with evidence.
Your paragraphs should take this form:
Present, Confirm, Conclude, Lead.
You present your evidence, confirm its relation to the thesis and confirm the validity of the thesis, conclude by brief revision of evidence, and then lead into your next paragraph.
6. Conclusion
Your conclusionary paragraph should be a look-over of the above paragraphs. Restate your thesis, present a summarized version of your paragraphs(one or two sentences only), and perhaps take the time to look at your own views on the subject. An example might look like this:
“Taking a moment to step away from the above mentioned evidence, I believe it to be scholarly acceptable and even necessary to state my own views on the subject presented. In drawing conclusions, I felt that the above information was correct in that it presented a reality of the time period, in which photography was becoming a medium to be embraced by popular society. People were not only astounded by Gardner’s photographs on a social level, but also a technical level. The astonishment people held at seeing the war-torn battle fields spurred them into action, and even today can still present feelings of dread, fear and loss when looking at his photos…blah blah blah”
Why is it scholarly acceptable and perhaps necessary to state your views? Oftentimes, it is to reassure the reader of your own personal bias’, which exist whether you like them or not, to the subject at hand. Having a small tidbit on your own thoughts about your research ect, breaking away from the third-person droning of an essay can be refreshing and welcoming for a prof at the end of his stack of essay reading.
7. In summary
Thesis
WWWWWH
NARROW IT DOWN
Data and Evidence
Present, Confirm, Conclude, Lead
Self opinions/Conclude
All in all, do unique things. Professors love it when they come across something that’s not cookie cutter! Even if they present you with a list of essay topics, take the leap and ask them if you can do your own research topic!! Take risks with your essay writing, talk to your professors about what you want to do, and try to have fun with your research. I’ve written on everything from civil war photography to Disney princesses in american media, to the religious formation of idea of heaven and earth. Remember, so long as there’s credible, documented evidence, it’s possible to write about it.
