10 Tips to Ace That Timed Essay
They say that the easiest way to learn how to write an essay is to realize that tomorrow is the deadline and you don’t have anything ready yet. In such critical situations, students often turn to college essay writing service. However, if you want to save your money and finally learn how to write an essay quickly and… Read More »
They say that the easiest way to learn how to write an essay is to realize that tomorrow is the deadline and you don’t have anything ready yet. In such critical situations, students often turn to college essay writing service. However, if you want to save your money and finally learn how to write an essay quickly and on time, this article is for you.
Estimate the time in advance
Don’t overestimate what you can do. If you think it takes an hour to write, you should add in the time that will certainly be spent taking breaks, thinking about wording, and other distractions.
Practice keeping track of all of these things and compare how much time you put into your work initially and how much you end up with. In the future, plan your essay writing with realistic deadlines in mind.
Work for a reward
If getting a good grade doesn’t motivate you enough to turn in your work on time, think of an extra reward. You should create an incentive: if you write your essay on time, you’ll make yourself happy with something you like. For some people, it’s a visit to a movie; for others, it is enough to have ice cream.
Break down the writing phase into small steps
Procrastination often absorbs us because of the fear of the enormous work ahead. However, if you divide your essay into steps, completing each of them will motivate you. Write a plan for working on your essay and break down the small steps. Think it through, create a step-by-step action plan, and set deadlines.
All in good time
Lack of a systematic approach to essay writing is a big mistake for students. You don’t have to jump from writing to editing, then to gathering information, and then back to writing. Do the work gradually, without jumping between steps:
- Research the topic;
- Make a rough outline of the text;
- Look for sources of information and inspiration;
- Write a draft;
- Proofread and edit it;
- Check it again.
Do not spend much time on research
Finding information is one of the most responsible and important stages of writing an essay. This step is often time-consuming for students, as they try to find the maximum number of sources to write their papers. Try not to splurge on researching every link on Google. First, try searching for the information you need on Google Scholar. Searching for any topic in the usual search box will force you to look for resources that you can trust and that you are not ashamed to cite. Google Scholar gives you sources worthy of attention right away.
You should try not to get hung up on finding as many resources as possible to save your precious time. It is better to write a paper with five references than not to have time to write an essay at all.
Remove distractions
If you are writing an essay, remove all distractions from both the real and digital worlds. Close Facebook, turn off messengers and notifications on your phone. Unlike external distractions, these cling to your mind more strongly. They force you to engage in parallel conversations, watching videos, and disrupting your thoughts when you already have little time.
Just start writing
There are often problems with writing the introduction. If you can’t formulate the first sentences, skip them and start writing from the main body. Having the body of the article ready, it will be much easier and faster to come up with the introduction and conclusion. Interesting headlines and subheadings are also easier to compose to the already written text.
Work with the ultradian rhythms in mind
The human body is tuned into 120-minute biological intervals called ultradian rhythms. During the first 90 minutes of the interval, your mental energy peaks and then drops for about 30 minutes after that.
To achieve maximum speed and performance, it’s best to work in 90-minute sprints when your body is naturally energized and then take a 30-minute pause to rest when your body is naturally depleted. This allows you to take full advantage of your body’s fluctuating energy levels.
Calm down your inner perfectionist
Perfection is the enemy of productivity. Revisiting your work, triple-checking for errors, and doing extra work delays progress, drains your energy, and can destroy your emotional health.
The problem with perfectionists is that they have an all-or-nothing mentality. If their work isn’t perfect, they see it as a failure. In reality, you can fine-tune and improve your essay all you want, but after a certain threshold, your efforts will bring only marginal improvements, and time will be wasted.
Use services that can quicken your work
You can take advantage of many paid and free services online to help you get through your work faster. We are not pushing you to cheat. There are plenty of programs and applications that can help you check your work for grammatical, stylistic, and spelling errors; verify your work for plagiarism; quickly and correctly compile a reference list and arrange citations according to the right style.