eduify | write faster

Writing can be torturous. Let’s face it, when it’s a beautiful day outside and the weather is perfect and all your friends are out and about, the last thing you want to do is sit at home and complete a writing assignment on a deadline. Speaking of which, this is precisely what this blogger is going through right now on a gorgeous (with clear blue sky) Thursday afternoon in San Francicso. So how do we do it? How do we motivate ourselves to write when its the last thing we want to do? When you’re on the verge of seppuku, here on some tips on how to make those untimely writing assignments more bearable.

5. Understand that you have no choice.

There is an internal monologue that probably reads as something out of an existential Samuel Beckett play. But why? But why me? You should probably stop asking yourself those questions, because “Why do I have to write this paper today” makes about as much sense as “But why does organic food cost more money” and “Why do we start wars with other countries” — let’s face it, these are certain facts of life. The sooner you accept that your existential crisis isn’t shaving any time off your dismal assignment, the better off you’ll be in finishing it and getting it out of the way once and for all.

4. Get yourself in a groove.

Instead of taking a million breaks (in my case, that means no more trips away from my desk to anxiously raid the fridge), get a hold of yourself. Work until you find yourself in a groove (i.e. a place where you have most of the fundamental ideas of what you’re planning to write in your grasp, where you have fleshed out your ideas to a point where all that’s left is to transcribe them onto paper), because it’s really just smooth sailing from there on in. The hardest part about writing is starting to write. After you motivate yourself to start, keep going until you find yourself in a place where the uphill struggle is behind you. A groove is a plateau! You can rest easy once you hit that stride.

3. You are a machine.

Whatever it takes to convince yourself that you are a machine, do it. You are a machine. For me, convincing myself of my automaton powers of mental fortitude is aided by the loud playing of German industrial music from the 1980s. If listening to music, drinking tons of caffeine, talking to yourself, pacing up and down the length of the room, or eating candy nonstop serves to help you be more productive, by all means do what you need to do. Rather than telling yourself, “This task is insurmountable,” tell yourself that everything is well within your control and that all you need to do is harness your mental powers in order to succeed at whatever you set out to accomplish.

2. Trick yourself into believing that you aren’t really writing.

Psychological trickery can get you far in life. Philosopher Slajov Zizek (who is extremely prolific) has a really interesting method of forcing himself to write: “I hate writing. I so intensely hate writing — I cannot tell you how much. The moment I am at the end of one project I have the idea that I didn’t really succeed in telling what I wanted to tell, that I need a new project — it’s an absolute nightmare. But my whole economy of writing is in fact based on an obsessional ritual to avoid the actual act of writing.” Basically, Zizek tells himself that he isn’t really writing, that he’s merely getting his thoughts and ideas down on paper, and then proceeds to write with the acceptance that it’s not really writing. Of course, he actually is writing – but because he hates to write, he needs to lie to himself in order to get any writing done whatsoever. Self-deception is a great tool in motivation and writing (seriously!).

1. Reward yourself for finishing what you set out to do.

The carrot and stick method really work. Whether it’s in driving a mule to plow a field or driving yourself to plow your way through a writing assignment, rewarding yourself with something at the end of the tunnel is a good method of getting yourself in the mental state to actually be productive. So go ahead! Think of something you like (really, really like) and tell yourself that it’s yours – so long as you finish your paper.

Who out there hasn’t turned in a late paper before? I don’t want to toot my own horn, but there was that one trimester, while I was attending my Ivy League college, that did not see one single paper (in that entire span of four months) of mine delivered in a timely fashion. Sometimes you turn in a paper late. It’s not the end of the world. No one is going to die. Even you’ll live, after the anxiety of confronting your professor. Unlike in the real world, where deadlines are often inflexible and nonnegotiable, the academic world is one where things like deadlines exist in a more abstract, rather than absolute, sense.

Your professors and teachers get barraged with late paper requests. Trust me. More often than not, professors don’t even get asked in advance for an extension — papers merely find their way under their office door a week later, without explanation. Most of the time, these professors are graceful enough to accept the paper and overlook the time lapse, but sometimes they will dock your grade or talk to you sternly. They may even threaten to fail you. Therefore, the best thing to do, before turning in a late paper, is to ask for an extension in advance. Ask three days in advance, and if your professor denies your request, you know that the proper measure, at that point, is to suck it up and write the thing. However, if they do grant you your request: great! You’ve just landed yourself a few extra days to make your paper better.

Ergo, the key to landing an accepted extension is a really, really good excuse. Computer crashes, dead grandmothers, dead pets, food poisoning, and 24-hour bugs only get you so far. Be creative. You are the master of your own excuse, so why not make it as creative as possible? Here are 5 possible excuses for turning in a late paper. These can be modified, personalized, or eschewed altogether. The point is, these are excuses that you can use as inspiration for your own extension requests. Check them out.

5. You’ve been revising so much that you ended up destroying your paper through the editing process.

You wrote a paper, then in revising it, you warped the whole thing so much all you have left is a tangled, disorganized mess that refuses to make sense of anything you intended for — you have lost your paper through over-editing! Professors will identify with this, I’m sure, as they do a lot of writing in their own work, and you will prove to the professor (through your excuse) that you really have been working hard on their assignment, that you care, that you’re motivated, but perhaps just a little too much of all three.

4. You lost your bibliography and you have to go back and look up your sources again.

Losing a bibliography is actually a really credible excuse, because it happens to the best of us. And in academic writing, sources are crucial to good work. You don’t want to plagiarize (in college, you can actually get expelled for plagiarizing) so you need to catalog and identify your sources. Your professors will believe you. Or even if they have their doubts, they need to let you look up your sources, because even if your paper is 100% complete, without your sources you risk unintentional plagiarism.

3. Through your research, a new thesis presented itself.

A new thesis is a credible excuse, and an academically responsible one. You are merely being a responsible student and thinker, in refusing to write a paper on a faulty or tenuous thesis when you realized, through your research, that your thesis could not be supported with existing evidence.

2. You suddenly realized your interpretation of the work in question was incorrect, and you have to reread the original source.

So you read a novel for a class, and your professor wants you to write a paper on it. You can’t write a paper on a novel if your original interpretation is incorrect. If you suddenly realize that while reading A Clockwork Orange that you originally interpreted the novel as a support of a totalitarian justice system, you can’t possibly write a good paper without rereading the book and realigning your interpretation of the novel with something more intellectually sound.

1. You found the word psychologically disturbing and you have to restore balance to your psyche before you can get in any mode to write critically.

Calling a work offensive, or saying that it was so disturbing that you can’t write on it until getting your zen back, is a credible excuse for several reasons. First, it’s happened to the best of us. Who out there hasn’t read a book that’s left a haunting impression on them for days? When I first read In Cold Blood, for a class in college no less, I was so freaked out I couldn’t sleep well for days. If your professor wants you to write on a disturbing piece about war, race relations, murder, death of a loved one, or any other grave social injustice, maybe the best excuse is that it affected you too much for you to rationally or critically examine the work given the time frame. Needing a few extra days to let emotional or controversial material sit with you is a good idea, in any case, before writing impartially on any subject.

Writing persuasively is not easy. At times, persuasive writing can even feel a bit manipulative. Really, isn’t writing persuasively merely an attempt to coerce a hopefully impartial audience into trusting your arguments, judgments, and proclamations? Why should any audience trust what you have to say?

But, if you think about it, all writing is inherently pursuasive. A novel requires that a writer persuade the reader into accepting the book’s picture of the universe, be it Middle Earth, Holland in the 1600s, or in a galaxy far, far away — we have to accept that the world of the book is an actual world and suspend our disbelief in things like hobbits and aliens if we are to enjoy the story. Similarly, writing that makes no bones about being blatantly persuasive, like op-ed articles, legal briefs, and persuasive essays, also has to operate in such a way that the audience trusts the word of the writer and opens up their mind to accept, or at the very least consider, the writer’s position.

Writing persuasively is difficult, but there are things you can do to make your arguments more cogent and appealing to readers.

5. Earn your reader’s trust.

The best way to earn a reader’s trust is to come across as an intelligent writer. If you make grammatical errors, give misconstrued facts, or appear as if you aren’t an expert on your topic, you automatically undermine yourself as an intelligent writer, thereby weakening the sanctity of your argument. Writing well is the simplest way to come across as an intelligent writer. People are swayed by an eloquent writer: just look at the eloquent speeches of compelling orators like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,  who were able to start entire movements on the power of their words.

4. Back your writing up with facts.

A well-stated opinion is all good and well, but the real meat of an argument comes from strong factual evidence. Lawyers don’t win cases based on arguments alone. Lawyers win cases based on who has the most compelling evidence that backs up the arguments they make. If you write a persuasive essay, make sure that each of your paragraphs has as least one powerful fact that backs up your position. If you are writing a persuasive essay on a piece of literature, for instance, facts can be theoretical ‘proof’ from a literary theorist (writing a Freudian interpretation of “Othello” would obviously require that you quote Sigmund Freud himself) or a quote from a published paper in a literary journal or a strong quote from the literature itself.

3. Explain, and then argue, a contrary point of view.

Every great debater knows in order to win a debate, you have to premeditate the opposition and then disprove it. The same goes for writing a persuasive essay. Having an idea of strong points of opposition is not only crucial in order to construct a solid argument, but it’s also simply good practice in critical thinking. If you know some oppositions that might arise in your reader’s mind while reading your essay, think of responses to that opposition and embed the responses in your writing. That way, you advance your argument and counterpoint your reader’s contention in one fell stroke.

2. Be passionate about what you are writing.

Even if you don’t believe in your own argument — as in, you were assigned a topic to argue from your teacher and you have no choice but to argue it in your paper — you have to write as if you do believe. Passionate writing comes from using strong, specific language. The more specific your language is, the more precisely you can carve your argument, the stronger and better your argument will seem. Passionate writing also requires reinforcement. Don’t repeat your ideas, but keep the central argument in your mind while writing your paper and think of every sub-argument, every piece of constructing evidence, as a way to reinforce or strengthen the central position.

1. Be interesting.

The best way to not persuade a reader is to bore them. If I can’t make it to the end of an op-ed piece, there is no way I’m going to believe or be persuaded by what the writer is saying. Good writing is inherently interesting. Use your oratorical fireworks to wow your readers so that every next line, every following word, is something the reader wants to arrive at. Don’t make them trudge through your writing. If you aren’t sure of how to make your writing interesting, ask yourself what you would be interested in if you were an impartial reader who was faced with your paper. Would it be something you would want to read? If yes, great! If no, then work your way through the problem until you arrive at a satisfactory place.

Just because Eduify is a productivity tool doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the plethora of websites out there that aid procrastination.  Everyone procrastinates, and our philosophy is that sometimes you have to work hard (and use things like our quote capture, our easy editing, and our plagiarism check) because you procrastinated so much in the last week. In a strange, circular way, we all keep each other in business. So, without further ado, here are 10 websites we’ve been using to procrastinate lately.

10. Facebook. It goes without saying that Facebook needs to be on this list. Of course everyone in your life cares about your ‘5 favorite cheeses’ on LivingSocial, so why don’t you go ahead and waste more time by announcing this crucial piece of information? Stalking your friends (as well as random strangers) is such a good way to kill important time.

9. FML. Schadenfreude, right at your fingertips. These remind me of the “embarassing stories” section of trashy magazines like Cosmopolitan, except way more trashy and way more funny. You think you had a bad day? Check out some of this site and you’ll feel a whole lote better. And then, after you feel better, you will continue to procrastinate.

8. Post Secret. This site, which posts user-submitted secrets on postcard format, is not only interesting to look at, but it’s actually thought-provoking, unlike some of the other counterparts on this list. No wonder it became such a hit on the internet. It’s actually compelling. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll procrastinate.

7. StumbleUpon. If mindlessly surfing the web is your cup of tea, StumbleUpon is here to help. This site brings you personalized recommendations from all over the web, as you click through each site. I’ve actually discovered some pretty amazing websites through StumbleUpon, and it’s worth checking out if you desperately don’t want to get anything done.

6. Texts from last night. It’s the new FML. It’s FML, except meaner. TFLN include some amazing gems, most of which were written while obviously inebriated, and promises to suck many hours of productivity from your life. Don’t click the link unless you want to still be glued to your same spot in front of the computer, at the same website, an hour from now!

5. YouTube. YouTube will suck not only hours of your life, but days, weeks, months, years. Use at your own discretion. If someone sends you a link about David at the Dentist, Sneezing Panda, a video about some little girl talking about Star Wars, Evolution of Dance, or any other mindless minute-long clip, avoid with every fiber of resistance in your body, unless you want to enter the YouTube’s wormhole of procrastination.

4. Orisinal. If you’re into games but are sick of playing Solitaire on your computer, check out Orisinal. These are some of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen, with adorable names like “Morning Sunshine,” “Bum Bum Koala,” and “These Little Pigs.” So, so, precious. But don’t let the gorgeous exterior fool you. These are just procrastination tools shrouded in lovely disguise.

3. This American Life. I have spent innumerable hours of my life staring off into space, letting my adolescent crush on Ira Glass sprout and flower, as I listen to his radio show This American Life. NPR is the only reason to listen to the radio, and luckily for us, it is now possible to listen to NPR on the web. Procrastination has never been classier.

2. Cute Overload. LOLCats were so three years ago. Now, we’ve evolved past having to see caption to just being able to appreciate the wonderful simplicity of things-so-cute-you-want-to-squeeze-them-until-they-die. My god, who knew baby pigs were so amazingly cute? What about little tiny chickens? Oh my god, chihuahua puppy!

1. FreeRice. This site helps you procrastinate, but you can justify it because your time wasting goes toward a good cause. Structured like a vocabulary test, FreeRice asks you to answer multiple choice questions on word meanings, donating 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program for every question you answer correctly.

For those who wan’t to do the opposite of procrastinate – that is, be more productive – check out our tips on how to stay productive and avoid procrastination, here!

You’ve all heard it before. Everyone needs to get more sleep. Every few months or so, a new sleep study is published and hits the media circuit, and we’re told that a lack of sleep affects our memory, job performance, brain functioning, mood, proneness to accidents, stress levels, among much else. For teens, who the National Sleep Foundation states need 9.25 hours of sleep each night, proper sleep is particularly important. We all know WHY we need to get more sleep, but for some of us, the question isn’t of why but of how. How does one, a stressed out student with papers to write on deadline and a series of tests to take for five different classes, get more sleep when they can barely calm down enough to eat a proper meal?

It may seem difficult to squeeze in a good night’s sleep when you’re so busy with everything else, but what is daunting is not impossible with the right attitude and these 5 tips on how to get more sleep.

5. Want to get enough sleep.

Like all things, you need to make sleep a priority if you are going to get enough of it! If you plan your day around getting enough sleep, you’re more likely to do so. And why wouldn’t you plan your day around sleeping? Sleep is, by the way, nearly half of your life. All in all, it’s probably the most bioloically important thing for you to do all day. So plan around it.

4. Don’t OD on caffeine.

Not only can caffeine be harmful for you, but drinking coffee or Red Bull close to your bed time can severely throw your whole schedule off balance. Instead of drinking a soda while doing late night homework, stick to water or a non-caffeinated drink.

3. Establish a sleep schedule.

Bedtime isn’t just for elementary school. Most adults I know try to set a bedtime and stick with it. Not merely helpful for getting enough sleep, a set bedtime is also an effective way to set structure into your day. Knowing you should be in bed by a certain time makes it more likely you will try extra hard to get everything you need to get done during the day, done.

2. Nap away.

Napping isn’t bad for sleep as long as you don’t sleep too much. Power napping can actually increase productivity. Have you ever dozed off briefly and woken up feeling refreshed, renewed, reenergized? Conversely, have you ever taken a four hour nap only to awaken into a sluggish fuge? 20 minutes is the time to aim for during your power nap. Studies have shown that this amazing 20 minute siesta is more effective in brightening up that cognitive state than 20 more minutes of sleep any given morning.

1. Lists, Lists, Lists.

Make a to-do list that structures your day. Writing down things you need to do will make it easier for you to remember your tasks – so you don’t forget anything or leave things to the last minute. Take things one step at a time. Instead of focusing on the length of your list and scaring yourself out with the gargantuan nature of everything you have to do, do one thing at a time and cross things off as you go. Focus on each individual leg of the race, not on the race itself. Doing so will diminish your stress, as well as make your day more productive so that you can go to sleep at night with an easy conscience.

And one more, for good measure…

You can actually trick your body into going to sleep at night. One thing I like to do when I go to sleep is focus on my breathing, like in yoga, with deep inhales and exhales. Then I pretend that every little part of my body is falling asleep one bit at a time. “My feet are asleep,” I think, then focus on the feeling that I’m losing sensation in my toes, that they’re falling asleep. By the time I get to my head, I’m usually already asleep.

If that doesn’t work, you can always count sheep. It’s a tried and true remedy, because it works!