How to Write Brilliant Psychology Essays. Paul Dickerson
can work even in tricky circumstances – this is your Mount Everest that you are climbing.
Can you draw something that expresses the ideas or how they relate together?
Can you create a two-minute summary? Perhaps a small podcast of what you know about the topic? This could include some of the things you want to find out, though don’t use this to get out of documenting those things that you do know.
Ace your assignment Try these practical fixes for procrastination problems
Work separately from your phoneWhen were you last looking at your phone? If you are like me and find that the phone can be quite a distraction then just ask yourself, who’s the boss you or the phone? Your phone won’t take it personally if you switch it off, turn it face down or put it (safely) in another room. Afterwards, your phone and you can enjoy a happy reunion.
Choosing a targetSome writers work to a specific word length (for example, completing a certain number of words per day), others for a scheduled amount of time (for example between 8pm and 11pm). These options are discussed later in this chapter, but see what you find most encouraging and motivating for the essay writing tasks that you need to complete right now.
If it’s flowing keep goingDo you know that feeling when your writing is going well? It is wonderful, it’s precious and it can be worth riding that wave for a while. Don’t let little distractions knock you off – keep with the energy.
If it’s not, keep goingI’m writing this sentence immediately after a phase when it was not flowing at all. Don’t get too ready with the narrative, ‘It’s gone rubbish today’ or, ‘I’ve been hopeless’. The real skill is to transform those times when it’s not flowing into something productive. It might mean changing the focus of our writing – but stay on task and be really encouraging to yourself. Getting back on track is a small miracle – well done you!
Leave it in a nice state to return toWhen you need to park your work – leave it so when you come back to it, it is really clear how to carry on with your writing. An easy guide to yourself on what you were working on and what feel you need to do would be great. Be kind to the ‘you’ of tomorrow who’s going to pick this stuff up.
Schedule facilitative breaksSome people find that working for short segments of time (perhaps 20, 30 or 60 minutes) punctuated with very short breaks (perhaps 5 minutes) works well. As long as this pattern does not break your flow of concentration, this ‘chunking’ approach can be a good way of keeping energy and motivation levels high. The idea of chunking (and Cirillo’s, 2018 Pomodoro Technique) is briefly touched on in Chapter 12.
I work ‘best under pressure’
Many people feel that they work best under pressure – telling this to themselves and others can help to justify not having to tackle the essay right now. If you feel that this applies to you, it is worth asking whether this pattern really is optimal, or is it – at least partly – a way of avoiding the inhibiting effects of perfectionism? When we leave things to the last minute, we can’t afford to be perfectionist and at last we are free just to write. It could be worth acknowledging that working well under pressure is wonderful and can certainly help in many pressurised situations – exams being a key example. However, getting started before the last minute might be even more effective. We can create an imperfect draft and then bring our capacity to work under pressure to spur us in editing this into the final piece of work that we submit.
How can I get started?
Create a productive pressure environment. Sometimes looking at the schedule of all the work (and other commitments) that you have to do might achieve this sense of imminence.
Creating exam-like conditions, on your own or with others, perhaps having a time-limited, relatively formal context, can really work in encouraging the intense focused work that you may find facilitative.
Creating deadlines that are convincing and which you will not simply cheat on may be helpful.
Getting away from perfectionism may be a key element here – that is often why people experience a freedom of writing at the last minute. See if you can get away from this by writing a far from perfect draft, knowing that you will edit it – perhaps under pressure – later.
Learn Time, text or task?
Authors differ between those who work for a fixed time, those who monitor their output in terms of words written, and those who focus on identifiable tasks that can be completed – and many other permutations.
Numbers of words can be really reassuring as you see how your work relates to your target length – not forgetting that you will edit your work later (see Chapter 10 for more on editing). But academic writing is uneven. When you are planning your ideas, becoming familiar with the literature that you will refer to, or drafting a conclusion, your word count will probably increase quite slowly and counting numbers of words can be disheartening.
Another alternative is to see your essay in terms of several discrete tasks, for example: writing a plan, reading up on the topic, checking your notes, writing an introduction, drafting the main body, writing a conclusion, completing citations and references, and editing your draft. This is very output-orientated and usefully maps onto what needs to be done, so we feel that we can measure our progress. However, taking this approach does run the risk of being discouraging when we are working on a task that we find difficult. We might work for a considerable time on our conclusion and feel that we have little to show for it, whereas if we were just working for a fixed time, for example a target of 60 minutes work, we can feel that we have accomplished our task.
Working for a (realistic) fixed time can be good for building a ritual, removing an output target that you might not reach and allowing for the uneven nature of academic writing and reading. However, working for a fixed time may involve a certain degree of faith that we are making progress, even when we haven’t some clear evidence (for example, in words written or tasks achieved) that we have done so. Having some sense of how we are progressing can be reassuring.
It may well be that a mixture of these approaches works best. Early on, when we are putting down thoughts and ideas, reading around the topic, writing our initial plans and questions, having a time or an achievable task target may work best. Once we are into our draft essay, we may find an awareness of words works best, and in some cases identifying the discrete parts of an essay to be written (for example, the introduction) may also help. Working on our conclusion and detailed editing may be harder to measure in terms of words written (editing often removes words), so switching to time and/or a task focus may help.
It is best to see time, text and task focus as slightly different orientations to be used at different times so that they encourage and inspire you in your essay writing. When the words are flowing well, having a sense of word output can be really encouraging. When we have a sense of what is needed to finish a section of our essay, a task focus can work well and give a satisfying sense of progress. When we need to get started with plans and ideas or finish with final editing, sometimes it can be helpful to commit ourselves to spending a certain amount of time. Time, text and task of course constantly interweave with one another, so use them sympathetically as an encouragement, and not as a rod to beat yourself with.
Do the other things I have to do
This is usually not just an excuse, as there are many, really valid and important demands on our time. It is sometimes helpful to write down rather than simply mentally recycle all of the different pulls on your time that you experience. In some cases, being