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Everyone struggles with homework sometimes, but if getting your homework done has become a chronic issue for you, then you may need a little extra help. That’s why we’ve written this article all about how to do homework. Once you’re finished reading it, you’ll know how to do homework (and have tons of new ways to motivate yourself to do homework)!

We’ve broken this article down into a few major sections. You’ll find:

• A diagnostic test to help you figure out why you’re struggling with homework
• A discussion of the four major homework problems students face, along with expert tips for addressing them
• A bonus section with tips for how to do homework fast

By the end of this article, you’ll be prepared to tackle whatever homework assignments your teachers throw at you .

So let’s get started!

How to Do Homework: Figure Out Your Struggles 

Sometimes it feels like everything is standing between you and getting your homework done. But the truth is, most people only have one or two major roadblocks that are keeping them from getting their homework done well and on time. 

The best way to figure out how to get motivated to do homework starts with pinpointing the issues that are affecting your ability to get your assignments done. That’s why we’ve developed a short quiz to help you identify the areas where you’re struggling. 

Take the quiz below and record your answers on your phone or on a scrap piece of paper. Keep in mind there are no wrong answers! 

1. You’ve just been assigned an essay in your English class that’s due at the end of the week. What’s the first thing you do?

A. Keep it in mind, even though you won’t start it until the day before it’s due  B. Open up your planner. You’ve got to figure out when you’ll write your paper since you have band practice, a speech tournament, and your little sister’s dance recital this week, too.  C. Groan out loud. Another essay? You could barely get yourself to write the last one!  D. Start thinking about your essay topic, which makes you think about your art project that’s due the same day, which reminds you that your favorite artist might have just posted to Instagram...so you better check your feed right now. 

2. Your mom asked you to pick up your room before she gets home from work. You’ve just gotten home from school. You decide you’ll tackle your chores: 

A. Five minutes before your mom walks through the front door. As long as it gets done, who cares when you start?  B. As soon as you get home from your shift at the local grocery store.  C. After you give yourself a 15-minute pep talk about how you need to get to work.  D. You won’t get it done. Between texts from your friends, trying to watch your favorite Netflix show, and playing with your dog, you just lost track of time! 

3. You’ve signed up to wash dogs at the Humane Society to help earn money for your senior class trip. You: 

A. Show up ten minutes late. You put off leaving your house until the last minute, then got stuck in unexpected traffic on the way to the shelter.  B. Have to call and cancel at the last minute. You forgot you’d already agreed to babysit your cousin and bake cupcakes for tomorrow’s bake sale.  C. Actually arrive fifteen minutes early with extra brushes and bandanas you picked up at the store. You’re passionate about animals, so you’re excited to help out! D. Show up on time, but only get three dogs washed. You couldn’t help it: you just kept getting distracted by how cute they were!

4. You have an hour of downtime, so you decide you’re going to watch an episode of The Great British Baking Show. You: 

A. Scroll through your social media feeds for twenty minutes before hitting play, which means you’re not able to finish the whole episode. Ugh! You really wanted to see who was sent home!  B. Watch fifteen minutes until you remember you’re supposed to pick up your sister from band practice before heading to your part-time job. No GBBO for you!  C. You finish one episode, then decide to watch another even though you’ve got SAT studying to do. It’s just more fun to watch people make scones.  D. Start the episode, but only catch bits and pieces of it because you’re reading Twitter, cleaning out your backpack, and eating a snack at the same time.

5. Your teacher asks you to stay after class because you’ve missed turning in two homework assignments in a row. When she asks you what’s wrong, you say: 

A. You planned to do your assignments during lunch, but you ran out of time. You decided it would be better to turn in nothing at all than submit unfinished work.  B. You really wanted to get the assignments done, but between your extracurriculars, family commitments, and your part-time job, your homework fell through the cracks.  C. You have a hard time psyching yourself to tackle the assignments. You just can’t seem to find the motivation to work on them once you get home.  D. You tried to do them, but you had a hard time focusing. By the time you realized you hadn’t gotten anything done, it was already time to turn them in. 

Like we said earlier, there are no right or wrong answers to this quiz (though your results will be better if you answered as honestly as possible). Here’s how your answers break down: 

• If your answers were mostly As, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is procrastination. 
• If your answers were mostly Bs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is time management. 
• If your answers were mostly Cs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is motivation. 
• If your answers were mostly Ds, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is getting distracted. 

Now that you’ve identified why you’re having a hard time getting your homework done, we can help you figure out how to fix it! Scroll down to find your core problem area to learn more about how you can start to address it. 

And one more thing: you’re really struggling with homework, it’s a good idea to read through every section below. You may find some additional tips that will help make homework less intimidating. 

How to Do Homework When You’re a Procrastinator  

Merriam Webster defines “procrastinate” as “to put off intentionally and habitually.” In other words, procrastination is when you choose to do something at the last minute on a regular basis. If you’ve ever found yourself pulling an all-nighter, trying to finish an assignment between periods, or sprinting to turn in a paper minutes before a deadline, you’ve experienced the effects of procrastination. 

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you’re in good company. In fact, one study found that 70% to 95% of undergraduate students procrastinate when it comes to doing their homework. Unfortunately, procrastination can negatively impact your grades. Researchers have found that procrastination can lower your grade on an assignment by as much as five points ...which might not sound serious until you realize that can mean the difference between a B- and a C+. 

Procrastination can also negatively affect your health by increasing your stress levels , which can lead to other health conditions like insomnia, a weakened immune system, and even heart conditions. Getting a handle on procrastination can not only improve your grades, it can make you feel better, too! 

The big thing to understand about procrastination is that it’s not the result of laziness. Laziness is defined as being “disinclined to activity or exertion.” In other words, being lazy is all about doing nothing. But a s this Psychology Today article explains , procrastinators don’t put things off because they don’t want to work. Instead, procrastinators tend to postpone tasks they don’t want to do in favor of tasks that they perceive as either more important or more fun. Put another way, procrastinators want to do things...as long as it’s not their homework! 

3 Tips f or Conquering Procrastination 

Because putting off doing homework is a common problem, there are lots of good tactics for addressing procrastination. Keep reading for our three expert tips that will get your homework habits back on track in no time. 

#1: Create a Reward System

Like we mentioned earlier, procrastination happens when you prioritize other activities over getting your homework done. Many times, this happens because homework...well, just isn’t enjoyable. But you can add some fun back into the process by rewarding yourself for getting your work done. 

Here’s what we mean: let’s say you decide that every time you get your homework done before the day it’s due, you’ll give yourself a point. For every five points you earn, you’ll treat yourself to your favorite dessert: a chocolate cupcake! Now you have an extra (delicious!) incentive to motivate you to leave procrastination in the dust. 

If you’re not into cupcakes, don’t worry. Your reward can be anything that motivates you . Maybe it’s hanging out with your best friend or an extra ten minutes of video game time. As long as you’re choosing something that makes homework worth doing, you’ll be successful. 

#2: Have a Homework Accountability Partner 

If you’re having trouble getting yourself to start your homework ahead of time, it may be a good idea to call in reinforcements . Find a friend or classmate you can trust and explain to them that you’re trying to change your homework habits. Ask them if they’d be willing to text you to make sure you’re doing your homework and check in with you once a week to see if you’re meeting your anti-procrastination goals. 

Sharing your goals can make them feel more real, and an accountability partner can help hold you responsible for your decisions. For example, let’s say you’re tempted to put off your science lab write-up until the morning before it’s due. But you know that your accountability partner is going to text you about it tomorrow...and you don’t want to fess up that you haven’t started your assignment. A homework accountability partner can give you the extra support and incentive you need to keep your homework habits on track. 

#3: Create Your Own Due Dates 

If you’re a life-long procrastinator, you might find that changing the habit is harder than you expected. In that case, you might try using procrastination to your advantage! If you just can’t seem to stop doing your work at the last minute, try setting your own due dates for assignments that range from a day to a week before the assignment is actually due. 

Here’s what we mean. Let’s say you have a math worksheet that’s been assigned on Tuesday and is due on Friday. In your planner, you can write down the due date as Thursday instead. You may still put off your homework assignment until the last minute...but in this case, the “last minute” is a day before the assignment’s real due date . This little hack can trick your procrastination-addicted brain into planning ahead! 

If you feel like Kevin Hart in this meme, then our tips for doing homework when you're busy are for you. 

How to Do Homework When You’re too Busy

If you’re aiming to go to a top-tier college , you’re going to have a full plate. Because college admissions is getting more competitive, it’s important that you’re maintaining your grades , studying hard for your standardized tests , and participating in extracurriculars so your application stands out. A packed schedule can get even more hectic once you add family obligations or a part-time job to the mix. 

If you feel like you’re being pulled in a million directions at once, you’re not alone. Recent research has found that stress—and more severe stress-related conditions like anxiety and depression— are a major problem for high school students . In fact, one study from the American Psychological Association found that during the school year, students’ stress levels are higher than those of the adults around them. 

For students, homework is a major contributor to their overall stress levels . Many high schoolers have multiple hours of homework every night , and figuring out how to fit it into an already-packed schedule can seem impossible. 

3 Tips for Fitting Homework Into Your Busy Schedule

While it might feel like you have literally no time left in your schedule, there are still ways to make sure you’re able to get your homework done and meet your other commitments. Here are our expert homework tips for even the busiest of students. 

#1: Make a Prioritized To-Do List 

You probably already have a to-do list to keep yourself on track. The next step is to prioritize the items on your to-do list so you can see what items need your attention right away. 

Here’s how it works: at the beginning of each day, sit down and make a list of all the items you need to get done before you go to bed. This includes your homework, but it should also take into account any practices, chores, events, or job shifts you may have. Once you get everything listed out, it’s time to prioritize them using the labels A, B, and C. Here’s what those labels mean:

• A Tasks : tasks that have to get done—like showing up at work or turning in an assignment—get an A. 
• B Tasks : these are tasks that you would like to get done by the end of the day but aren’t as time sensitive. For example, studying for a test you have next week could be a B-level task. It’s still important, but it doesn’t have to be done right away.
• C Tasks: these are tasks that aren’t very important and/or have no real consequences if you don’t get them done immediately. For instance, if you’re hoping to clean out your closet but it’s not an assigned chore from your parents, you could label that to-do item with a C.

Prioritizing your to-do list helps you visualize which items need your immediate attention, and which items you can leave for later. A prioritized to-do list ensures that you’re spending your time efficiently and effectively, which helps you make room in your schedule for homework. So even though you might really want to start making decorations for Homecoming (a B task), you’ll know that finishing your reading log (an A task) is more important. 

#2: Use a Planner With Time Labels

Your planner is probably packed with notes, events, and assignments already. (And if you’re not using a planner, it’s time to start!) But planners can do more for you than just remind you when an assignment is due. If you’re using a planner with time labels, it can help you visualize how you need to spend your day.

A planner with time labels breaks your day down into chunks, and you assign tasks to each chunk of time. For example, you can make a note of your class schedule with assignments, block out time to study, and make sure you know when you need to be at practice. Once you know which tasks take priority, you can add them to any empty spaces in your day. 

Planning out how you spend your time not only helps you use it wisely, it can help you feel less overwhelmed, too . We’re big fans of planners that include a task list ( like this one ) or have room for notes ( like this one ). 

#3: Set Reminders on Your Phone 

If you need a little extra nudge to make sure you’re getting your homework done on time, it’s a good idea to set some reminders on your phone. You don’t need a fancy app, either. You can use your alarm app to have it go off at specific times throughout the day to remind you to do your homework. This works especially well if you have a set homework time scheduled. So if you’ve decided you’re doing homework at 6:00 pm, you can set an alarm to remind you to bust out your books and get to work. 

If you use your phone as your planner, you may have the option to add alerts, emails, or notifications to scheduled events . Many calendar apps, including the one that comes with your phone, have built-in reminders that you can customize to meet your needs. So if you block off time to do your homework from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, you can set a reminder that will pop up on your phone when it’s time to get started. 

This dog isn't judging your lack of motivation...but your teacher might. Keep reading for tips to help you motivate yourself to do your homework.

How to Do Homework When You’re Unmotivated 

At first glance, it may seem like procrastination and being unmotivated are the same thing. After all, both of these issues usually result in you putting off your homework until the very last minute. 

But there’s one key difference: many procrastinators are working, they’re just prioritizing work differently. They know they’re going to start their homework...they’re just going to do it later. 

Conversely, people who are unmotivated to do homework just can’t find the willpower to tackle their assignments. Procrastinators know they’ll at least attempt the homework at the last minute, whereas people who are unmotivated struggle with convincing themselves to do it at a ll. For procrastinators, the stress comes from the inevitable time crunch. For unmotivated people, the stress comes from trying to convince themselves to do something they don’t want to do in the first place. 

Here are some common reasons students are unmotivated in doing homework : 

• Assignments are too easy, too hard, or seemingly pointless 
• Students aren’t interested in (or passionate about) the subject matter
• Students are intimidated by the work and/or feels like they don’t understand the assignment 
• Homework isn’t fun, and students would rather spend their time on things that they enjoy 

To sum it up: people who lack motivation to do their homework are more likely to not do it at all, or to spend more time worrying about doing their homework than...well, actually doing it.

3 Tips for How to Get Motivated to Do Homework

The key to getting homework done when you’re unmotivated is to figure out what does motivate you, then apply those things to homework. It sounds tricky...but it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it! Here are our three expert tips for motivating yourself to do your homework. 

#1: Use Incremental Incentives

When you’re not motivated, it’s important to give yourself small rewards to stay focused on finishing the task at hand. The trick is to keep the incentives small and to reward yourself often. For example, maybe you’re reading a good book in your free time. For every ten minutes you spend on your homework, you get to read five pages of your book. Like we mentioned earlier, make sure you’re choosing a reward that works for you! 

So why does this technique work? Using small rewards more often allows you to experience small wins for getting your work done. Every time you make it to one of your tiny reward points, you get to celebrate your success, which gives your brain a boost of dopamine . Dopamine helps you stay motivated and also creates a feeling of satisfaction when you complete your homework !  

#2: Form a Homework Group 

If you’re having trouble motivating yourself, it’s okay to turn to others for support. Creating a homework group can help with this. Bring together a group of your friends or classmates, and pick one time a week where you meet and work on homework together. You don’t have to be in the same class, or even taking the same subjects— the goal is to encourage one another to start (and finish!) your assignments. 

Another added benefit of a homework group is that you can help one another if you’re struggling to understand the material covered in your classes. This is especially helpful if your lack of motivation comes from being intimidated by your assignments. Asking your friends for help may feel less scary than talking to your teacher...and once you get a handle on the material, your homework may become less frightening, too. 

#3: Change Up Your Environment 

If you find that you’re totally unmotivated, it may help if you find a new place to do your homework. For example, if you’ve been struggling to get your homework done at home, try spending an extra hour in the library after school instead. The change of scenery can limit your distractions and give you the energy you need to get your work done. 

If you’re stuck doing homework at home, you can still use this tip. For instance, maybe you’ve always done your homework sitting on your bed. Try relocating somewhere else, like your kitchen table, for a few weeks. You may find that setting up a new “homework spot” in your house gives you a motivational lift and helps you get your work done. 

Social media can be a huge problem when it comes to doing homework. We have advice for helping you unplug and regain focus.

How to Do Homework When You’re Easily Distracted

We live in an always-on world, and there are tons of things clamoring for our attention. From friends and family to pop culture and social media, it seems like there’s always something (or someone!) distracting us from the things we need to do.

The 24/7 world we live in has affected our ability to focus on tasks for prolonged periods of time. Research has shown that over the past decade, an average person’s attention span has gone from 12 seconds to eight seconds . And when we do lose focus, i t takes people a long time to get back on task . One study found that it can take as long as 23 minutes to get back to work once we’ve been distracte d. No wonder it can take hours to get your homework done! 

3 Tips to Improve Your Focus

If you have a hard time focusing when you’re doing your homework, it’s a good idea to try and eliminate as many distractions as possible. Here are three expert tips for blocking out the noise so you can focus on getting your homework done. 

#1: Create a Distraction-Free Environment

Pick a place where you’ll do your homework every day, and make it as distraction-free as possible. Try to find a location where there won’t be tons of noise, and limit your access to screens while you’re doing your homework. Put together a focus-oriented playlist (or choose one on your favorite streaming service), and put your headphones on while you work. 

You may find that other people, like your friends and family, are your biggest distraction. If that’s the case, try setting up some homework boundaries. Let them know when you’ll be working on homework every day, and ask them if they’ll help you keep a quiet environment. They’ll be happy to lend a hand! 

#2: Limit Your Access to Technology 

We know, we know...this tip isn’t fun, but it does work. For homework that doesn’t require a computer, like handouts or worksheets, it’s best to put all your technology away . Turn off your television, put your phone and laptop in your backpack, and silence notifications on any wearable tech you may be sporting. If you listen to music while you work, that’s fine...but make sure you have a playlist set up so you’re not shuffling through songs once you get started on your homework. 

If your homework requires your laptop or tablet, it can be harder to limit your access to distractions. But it’s not impossible! T here are apps you can download that will block certain websites while you’re working so that you’re not tempted to scroll through Twitter or check your Facebook feed. Silence notifications and text messages on your computer, and don’t open your email account unless you absolutely have to. And if you don’t need access to the internet to complete your assignments, turn off your WiFi. Cutting out the online chatter is a great way to make sure you’re getting your homework done. 

#3: Set a Timer (the Pomodoro Technique)

Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro technique ? It’s a productivity hack that uses a timer to help you focus!

Here’s how it works: first, set a timer for 25 minutes. This is going to be your work time. During this 25 minutes, all you can do is work on whatever homework assignment you have in front of you. No email, no text messaging, no phone calls—just homework. When that timer goes off, you get to take a 5 minute break. Every time you go through one of these cycles, it’s called a “pomodoro.” For every four pomodoros you complete, you can take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.

The pomodoro technique works through a combination of boundary setting and rewards. First, it gives you a finite amount of time to focus, so you know that you only have to work really hard for 25 minutes. Once you’ve done that, you’re rewarded with a short break where you can do whatever you want. Additionally, tracking how many pomodoros you complete can help you see how long you’re really working on your homework. (Once you start using our focus tips, you may find it doesn’t take as long as you thought!)

Two Bonus Tips for How to Do Homework Fast

Even if you’re doing everything right, there will be times when you just need to get your homework done as fast as possible. (Why do teachers always have projects due in the same week? The world may never know.)

The problem with speeding through homework is that it’s easy to make mistakes. While turning in an assignment is always better than not submitting anything at all, you want to make sure that you’re not compromising quality for speed. Simply put, the goal is to get your homework done quickly and still make a good grade on the assignment! 

Here are our two bonus tips for getting a decent grade on your homework assignments , even when you’re in a time crunch. 

#1: Do the Easy Parts First 

This is especially true if you’re working on a handout with multiple questions. Before you start working on the assignment, read through all the questions and problems. As you do, make a mark beside the questions you think are “easy” to answer . 

Once you’ve finished going through the whole assignment, you can answer these questions first. Getting the easy questions out of the way as quickly as possible lets you spend more time on the trickier portions of your homework, which will maximize your assignment grade. 

(Quick note: this is also a good strategy to use on timed assignments and tests, like the SAT and the ACT !) 

#2: Pay Attention in Class 

Homework gets a lot easier when you’re actively learning the material. Teachers aren’t giving you homework because they’re mean or trying to ruin your weekend... it’s because they want you to really understand the course material. Homework is designed to reinforce what you’re already learning in class so you’ll be ready to tackle harder concepts later.

When you pay attention in class, ask questions, and take good notes, you’re absorbing the information you’ll need to succeed on your homework assignments. (You’re stuck in class anyway, so you might as well make the most of it!) Not only will paying attention in class make your homework less confusing, it will also help it go much faster, too.

What’s Next?

If you’re looking to improve your productivity beyond homework, a good place to begin is with time management. After all, we only have so much time in a day...so it’s important to get the most out of it! To get you started, check out this list of the 12 best time management techniques that you can start using today.

You may have read this article because homework struggles have been affecting your GPA. Now that you’re on the path to homework success, it’s time to start being proactive about raising your grades. This article teaches you everything you need to know about raising your GPA so you can

Now you know how to get motivated to do homework...but what about your study habits? Studying is just as critical to getting good grades, and ultimately getting into a good college . We can teach you how to study bette r in high school. (We’ve also got tons of resources to help you study for your ACT and SAT exams , too!)

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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What to Do When You’ve Fallen Behind on an Assignment

Recover when you’ve fallen behind on an assignment by converting overwhelm to action.

A few years back I was feeling sick every day. It sucked (and it does relate to college). I was taking tons of medicine to combat my allergies to everything in the world (yes, I am prone to drama) and still having to limit what I ate and where I could go. I was watching my kid play outside through a window one day when I realized my doctors were only providing quick fixes to my acute issues, but no one was working to address the real problem. The symptoms I was having were just that: symptoms of the real issue.

What I really wanted was to stop feeling sick every day and go outside to play too! I dove into a long journey to discover the cause of my health issues and heal the problem instead of only treating the symptoms. I won’t say I’m 100% there, but I have made significant progress. Yesterday we ran around the front yard like wild animals and watered our garden!

Why am I sharing this? My quest has me thinking about all of the other problems in our lives. There are so many college students feeling terrible about school on a daily basis and using quick fixes to treat the acute issue or symptoms. I want to help you address the quick fix when you need to, but also start thinking about healing the real problem.

When we do both, life is so much more enjoyable!

Define the Problem

Our first step is to be very clear in identifying the immediate problem. This probably feels like a no-brainer and you want to skip ahead, but don’t! Most of us are pretty terrible at clearly identifying a problem. Instead, we are really good at compound analysis of problems (it’s how we’re wired). You may be thinking something like this:

I haven’t been studying regularly and now my paper is due on Friday and I’m not going to be able to finish it and then I will fail the assignment and now I can only pass the class with a C and I needed a B average to get into graduate school.

All of it feels like the problem, but it isn’t.

The immediate problem is that a paper is due on Friday. You’ve fallen behind on an assignment. Period. The rest is the drama surrounding it and isn’t going to help us with an immediate solution. It may be helpful in solving the larger problem long-term, and on this note I want you to think about two parallel ways to solve your problem.

Quick Fix or Problem Solved?

For every problem we can apply:

• a quick fix to meet the short-term need (paper is due on Friday)
• a long-term solution to the overall problem (haven’t been studying regularly)
• a combination of both

I wish I had some magic solution to offer. It feels like too much to do when you’ve fallen behind on an assignment; it’s overwhelming, and often it seems like it never goes away. The reason we keep needing quick fixes for our studies and spending tons of time at the last minute is that we never address the root issue and work on solving the problem.

Long-term solutions to study problems are the key to making consistent progress in college and avoiding the last-minute panic before every assignment. They’re also challenging. Fixing root issues requires daily attention and you are able to space out the effort and time commitment over many days so it is much more manageable.

The same amount of work always has to get done, but you can approach it in different ways.

Consider these two scenarios:

Continue studying with big gaps in effort followed by intense all-nighters.

You may spend no time studying for 2 weeks and then spend 30 hours studying the next week because the paper is due or the exam is scheduled. For a 3 weeks period, you spend 30 hours spread over 5 days, meaning:

30 hours of work ÷ 5 days of effort = 6 hours per day

You feel stressed and guilty for the first two weeks because you know you should be studying but aren’t. Taking time off from studying should feel awesome, but it never does unless we have planned ahead for it . Then in week three you are exhausted and overwhelmed trying to fit in all of the study time around the other commitments in your life. Basically, you feel awful the entire time…it’s no wonder we struggle to feel motivated!

Address the problem and create a regular study routine.

Take the same amount of effort but spread the 30 hours of study time over the full 3 weeks. Let’s even take Sundays off and only study Monday–Saturday!

30 hours of work ÷ 18 days of effort = 1.6 hours per day

You may not feel like studying every single day but commit to taking action anyway. You feel proud and committed to school every day when you stick to your study schedule . You don’t feel exhausted or overwhelmed because you know if you keep doing a little bit of work every day you will be prepared for the exam when it’s time.

To properly prepare for this exam we have to commit to one of these scenarios, right? Which one feels better to you? If we’re being honest, it doesn’t even feel good while slacking off because we know we should be doing something.

If you are consistently falling behind on assignments, finishing at the last minute, pulling all-nighters, and scrambling to keep your head above water, you have likely not addressed the root issue yet to solve the problem.

Next Steps When You have fallen behind on an assignment (or a course)

1. Define the Problem

Define your immediate problem with one sentence. Remember, the problem is what you need to do right now. Most likely this is an upcoming assignment or exam.

2. Focus on a quick fix for acute pain (urgent assignment)

You can’t focus on long-term solutions with the stress of having fallen behind on an assignment hanging around. Handle the problem right in front of you and don’t worry about anything else. We need to create an action plan quickly and then focus all efforts on execution.

First, make a list of everything you need to do to complete the assignment or prep for an exam.

It sounds simple, yes. But it isn’t. I know it isn’t because of the number of emails I get from confused students who have no idea what to do next. Also, because I’ve been there! It’s easy to get so caught up in the mental drama that we can’t identify the concrete things we could do right now to make progress.

In case you are feeling this way right now, I have a couple of general templates to get you thinking:

General Steps to Write a Research Paper

• Choose a topic for the paper
• Plan your research by doing an internet search to see which subtopics to include
• Write your thesis statement
• Create an outline and decide how to order the subtopics to support the thesis
• Search for academic research sources on each subtopic
• Research and take notes
• Write one section of the paper at a time
• Write the introduction
• Proofread and revise the entire paper

General Steps to Study for an Exam

• Review your syllabus to determine the scope of what is covered on the exam.
• Ask your professor about the format (multiple-choice, written, etc.).
• Ask your professor for study tips to help you focus.
• Create a broad outline of what you need to review by listing chapters from a book or weeks of lecture.
• Go to each chapter or lecture topic and list out the major topics covered.
• Organize your existing notes under each major topic (try to do this quickly). This becomes your study guide.
• Review course material for every topic you haven’t adequately covered in your notes and add to your study guide.
• Sort your study guide into facts to memorize or concepts to understand .
• Split your time between mastering concepts and memorization.

Take one of these general lists and apply it to your specific assignment. Finish step one, then move to step two. Don’t allow yourself to get stuck on any one step for too long.

You have to stay focused on getting results as quickly as possible. This means managing your phone usage and other distractions. Try using the Pomodoro technique to stay focused .

Focus all of your energy on completing the assignment in front of you. And when it is finished…

3. List Causes of the Problem

To avoid ending up in the same situation next month you must address the root issue and work on a long-term solution. Spend a few minutes to think back over how you got into the situation:

• What isn’t working for you?
• Why aren’t you making more steady progress?
• What do you wish you had done differently?
• Imagine you have switched roles with your best friend and are offering advice on what they should do next. What would you suggest?

Try not to come up with the *perfect* answer. Don’t even aim for the best answer. Try to come up with an answer to get yourself thinking for now.

As you identify causes, please offer yourself some kindness. I promise you are in the 99.9% percentile for ending up in a jam. We all do this! This means we all have the opportunity to adjust our efforts in order to get different results.

4. Identify a solution for the actual problem

We can handle one thing!

Decide how you want to do things differently to change the issue. How can you maximize your daily habits to help?

Let’s think back to our earlier issue:

Right away I see the major cause: I haven’t been studying regularly.

This problem needs to be reversed so we study regularly. I’m a fan of starting small with new habits , so I would start by adding a 10-minute study session each day. I would stick with this for at least a couple of weeks, preferably until it feels easy to do. Then I would double it to a daily 20-minute study session. Starting small and building as you go is a great way to keep your motivation up and ease into new habits. Most of us work really well with this approach.

And remember, you have to start by addressing your immediate need first; finish the upcoming assignment, but don’t stop there. Think about the future YOU. How can you change your approach today so that future you won’t fall behind on an assignment and stay up all night to finish at the last minute?

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AUTHOR: Jessica Shields

Jessica is a college professor and founder of College Study Smarts. Her goal is to help you be productive with your study time and stay motivated while working towards your college degree. You can do this!  Read More »

Legal Disclaimer:  I am a college professor, but I am not  your  professor. The information provided is for general informational purposes only. I don’t know the specifics of your course or your individual study strategies. If you need specific course advice, consult with the professor for your specific course.  

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How to Finish Assignments When You Can’t

Crunch time is coming, deadlines need to be met, essays need to be submitted, and tests should be studied for. As a student who’s waiting for the end of crunch time, you’re looking for all the right ways to cut corners while being ultra efficient with your time and energy. But sometimes racing the clock you’ll come to a realization that this mountain of a task is insurmountable and it seems almost impossible to accomplish. But at this low point is exactly where you shouldn’t settle with an incomplete assignment or missing work. There are workarounds and “life hacks” that can help pull you out of this sticky situation.

Homework and education are very important, so finishing your assignments should be something that’s on every student’s mind. Here’s some ideas to get you started on your path to getting your assignments finished:

Ask for an Extension

Lots of students find themselves in this awful situation that seems impossible to do. Even if it is your fault for being a bad student or lazy, it’s worth a try to confront your professor or teacher and ask for an extension – as long as you actually complete it. Teachers and professors understand that the point of homework isn’t to give you something to do, rather train you and give you extra practice on materials you learn in class. Just know that it’s not their responsibility to give you an extension and they are not obligated to give you points for your late or missing assignments. But do them anyway – and have your teacher check your work so they know you’re good for the work even though it’s late. 

Ask for Help from Classmates

Your classmates are a good resource for you to help you finish your assignments, late or on time. They may even just give you answers – as long as you are polite about it and aren’t pressuring them to do so. They are helping you when they aren’t required to, and they’ll be more inclined if you are also reliable. The worst position to be in is to be the student who helps others but doesn’t receive help. Help could even be in the form of understanding the assignments and learning from them, kind of a tutoring situation. But again, it’s important that your classmates aren’t obligated to help you, so be grateful for any help you receive. 

Prevent This Happening in the Future

We don’t want you to constantly be stuck in this seemingly impossible situation – so we urge you to think about your assignments carefully – so it doesn’t happen again. This means several things:

• Keep Organized – understand when your assignments are due, and know how much time you have left so you can plan around it. It’s worth noting that this will also help you plan your lifestyle a bit better, so its a great thing to do
• Give Yourself Time – saving things for last minute is a surefire way to shoot yourself in the foot. Don’t do that. Instead, if they give you an assignment to do for the next lesson or the next day – set time aside after school to do it.
• Don’t Procrastinate – saying that you’ll do it later is the downfall of many missed assignments. You may forget about it or something may come up that will prevent you from doing your assignments on time. Get it done sooner rather than later

Use Your Resources

When we say “resources” we mean tutors, teacher’s assistants, and even the world wide web to help you complete your assignments when you’re unable to. Don’t make it a habit, but there are websites like Assignment Expert that are here to help you do exactly that: finish your homework. Note that schools and universities have their own rules for these types of resources, so use with caution. There are also websites that may have guides or flash cards that can help you in most of your subjects. If you do use them, they can be quite helpful to get you out of this situation. 

Prioritize Your Assignments

If you’ve got a ton of assignments to finish – and only a limited amount of time – its good to prioritize them in an order of importance – which classes do you need to complete them today – ones with very lenient teachers or professors – and ones that are low priority because you’re allowed to miss this one assignment. Having that done, your experience with finishing your assignments will go over much smoother and less stressful. 

Motivate Yourself

There’s a reason why you’re feeling stressed in this crunch time, you’re trying to accomplish something. Whether its to improve your grade or pass class, you still have motivation to do it. If you didn’t have any motivation, you wouldn’t be this stressed to read this article on the internet. But keep in mind your end goals so you’ll have the time and energy to spend on it. Complaining about not having enough time, isn’t going to give you more time.

Figure Out Your Problems

If you’ve procrastinated and put off your assignments, there must be a good reason, right? A good reason or not – you should reevaluate the things you’re doing in your life that put you in this position. If it can be helped, avoid these kinds of situations. Education is important and you should treat it as such. 

Once you get a handle on your situation, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Managing your time isn’t easy, so once its done you can relax a bit before your next deadline. 

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A Few Strategies to Help Slow-Working Students

March 27, 2016

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A parent recently asked me for advice about her son. Although his academic skills are strong, he feels the need to complete every task to absolute perfection; this means he finishes his work long, long after the rest of his peers. Not only are his teachers frustrated by the time it takes him to complete assignments, he doesn’t especially enjoy spending hours every night making all of his work just right.

It’s easy enough to say we want all our students to work at their own pace, and in most classrooms, some flexibility is built in to allow for this. Still, when a student completes work at a significantly slower pace than his peers, sometimes taking three or four times longer than everyone else, it can create problems for the student and his teachers: Group work gets more complicated, whole-class instruction is limited, and the student is too often put in an uncomfortable position as the one everyone else is waiting for . Furthermore, working at this slow pace means the student is simply putting too many hours in on school work, time that could be spent playing, reading, socializing, relaxing, or exploring other interests.

To help this parent and her son’s teachers come up with some ways to help him, I did a bit of research, pulled together some of my own suggestions, and added strategies offered by other teachers. I shared what I knew on my weekly Periscope broadcast (you can see a replay here ) and got lots more good tips from the teachers who were watching. Here’s a summary of what we all came up with.

First, Rule Out a More Serious Issue

Your first step in finding the best way to help this student is to determine whether a more serious issue is at the root of the problem. For an excellent overview of many of the causes of slow-paced work, read Steven Butnik’s article  Understanding, Diagnosing, and Coping with Slow Processing Speed . In the article, Butnik focuses on twice exceptional students—gifted students who also have additional learning challenges such as a learning disability or attention deficit disorder. “Understanding the role of slow processing speed is essential,” Butnik writes. “Gifted students with processing speed problems who are ‘missed,’ misdiagnosed, or mis-taught may become discouraged, depressed, undereducated, underemployed, or worse. By contrast, when these twice-exceptional (2e) children are understood and well-addressed educationally, they can become treasures who shine in unique ways.”

Consider whether the student is being held back by anxiety, a learning disability that is making the content difficult to process, a condition like dysgraphia that makes handwriting especially challenging, eyesight issues that make the board or papers hard to read, or auditory processing difficulties that make working in a busy, noisy classroom very difficult. If one or more of these underlying challenges is found to be the cause, you may be able to address the problem with an IEP or 504 plan, which could establish modifications for the student such as extended time on assignments, voice-to-text support, or reducing the number of tasks required to demonstrate competence.

Whether or not the student’s slower pace can be given an official diagnosis, the strategies below are all possible ways to help.

Validate the Student’s Concerns

Sometimes, when a person demonstrates a thought or feeling that is problematic—such as the idea that she has to perfect an assignment before she turns it in—we attempt to change that feeling by dismissing it. We’ll say something like, “Perfect isn’t important! Your standards are too high!” What we think we’re doing is helping the person get past those feelings, but by flat-out denying her reality, we can actually make her cling more tightly to it.

Instead, if we begin by validating her feelings, we can help her manage the behavior that comes from them. In  The Power of Validation , Karyn Hall and Melissa Cook define validation as “the recognition and acceptance that your child has feelings and thoughts that are true and real to him regardless of logic or whether it makes sense to anyone else.” Validation is not the same as agreeing with her feelings or supporting the choices that come from them; it’s just letting her know that her feelings are recognized. Instead of trying to dismiss her desire to do perfect work, acknowledge it by saying something like “Doing high-quality work is important to you.” Once you have communicated to the student that you understand her feelings, you can then move toward helping her solve the problems this feeling creates for her.

Model Your Own Process

Students who frequently get stuck on school work may lack the problem-solving skills they need to get unstuck. So whenever you can, model your own strategies with teacher think-alouds, and get other students to do the same thing. Think-alouds can also help students let go of the kind of perfectionism that slows down creative tasks: Many kids believe that “good” students start a task at the beginning, do every part perfectly the first time around, then finish perfectly at the end. But real creative work is much less linear, so let them see you draft an idea, cross some things out, draft some more, skip over something you’re stuck on and move on to something else, then come back around and around until you reach a point where it’s good enough. And that last part is the most important—the part where you stop trying to get it perfect and declare the work good enough.

Talk Them Through It

Second-grade teacher Michael Dunlea finds that in many cases students get hung up on one specific aspect of an assignment, so if he is able to figure out what’s confusing them, he can help them continue. Sometimes it’s just that they don’t understand one particular word in the instructions, or they can’t answer the first part of a question, and that’s keeping them from moving on to the rest of it. If the child is shy or doesn’t know what they don’t know, they may not be capable of asking for the help they need; it just feels like they don’t get it.

With my own children, when they come to me for help with their homework, the first thing I’ll ask them to do is read the instructions to me out loud. They hate this, by the way, because they want me to just tell them what to do. But more than half the time, when they re-read the instructions, they discover some detail they had overlooked the first time around. Then they go, “Oh, never mind,” and wander away.

Set a Timer

For some people, simply setting a time limit for a task is enough to get them moving more quickly, so it’s worth a try with your slow-paced students. Use this one carefully, though: For some students, it could cause even more anxiety and make them shut down completely. So present this as one possible strategy you’d like to try, and see if the student thinks it might work. If it does, and you want to get more structured with this approach, take a look at the Pomodoro Technique , a method that has you work in 25-minute increments, then give yourself a small reward before starting another 25-minute chunk.

Break Large Tasks into Small Ones

Plenty of adults I know, including myself, have trouble getting started on a large task. And depending on the person, some tasks seem larger than others. Show the student how to take any assignment and break it into small, manageable chunks. Then put those chunks on some kind of checklist, so the student can mark off items as he finishes them. You create the list for the student the first time, then do it with him the second time, but eventually release responsibility so that he is able to create his own checklist.

Offer a “Can Do” and a “Must Do”

Lauren Bright often gives her second graders a list of tasks to complete. One task is a “must-do” that has to be done first, no matter what. Then she offers them up to three “can do” options to choose from after the “must do” is finished. Having these optional activities waiting at the end is often a good incentive for students to get the “must do”s taken care of.

Provide Estimated Times for Each Activity

When she noticed that some of her students took a lot longer than most to complete written assessments, high school English teacher Ruth Arseneault decided to add estimated times in parentheses beside each item. She found that this simple tweak helped slower-paced students get better at planning their work and rationing the time they spent on each task. This principle could be expanded to almost any classroom task: Whether it’s a written activity, a science lab, cleaning up after a project, or doing a set of math problems, letting students know about how long something should take can help them set a reasonable pace for themselves.

I learned this strategy when I was a college student from the book Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing by Linda Flower. You use it when you get stuck on a writing task. If you get to a point where you can’t figure out how to say something, just write “What I really mean is…” and continue in whatever language you would use if you were describing the idea to a friend.

Establish a Bare-Minimum Goal for Formative Assessment

Although he often lets his students take work home to finish, high school English and journalism teacher Gerard Dawson will have his slow-working students complete a specific portion of a task and show it to him before they take the rest home. This allows him to quickly assess whether the student is on the right track before they continue the work on their own.

Mix Low-Stakes with High-Stakes Tasks

To help her perfectionistic students learn how to flex their “good enough” muscles, high school English teacher Jori Krulder deliberately mixes high-pressure with low-pressure tasks. She alternates between the kinds of activities that require close attention to detail, like polished pieces, with quicker tasks that require a less rigid approach, like free writes, where students just have to get their ideas down as fast as possible.

Mark Problem Items for Later

Instructional coach Gretchen Schultek Bridgers advises students who get stuck on an item, especially on a test, to mark it with a small post-it note, a highlighter, or a star as a reminder to come back to the item later. This kind of strategy will be useful to everyone, not just your slow working students.

Whatever You Do…

I think it’s important to be sure you are strategizing with the student, not for him: Talk about this process as a team effort. Present a few of the above solutions and ask which one he’d like to try first. Then debrief afterwards to see how it worked. By giving the student ownership of the problem and its solution, you are building his self-efficacy. This is not something you’re “making” the student do; you’re just helping him figure it out. ♥

What Works for You?  Do you have an effective approach for helping slower workers pick up the pace? Share them in the comments so we can all learn together.

What to Read Next

Categories: Classroom Management , Instruction

Tags: differentiation , Grades 3-5 , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , Grades K-2 , time management

57 Comments

Love this post! Any ideas for slow note takers? I teach high school world history and slow note takers drive me crazy! Any strategies to get them moving? I can lose a whole class (chatty) while one or two people finish writing notes.Thanks!

Take a look at item #2 on this post about ineffective teaching practices . It’s all about note-taking, and while I would obviously not advocate giving them prepared notes, there are some links in that section that will take you to other articles about specific note-taking scaffolds and strategies that might help these students learn how to take notes in a way that works for them. I hope this helps!

I am generally a slow worker, but I was always fast at note taking. My method: In a high school class I would have about 10 pages of notes at the end of a semester, where other students took 10 pages a week. Remind those students they don’t have to write down EVERY SINGLE THING you say!

Some kids are slow note takers because they need some OT or PT therapies. All should see a special eye doctor called Vision Therapist to test if his eyes are able to work together. He may have a neurological disorder that inhibits his brain from tell his hand wht to write. But, until any of that gets done, ask the best student if she would get her notes copied (wherever there is a copier) and give them to you so you could give them to a student who has trouble writing. Decades ago we used carbon paper. The slow student will be grateful as long as no one knows about the “deal”.

I find using structured notes with some of the parts and the organization provided speeds things up a lot. I use an interactive notebook. Students with difficulty copying from the board and organizing the info spatially will be much faster. The early finishers color code, highlight their notes, or make colorful boarders with the time. Encourage those done to reread and check they have everything and think of questions. This also allows more processing time for everyone.

Hi! I’m in my second year of teaching high school math, grades 10 and 11, and I always post my own class notes on Google Classroom to help students who are slow note takers, struggle with taking neat organized notes, or who are absent. I think this is helpful for many students in my class, but I still worry that this method has holes in it. Can you offer any insight or feedback on this accommodation and it’s effectiveness?

Hey Justin,

Check out Note-Taking: A Research Roundup , particularly section #7. I think you’ll find some helpful information there.

Olá Jennifer!

Eu gostei dessa edição como um bom conselho para os educadores. Parabéns! Eloir

Obrigado, Eloir!

Great ideas here! This is something that often occurs in my classroom and is something that I have personally struggled with as well. I connected with this both as a teacher and learner! Thanks for the tips!

Thanks, Samantha! I’m glad you found them useful.

Great ideas thank you. I sometimes find that students don’t know how much is “enough”. At times, during writing I rule off where the children need to write too. I also tell them that they can write past the line and usually they do. They even get quite excited about it. I teach 8 and 9 year olds.

Rachel, thanks for sharing that idea!

I love the WIRMI idea! What a great idea to get students past their writer’s block and to add voice to their writing! Thanks for posting!

Thanks, Jessica! I find myself using that one all the time to write blog posts. I hope it helps your students as well!

Thank you so much for these suggestions! This year, I have an exceptionally bright, focused student who happens to be a much slower worker than my other students. You have provided more strategies to consider, and I appreciate that you stressed that I need to strategize WITH him and not FOR him. I want him to feel empowered and find ways to be able to pace and help himself.

Dawn, I love hearing this. I would love an update later on what worked for him!

I have taught me students visualization techniques, including 12 structures of visualization, which they can use to increase their own comprehension of a learning task. This has been a powerful tool, especially for my slower learners. My students feel success with their ability to tap into their thoughts…and relate this thinking to task completion. In addition, I found that drawing is a tool which assists students (especially when paired with the visualization process).

Susanne, that’s a great suggestion. Do you happen to have any resources I could link to so other teachers can learn specific visualization techniques?

I would suggest that teachers check out the Lindamood-Bell program Visualization and Verbalization (V/V). This program provided a model of introducing the visualization strategy and structures to students to increase comprehension. I have added the drawing piece to my teaching, as well, and have found it to be very effective with students of all abilities.

This could not be more timely. I’m working with a 3rd grader who does legitimately need a little more time to process (not enough to qualify for anything) but is also an extreme perfectionist. I am going to work with her classroom teacher to chunk out tasks and work with the student to set reasonable time limits for each chunk. Thanks!!

Thank you so much for providing the link to Steven Butnik’s article. I found it, along with your article, to be extremely timely and helpful. I have a high school freshman who is extremely frustrated right now. These resources have given me some ideas to discuss with him. Thank you!!

I found some great ideas in your article. I’m trying to see how any of them can work best with a 6 year old. I had a kindergartner in my K/1 combo this year that was very bright, but moved and worked extremely slow. Just packing up his things at the end of the day was at times difficult to watch. Teaching in a group setting, he was often way behind and appeared lost. However, if I just sat and talked with him, giving him all the time he needed, he proved to be quite verbal with advanced vocabulary and critical thinking skills. His slow pace has not affected his pre school learning and I don’t want it to become a problem now. Any ideas for the first grade experience?

My college age son was finally diagnosed twice exceptional. His ADHD was what triggered getting a 504 his senior year of high school. He was always the last to turn in his tests even in elementary school. His algebra 3 teacher mentioned to the 504 committee that even though he had a 101 in her class, he was always last. Thankfully, because of that teacher speaking up, my son is given extra time to complete tests in college. I will always be grateful for that!

I love Can Do and Must Do lists for my 2nd graders. I am looking for strategies with a student that knows the academics when asked but writing it down takes her forever. She forms letters correctly and her fine motor skills are great. I have used the timer system, more wait time to complete a task and encouragement through words and mini rewards. Now she is refusing to do work in every class. Any suggestions for this 2nd grader?

My daughter is in kindergarten. My husband and I recently had a meeting with her teacher about her slow pace. She is smart and understands everything, but she is the slowest pace child in her class. Which strategies would be best for a five year old?

Hi Angie, this is Debbie Sachs, one of the Customer Experience Managers with CoP. Having several years of experience teaching 1st Grade I can share some thoughts for you to consider. First, do you see some of the same slow-paced behaviors at home or in other settings? The reason I ask is because it’s so important to dig down to the root of what’s going on. The strategies you try will really depend on what you observe. If you notice patterns of distraction, then consider finding ways to remove them. Example: Some kids are distracted just by markers or erasers sitting in the middle of the table…move them to another location. Also consider seating placement and proximity to the teacher. If you notice it’s difficult for her to complete a task in a reasonable amount of time, try setting a timer along with using a visual checklist. I’ve found checklists work great…they help kids become self-directed and provide a sense of accomplishment. If you notice patterns of perfectionism or “fear” of getting started, consider providing lots of modeling along with teaching her when she can put more time into getting work ready for an audience. You can also check out the post The Trouble with Amazing: Giving Praise that Matters The strategies you try will really be trial and error. You may have to play around to see what works best. And if you haven’t already read some of the other readers’ comments, check those out too. There are some other good suggestions. Thanks, Debbie

I have a problem of being slow, my teachers, friends and family members say that I take an abnormal amount of time on one small task and when I study it takes me a whole day to study one small topic. Please help me

Hi, Olive. I’m a Customer Experience Manager with Cult of Pedagogy and a former teacher — thanks for writing in! I hear your frustration and want to run a few ideas by you. I’m assuming you’ve read through the post and am wondering if you came across anything you thought might be worth trying? If you’re comfortable, I suggest sharing the post with your family and teachers; these are the people who know you well and who work with you on a daily basis. Maybe they will see something in the research that makes them say, “Hey, this sounds like you! Wanna give this a try?” You also mentioned something about studying; take a look at 6 Powerful Learning Strategies You MUST Share with Students . There are great study strategies in this post that maybe you aren’t familiar with yet. You can also take a look at a bunch of videos made by Seth Perler ; he made these videos specifically for students who are looking for help with planning and organization. I hope you find these resources helpful, but regardless, I’d definitely continue having conversations with your family and teachers so you can get the support you need. Best Wishes!

Hi, I am afraid I have no answer for your question, I just want you to know you are not alone. I too am an A+ student who barely has time for any life at all outside the university and my job, because I work very-very slowly and need time to understand things.

Hi, hopefully you are doing well. Before bed time me and my son discuss how the day went. He told me the teacher made him stay behind while the rest of the class ran laps outside because he didn’t finish his work. Eventually causing him to cry. Is this a good method used by the teacher? My son gets distracted easily and has trouble keeping focus. Communication skills are excellent. He definitely works slow a lot of the time. Although his writing is neat.Should I question the teachers method?

Please help Jennifer Suby

Sorry, he is in grade 1. Writing skills are neat but slow.

Hi, Suby, this is really a great question. As a retired teacher who taught 1st grade for many years, I first suggest, if you haven’t already, requesting a meeting with the teacher. I do think it’s fair to keep in mind that for some kids, it can be appropriate to miss a recess/running laps to finish an assignment when time in class is purposely misused, and when the consequence is known in advance. (I will say though, I think recess as a consequence should be used sparingly and as a last resort.) Based on what you’ve shared about your son regarding his strengths and challenges with focus/task completion, I’m not sure this kind of consequence will be effective or have any benefit. I think moving forward it’s important for school and home to closely observe specific behavior patterns, take in data, and together discuss interventions to put in place that help your son be successful. You may find some helpful ideas in Jenn’s post, 7 Systems that Work for Outside-the-Box Learners . Overall, the idea is to consider systems that work to your son’s strengths and help manage his struggles. I hope this helps.

Thanks so much Debbie. I’ll schedule an appointment with the teacher to get the ball rolling Take care!

My 7 year old (2nd grader) daughter’s teacher changed her grade from “needs improvement” to “not meeting expectations” insofar as focusing/completing task-assignments in timely manner and wants her to be evaluated. Although we’re 1st time parents, we’ve solicited feedback from 2 nieces (1st grade teacher and a child speech therapist) as well as from our daughter’s Home daycare provider who has known her for years, and no one feels she has any ADD or ADHD characteristics, that she’s as easily distractible as any 7 year old – and moreover, that she’s actually sorta nosey: even in a house full of kids doing all sorts of things/having conversations, etc, my daughter can tell you at any given moment exactly which kid took out which toy, and the details of all the conversations going on…like she tunes-in on everyone/everything. She’s always been like that, even as a toddler during “clean-up time” she’d toddle over to whichever kid with the toy THEY took out of the toybox for that kid to put the toy away that they took out – jokingly called her the toy-police! So, now that she’s in school and has been sorta enjoying “sprints” (self-exams, primarily math exams, where the kids time themselves to see how many math problems they can complete in 10 minutes), so in an effort to help her stay “focused” and complete her class tasks/assignments, I’ve told her she needs to think of every task/every assignment as a “sprint”…and believe it or not, THAT has seemed to help her, as-if it brings out the competitive edge in her, so for what it’s worth, I figured I’d share it. So, that’s one tip, and the other has been that we’ve employed a task/TO DO list that seems to help her “see” what she needs to accomplish… but consider, she’s only in 2nd grade, so “reading” a task list is challenging – and “time management” insofar as time needed to accomplish those tasks is still “nebulous” so off to the pediatrician we go. She’s already had the complete school assessment and they’ve ruled-out processing issues and determined that she’s “average” across the board, so I don’t know what’s left – other than to let her mature a bit more! I’m sure the teacher has concerns too, as we do, because our daughter’s biological parents both have developmental delays and mild mental retardation and some cognitive deficits, but from what all the evaluators have said at Early Intervention and those who evaluated her during the comprehensive school assessment, if she had any of those issues, they would have been evident by now…and they all agreed & assured us that we can stop worrying about those issues. Thank God! We’d appreciate any/all feedback! Regards, Anne Marie

Hi Anne Marie,

I work with Cult of Pedagogy and as a former 1st Grade teacher, I wanted to jump in here for a bit. Not knowing your daughter or having had the chance to observe her, it’s really hard to know what kinds of interventions might benefit her, but it sounds like you’ve got a strong support team and have already taken some important steps, including meeting with the pediatrician. If you haven’t already, I also suggest checking out Seth Perler ‘s site – you may find some relevant information and tips there. In the meantime, if your daughter is having difficulty “reading” a task list, consider using pictures instead. A timer might also help with time management. Observe any distractions that might get in the way and if possible, remove them. I hope this helps…maybe someone else will see this and jump in to share their insights as well.

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you so much for this article. I am a freshman at Syracuse University and I have always been the slowest student in class (largely due in part to my perfectionism), and while I don’t nitpick at my handwriting anymore (rarely to be quite honest), it has made my first semester hell. I am studying architecture and while it is a demanding major, 20 all nighters was not the norm, and I could have avoided 17 of those (probably not the 3 before the 3 exercise finals) if my mindset of producing the perfect model or drawing did not carry over from childhood. I really wish my teachers in elementary school could have used these strategies when I was younger so I could have built a lasting foundation of not giving into the urge of producing something “perfect.” Nearly all of my teachers in elementary school would tell me to write faster or tell my parents in parent teacher conferences or report cards that I had to work on my speed and not care about my penmanship as much. The only teacher that gave me good advice on speeding up was professor Rosa, my architecture professor with whom I took my architecture pre-college course with. He opened my eyes to the impact of architectural design and the impact that well designed spaces can have. He also gave me the saying “think, say, do” to “do” instead of “think” or “say” because if you spend your time thinking you just have your thoughts/ideas and nothing to show for it, and if you just say something you’re all talk. I don’t discredit thinking or saying, but having a physical model/drawing translates better to our professors who are visual and give us better critiques on what is in front of them.

I have recently started talking to a counselor, and I plan on using these strategies along with the Pomodoro technique she has suggested. I also plan on visiting all of my former teachers to catch up with them and introduce this article with them because students quite frankly will not take the initiative to take actions that would be beneficial for them in the future.

Thank you again for the article, Naomi

Hi, I would like to thank you for this wonderful advice, I’m a student having trouble with speed, but these methods don’t seem to work for me. Do you have any other suggestions?

Although this post does have a ton of suggestions, they certainly may not work for everyone. My first thought is to consider in what exact areas does that “speed” thing specifically seem to affect you; exactly how is it a problem and what might be getting in the way. Here’s another article you might want to check out: 7 Systems that Work for Out-of-the-Box Learners . See if anything there feels familiar; within the post is a link to Seth Perler’s site. Be sure to check that out as well — he’s got a lot of good stuff just for kids. The other thing I’d suggest, is to just make sure you continue to have communication with your teachers, family, counselor — the people who know you really well and see what kinds of suggestions they might have.

I’m so happy that you shared this information. It’s going to really help a student in my class.

No question, but I just wanted to say thanks for this article. My son has ADHD and a very low processing speed, despite scoring in the 95-99% in most other IQ rested other areas. 2e can be so hard for teachers (and teacher moms) to understand, and this article with the additional link to more 2e information is really helpful.

Thanks for letting us know you found this post to be helpful, Ashley! Might be a good one to share with teachers and admin!

I give a weekly syllabus chart to my 7th graders on Monday of the week, with columns for the name of the activity, the estimated time, the basic directions and where more specific info can be found, the places to find resources, and the due date – this is a Nancy Sulla strategy. One day with about 30 minutes left of class, there was a “disturbance” at one of the home groups. I went over to check and found Jack and Amanda trying to convince Megan (a very slow worker) that she HAD to make a plan for what she was going to accomplish in that 30 minutes. She kept insisting that there was “nothing on the syllabus that would only take me 30 minutes.” They patiently explained again and again that she could just start a longer task and put 30 minutes into it. As understanding finally dawned, she looked around the table and said “You mean I can just do a little part of something if I have some extra time, but I don’t have to do the whole thing? I swear, Ms. H., I did not know this!” We discussed this as a work strategy, and when she came in the next day, she reported that she had tried it while cleaning her room. “I wanted to clean my room, but I only had 15 minutes before my mom said we had to go, so I looked around and decided to just organize my stuffed animals! It worked!” I was never so proud! We try so hard to unpack things for kids, but sometimes we just don’t know exactly how much to unpack – you can be sure this strategy is now included in my lessons!

This article is awesome! Just what I needed, thank you!

Great to hear — thanks for letting us know!

I’m glad some teachers nowadays care enough to help kids try to get past hurdles that will totally destroy quality of life if not addressed early. I wish I had such help. I now face a bleak future cause I’m too slow in everything and disability is not enough to have a quality life.

Hi, My daughter is very smart girl, gate identified and is taking honor classes. She has always been a slow worker from the time she was in preschool. Now that she is in 8th grader I’m beginning to worry because she spends hours doing her homework. She claims she likes to take her time and do her work right, but I’m worried that she she’s up late working on homework that shouldn’t take her that long. She also takes long showers and moves at a slow pace in most of what she does. She also takes a long time getting ready for school or after school activities. I read the article and found a few strategies that I would like to try. But I was wondering if you can give me more specific advice on her. I find myself rushing her and frustrated when she doesn’t finish her work in a timely manner. Any suggestions?

Glad to hear there were a few ideas here that may be helpful. If you haven’t already, you may want to also check out 7 Systems That Work for Out-of-Box Learners . Also be sure to visit Seth Perler ‘s site. I’ve linked it here, but there’s also a link in the post.

Another article that I really like is Overwhelmed? Do Five Things . The suggestions here can be applied to anyone, whether school-related or not.

Other things to consider if you haven’t already: Scroll through the comments at the end of this post for possible ideas. Talk to your daughter’s teachers – are they seeing the same things you’re seeing at home? If so, ask if there are strategies they’ve implemented that they’ve found helpful or if they have suggestions you can try at home.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the advice to validate the student’s concerns. My husband and I will be moving soon and need to find a K-8 public charter school for our daughter. Keeping your advice in mind should help our daughter make the transition to her new school.

Eileen, We are glad that you found the advice useful as you prepare for your daughter’s transition to a new school. Best of luck to you and your family!

I need help teacher I have a 7 years old.. He is very slow And the teqcher is always complaining about his work… I really dont k ow how to help him Any advice please 😌

Not knowing the interventions that have already been put in place, my first suggestion is to try out some of the strategies from the post . Perhaps request a meeting with the teacher, admin, and counselor – share the article with them and find out what strategies, if any, have been implemented. Sometimes just making a few adjustments to something that’s already been tried can be helpful. For other ideas, take a look at 7 Systems That Work for Out-of-Box Learners and be sure to click on the link to Seth Perler’s site. Hope this helps!

Love the ideas, I would like more ideas for slow students and students that need more attention.

Hi Samantha! We’d recommend checking out 7 Systems that Work for Outside-the-Box Learners and our Differentiation and Personalized Learning Pinterest board. I hope this helps!

Hello, my son is a slightly above average student more so in mathematics so flies through it. He is a fifth grader in a sixth grade class. For the last three years he has been put up in the next class with four other students. (this is a whole different concern of mine for next year!:)) However in English/ writing, he is a lot slower. No trouble spelling and yes as mentioned above (on the website) he is one of the ‘wants to get it perfect’ 🙂 However my concern is the amount of work being expected of the children to complete within the school working week. E.g. Spelling work (which inadvertently turns into homework as there is alot but no timeframe supplied for any of the tasks except it is expected to be completed by Friday after being handed it on the Monday). Hopefully I haven’t taken too much advantage of your time and expertise but would be nice to run it by someone from ‘outside’ the small town we live in. And yes I am going to set up a meeting with the teacher and perhaps the principal. I just wanted to get a professional opinion on this beforehand, as if this is standard then we just have to deal with it. So I have included the list of just the spelling tasks below for your feedback, if you are able to find the time… these are from last term;

1. List your 20 spelling words for the week 2. Put four of your spelling words into sentences (make them interesting and minimum two lines long). 3. Create three adjective pyramids using three of your words. 4. Write as many rhyming words for three of your spelling words as you can. 5. Write the dictionary meaning for three of your words, get someone to write the word that fits the meaning. 6. Create your own word find using all of your 20 spelling words. 7. Write eight of your spelling words in code, have someone attempt to crack your code. 8. Put all your words in alphabetical order. 9. Break each of your spelling words into syllables 10. Word Jumble- choose two different spelling words and try to form as many new words from them as you can, list them. 11. (Fast finisher) Write a narrative using some of your words.

The above is not homework, he already has homework but it always gets brought home as he does not get enough time in the classroom to complete it.

The next lot of spelling we received for this week is; 1. List your 20 words 2. Scramble five of your words, have a classmate unscramble 3. Draw a picture and hide your words in it, get a classmate to find them. Circle the words with a red pen. 4. Write the first five of your words and get someone else to match them to the base word e.g. cheerfully——–cheer 5. Write one letter on each line until you have written words 6-10?? 6. Write five of your words with a vowel, take away the vowel/s and get a classmate to put them back in. 7. Syllable Sort: your word have syllables in them so count how many you have (this is copied exactly as it is on the work sheet, doesn’t make sense to me??) 8. Squiggle Words: write your words three squiggly (again copied as is). 9. ‘Write’ five of your words with magazine cut outs 10. Write all of your words that are verbs and draw an example, then sort out the adjectives, then nouns etc.

Given all the assignments they have been given, on top of ordinary class and home work just for this term, I feel this is overload.

Apologies for such an exhaustive letter, look forward to your feedback and opinion.

Kindest Regards concerned Mother Yvette

I think I am understanding two concerns in your comment. One – that the amount of work kids are being asked to do at school is spilling into homework, and two – is all that work even necessary? Is it making an impact on (your child’s) learning? Your child may need a different amount or different type of spelling practice than another child. What if students were to take a pre-test to determine which words they need to practice most and then choose a few activities from the list to practice just those words?

I think what we’re really thinking through here is the quantity versus the quality of the work. Are students engaged in genuine learning experiences that will help the concepts stick, or are they merely being compliant? Are things starting to feel like busy work?

I’m a member of the Cult of Pedagogy team, and I am happy to share a few resources that might be of interest to you. Feel free to use them as a springboard for discussion when you meet with your child’s teacher, which by the way, is a great way to build that partnership in the best interest of your child! Here you go:

Homework: How Much is Too Much? Beyond the Weekly Word List How To Deal with Student Grammar Errors

I hope this helps. Maybe others will see this and jump in, as well!

Hi there. I’m a consultant, author, and CoP contributor who has studied and written (a lot!) about vocabulary learning. The kind of work you’re describing surely keeps kids busy, but it doesn’t seem to provide the kind of application-level practice that would get words to “stick” — both the spelling, and, more importantly, the meaning. I highly recommend this succinct book by Camille Blachowicz, for your own learning — or perhaps as a gift for the school! https://www.heinemann.com/products/e04920.aspx Also, please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you’d like to talk further.

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How to Bring Your Grade Up when You Are Failing a Class

Last Updated: March 2, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Daron Cam . Daron Cam is an Academic Tutor and the Founder of Bay Area Tutors, Inc., a San Francisco Bay Area-based tutoring service that provides tutoring in mathematics, science, and overall academic confidence building. Daron has over eight years of teaching math in classrooms and over nine years of one-on-one tutoring experience. He teaches all levels of math including calculus, pre-algebra, algebra I, geometry, and SAT/ACT math prep. Daron holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and a math teaching credential from St. Mary's College. This article has been viewed 451,732 times.

Are you failing a class and you don't know what to do? It happens to a lot of people, so don't be discouraged. Through working hard, studying, and concentrating on the materials, you can bring up a failing grade.

Changing Your Habits at Home

• If your work overlaps too much, try to rearrange your schedule with your boss. Explain what the problem is and see if anyone would be willing to switch shifts with you. [1] X Research source
• You may need to sacrifice some of your obligations. Being over-committed to projects can cause you to fail. You can't skip assignments in other classes, but if it is a school activity or social engagement, you may not be able to do it if you are serious about bringing up your grade.

• If you have a paper, start your research right away. You will be able to find more in depth research. This will allow you to make much better arguments if you are ready with scholarship on your topic. Also focus on scholarly sources. The better information you have, the better your paper will be.
• If you have a project, start working on the components of it as soon as possible. The more hard work you put into an assignment, the better your grade will be.

• When you read for class, make notes about the readings as you do them. This way, you won't have to redo the readings later when it is time for the exam. This may take a little more time as you go, but you will be ready when exam time comes. This will help you make a better grade. [3] X Research source
• About two weeks before a test, start to review your materials. Read and reread your notes. Make yourself flash cards of the material. If you find that you are having problem spots on certain topics, spend extra time on those sections.

• You can make games out of the material you need to cover to make it fun and more engaging. Try using a board game and flashcards to mix up how you learn the materials. [6] X Research source

• If you have questions as you do your homework, it helps to jot them down as they come. That way, you can ask your teacher as soon as you see them again and figure out what you don't understand.
• Try to start your homework as soon as you get home from school. Homework is typically a large part of your grade, so you want to make sure you complete it. Plus, the earlier you do it, the more engaged and awake you will be. If you wait to right before you go to sleep to do it, you will likely be more distracted and tired, which will cause you to do sub par work and retain less information.

Doing More at School

• They can also help you come up with ways to study for the next exam or ideas for your next paper. They also may be able to give you more notes or readings that will help you figure it out.
• Make sure you don't depend on your teacher to provide you with a step by step guide on what is on the exams. You need to show effort and understanding or you could fail other classes in the future. [7] X Research source
• Feel free to ask questions both during and after class, if you need to.

• You can also ask if there is a way to redo an assignment, especially if you understand the concepts better now. Say something like, "I had a hard time on the last assignment we got back. I understand it much better now that I have gotten some help and studied more. Is there a way that I can redo it?"

• If you are more organized, you will be more efficient when you study. Not having to flip through tons of papers scattered throughout your bags will help you streamline the process and have more time to study on the material that is giving you trouble. [8] X Research source

• If you have to miss class for an illness or school event, make sure you get notes from a fellow classmate. Try to find someone who takes really extensive notes so you will be sure to get any necessary information that you missed while you weren't there. [9] X Research source

• The more engaged you are during the class session, the more focused you will be on the material. This will help you be more prepared for the assignments and make better grades on them, which will help you get a higher grade. [11] X Research source

• If you find your mind wanders when you write notes, try writing them in cool colors or changing colors every few sentences. This will keep your mind engaged on the material and also make your notes look more interesting when you review them later.
• Try to get a planner to write down when certain works are due. This may help prevent you from forgetting any work, which would bring down your grade.
• Don't stress about the structure or handwriting of your notes. Just get all the information down so you can refer back to it later. As long as you can understand them when you study, you'll be fine.

• If you are intimidated by your teacher, you may be more comfortable asking for help from a peer tutor. Try asking them, "Can you help me understand this material? I'm failing but trying to bring my grade up." You can also ask them any questions that you have about your upcoming assignments.

Expert Q&A

• Take advantage of every opportunity to raise your grade; do any extra credit work, and answer bonus questions on quizzes, tests, and exams. Doing this extra work will help you bring up your grade, even if it's only by a few points. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 0
• Pay good attention to the teacher and don't mess around with your friends in class. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 1
• Talk to your parents/ guardians. They were in school so they will know what you are talking about and may come up with solutions that worked on them. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1

Tips from our Readers

• If you're failing a few classes, keep at it! Turn in all assignments, even late ones, and keep asking for help whenever you need it. Don't get sidetracked watching YouTube or scrolling social media either — stay focused on studying until you finish your work.
• Get your classmates and teachers to simplify confusing stuff by studying together or hitting up office hours. Learning solo can be rough, so take them up on offers to walk through problems as a group. Use all your resources!
• When goofballs in class won't quit distracting you, mentally review the lesson itself to tune them out. It just takes practice, but you can learn to keep your concentration despite the chaos. I believe in you!

• Don't try to bring distractions to class such as toys or games because then you won't be able to concentrate in class and listen to instructions. Thanks Helpful 23 Not Helpful 5

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://advising.wayne.edu/hndbk/fail.php
• ↑ http://www.regent.edu/admin/stusrv/student_dev/
• ↑ Daron Cam. Academic Tutor. Expert Interview. 29 May 2020.
• ↑ http://www.how-to-study.com/study-skills-articles/study-groups.asp
• ↑ http://www.howtolearn.com/2012/01/how-to-improve-your-grades-and-get-a-better-report-card/
• ↑ https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/improve-underperforming-grades.html

About This Article

It can be stressful if you’re failing a class, but with a little studying and hard work you can bring up your grade. If you have any missing work, submit it as soon as possible so you don’t miss those points. You’ll also want to make sure you’re handing in your current homework. Not only will this keep your grade up, it will also help you prepare for big tests or essays at the end of the semester. If you’re having trouble with the material, talk to your teacher and ask how you can raise your grade. They may be able to give you extra credit assignments or help explain concepts you don’t understand. You could also check to see if your school has a peer tutoring program, which can help you get back on track. To learn how to get more organized at school, read on. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Writing Anxiety

What this handout is about.

This handout discusses the situational nature of writer’s block and other writing anxiety and suggests things you can try to feel more confident and optimistic about yourself as a writer.

What are writing anxiety and writer’s block?

“Writing anxiety” and “writer’s block” are informal terms for a wide variety of apprehensive and pessimistic feelings about writing. These feelings may not be pervasive in a person’s writing life. For example, you might feel perfectly fine writing a biology lab report but apprehensive about writing a paper on a novel. You may confidently tackle a paper about the sociology of gender but delete and start over twenty times when composing an email to a cute classmate to suggest a coffee date. In other words, writing anxiety and writers’ block are situational (Hjortshoj 7). These terms do NOT describe psychological attributes. People aren’t born anxious writers; rather, they become anxious or blocked through negative or difficult experiences with writing.

When do these negative feelings arise?

Although there is a great deal of variation among individuals, there are also some common experiences that writers in general find stressful.

For example, you may struggle when you are:

• adjusting to a new form of writing—for example, first year college writing, papers in a new field of study, or longer forms than you are used to (a long research paper, a senior thesis, a master’s thesis, a dissertation) (Hjortshoj 56-76).
• writing for a reader or readers who have been overly critical or demanding in the past.
• remembering negative criticism received in the past—even if the reader who criticized your work won’t be reading your writing this time.
• working with limited time or with a lot of unstructured time.
• responding to an assignment that seems unrelated to academic or life goals.
• dealing with troubling events outside of school.

What are some strategies for handling these feelings?

Get support.

Choose a writing buddy, someone you trust to encourage you in your writing life. Your writing buddy might be a friend or family member, a classmate, a teacher, a colleague, or a Writing Center tutor. Talk to your writing buddy about your ideas, your writing process, your worries, and your successes. Share pieces of your writing. Make checking in with your writing buddy a regular part of your schedule. When you share pieces of writing with your buddy, use our handout on asking for feedback .

In his book Understanding Writing Blocks, Keith Hjortshoj describes how isolation can harm writers, particularly students who are working on long projects not connected with coursework (134-135). He suggests that in addition to connecting with supportive individuals, such students can benefit from forming or joining a writing group, which functions in much the same way as a writing buddy. A group can provide readers, deadlines, support, praise, and constructive criticism. For help starting one, see our handout about writing groups .

Identify your strengths

Often, writers who are experiencing block or anxiety have a worse opinion of their own writing than anyone else! Make a list of the things you do well. You might ask a friend or colleague to help you generate such a list. Here are some possibilities to get you started:

• I explain things well to people.
• I get people’s interest.
• I have strong opinions.
• I listen well.
• I am critical of what I read.
• I see connections.

Choose at least one strength as your starting point. Instead of saying “I can’t write,” say “I am a writer who can …”

Recognize that writing is a complex process

Writing is an attempt to fix meaning on the page, but you know, and your readers know, that there is always more to be said on a topic. The best writers can do is to contribute what they know and feel about a topic at a particular point in time.

Writers often seek “flow,” which usually entails some sort of breakthrough followed by a beautifully coherent outpouring of knowledge. Flow is both a possibility—most people experience it at some point in their writing lives—and a myth. Inevitably, if you write over a long period of time and for many different situations, you will encounter obstacles. As Hjortshoj explains, obstacles are particularly common during times of transition—transitions to new writing roles or to new kinds of writing.

Think of yourself as an apprentice.

If block or apprehension is new for you, take time to understand the situations you are writing in. In particular, try to figure out what has changed in your writing life. Here are some possibilities:

• You are writing in a new format.
• You are writing longer papers than before.
• You are writing for new audiences.
• You are writing about new subject matter.
• You are turning in writing from different stages of the writing process—for example, planning stages or early drafts.

It makes sense to have trouble when dealing with a situation for the first time. It’s also likely that when you confront these new situations, you will learn and grow. Writing in new situations can be rewarding. Not every format or audience will be right for you, but you won’t know which ones might be right until you try them. Think of new writing situations as apprenticeships. When you’re doing a new kind of writing, learn as much as you can about it, gain as many skills in that area as you can, and when you finish the apprenticeship, decide which of the skills you learned will serve you well later on. You might be surprised.

Below are some suggestions for how to learn about new kinds of writing:

• Ask a lot of questions of people who are more experienced with this kind of writing. Here are some of the questions you might ask: What’s the purpose of this kind of writing? Who’s the audience? What are the most important elements to include? What’s not as important? How do you get started? How do you know when what you’ve written is good enough? How did you learn to write this way?
• Ask a lot of questions of the person who assigned you a piece of writing. If you have a paper, the best place to start is with the written assignment itself. For help with this, see our handout on understanding assignments .
• Look for examples of this kind of writing. (You can ask your instructor for a recommended example). Look, especially, for variation. There are often many different ways to write within a particular form. Look for ways that feel familiar to you, approaches that you like. You might want to look for published models or, if this seems too intimidating, look at your classmates’ writing. In either case, ask yourself questions about what these writers are doing, and take notes. How does the writer begin and end? In what order does the writer tell things? How and when does the writer convey her or his main point? How does the writer bring in other people’s ideas? What is the writer’s purpose? How is that purpose achieved?
• Read our handouts about how to write in specific fields or how to handle specific writing assignments.
• Listen critically to your readers. Before you dismiss or wholeheartedly accept what they say, try to understand them. If a reader has given you written comments, ask yourself questions to figure out the reader’s experience of your paper: What is this reader looking for? What am I doing that satisfies this reader? In what ways is this reader still unsatisfied? If you can’t answer these questions from the reader’s comments, then talk to the reader, or ask someone else to help you interpret the comments.
• Most importantly, don’t try to do everything at once. Start with reasonable expectations. You can’t write like an expert your first time out. Nobody does! Use the criticism you get.

Once you understand what readers want, you are in a better position to decide what to do with their criticisms. There are two extreme possibilities—dismissing the criticisms and accepting them all—but there is also a lot of middle ground. Figure out which criticisms are consistent with your own purposes, and do the hard work of engaging with them. Again, don’t expect an overnight turn-around; recognize that changing writing habits is a process and that papers are steps in the process.

Chances are that at some point in your writing life you will encounter readers who seem to dislike, disagree with, or miss the point of your work. Figuring out what to do with criticism from such readers is an important part of a writer’s growth.

Try new tactics when you get stuck

Often, writing blocks occur at particular stages of the writing process. The writing process is cyclical and variable. For different writers, the process may include reading, brainstorming, drafting, getting feedback, revising, and editing. These stages do not always happen in this order, and once a writer has been through a particular stage, chances are she or he hasn’t seen the last of that stage. For example, brainstorming may occur all along the way.

Figure out what your writing process looks like and whether there’s a particular stage where you tend to get stuck. Perhaps you love researching and taking notes on what you read, and you have a hard time moving from that work to getting started on your own first draft. Or once you have a draft, it seems set in stone and even though readers are asking you questions and making suggestions, you don’t know how to go back in and change it. Or just the opposite may be true; you revise and revise and don’t want to let the paper go.

Wherever you have trouble, take a longer look at what you do and what you might try. Sometimes what you do is working for you; it’s just a slow and difficult process. Other times, what you do may not be working; these are the times when you can look around for other approaches to try:

• Talk to your writing buddy and to other colleagues about what they do at the particular stage that gets you stuck.
• Read about possible new approaches in our handouts on brainstorming and revising .
• Try thinking of yourself as an apprentice to a stage of the writing process and give different strategies a shot.
• Cut your paper into pieces and tape them to the wall, use eight different colors of highlighters, draw a picture of your paper, read your paper out loud in the voice of your favorite movie star….

Okay, we’re kind of kidding with some of those last few suggestions, but there is no limit to what you can try (for some fun writing strategies, check out our online animated demos ). When it comes to conquering a block, give yourself permission to fall flat on your face. Trying and failing will you help you arrive at the thing that works for you.

Celebrate your successes

Start storing up positive experiences with writing. Whatever obstacles you’ve faced, celebrate the occasions when you overcome them. This could be something as simple as getting started, sharing your work with someone besides a teacher, revising a paper for the first time, trying out a new brainstorming strategy, or turning in a paper that has been particularly challenging for you. You define what a success is for you. Keep a log or journal of your writing successes and breakthroughs, how you did it, how you felt. This log can serve as a boost later in your writing life when you face new challenges.

Wait a minute, didn’t we already say that? Yes. It’s worth repeating. Most people find relief for various kinds of anxieties by getting support from others. Sometimes the best person to help you through a spell of worry is someone who’s done that for you before—a family member, a friend, a mentor. Maybe you don’t even need to talk with this person about writing; maybe you just need to be reminded to believe in yourself, that you can do it.

If you don’t know anyone on campus yet whom you have this kind of relationship with, reach out to someone who seems like they could be a good listener and supportive. There are a number of professional resources for you on campus, people you can talk through your ideas or your worries with. A great place to start is the UNC Writing Center. If you know you have a problem with writing anxiety, make an appointment well before the paper is due. You can come to the Writing Center with a draft or even before you’ve started writing. You can also approach your instructor with questions about your writing assignment. If you’re an undergraduate, your academic advisor and your residence hall advisor are other possible resources. Counselors at Counseling and Wellness Services are also available to talk with you about anxieties and concerns that extend beyond writing.

Apprehension about writing is a common condition on college campuses. Because writing is the most common means of sharing our knowledge, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we write. This handout has given some suggestions for how to relieve that pressure. Talk with others; realize we’re all learning; take an occasional risk; turn to the people who believe in you. Counter negative experiences by actively creating positive ones.

Even after you have tried all of these strategies and read every Writing Center handout, invariably you will still have negative experiences in your writing life. When you get a paper back with a bad grade on it or when you get a rejection letter from a journal, fend off the negative aspects of that experience. Try not to let them sink in; try not to let your disappointment fester. Instead, jump right back in to some area of the writing process: choose one suggestion the evaluator has made and work on it, or read and discuss the paper with a friend or colleague, or do some writing or revising—on this or any paper—as quickly as possible.

Failures of various kinds are an inevitable part of the writing process. Without them, it would be difficult if not impossible to grow as a writer. Learning often occurs in the wake of a startling event, something that stirs you up, something that makes you wonder. Use your failures to keep moving.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Hjortshoj, Keith. 2001. Understanding Writing Blocks . New York: Oxford University Press.

This is a particularly excellent resource for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Hjortshoj writes about his experiences working with university students experiencing block. He explains the transitional nature of most writing blocks and the importance of finding support from others when working on long projects.

Rose, Mike. 1985. When a Writer Can’t Write: Studies in Writer’s Block and Other Composing-Process Problems . New York: Guilford.

This collection of empirical studies is written primarily for writing teachers, researchers, and tutors. Studies focus on writers of various ages, including young children, high school students, and college students.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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• Student Life

How to Never Miss an Assignment Again

Never miss an assignment again.

That which you had been dreading has happened. You either completely forgot about an assignment that was due or wasn’t able to finish and turn it in on time. While missing an assignment is something most college students are bound to face in a certain point of their academic trajectory, it can be a very unpleasant experience which can result in several complications with your marks in a specific subject. The best thing would indeed be not having to go through it.

However, with so many things going on at the same time, so many tests to revise for and a ton of other assignments due as well, it may often seem like science-fiction to be able to have everything prepared on time. True, it may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. In this article, we will give you some useful tips to help you organize yourself better and, as we say in Spain, “not get caught by the bull”… again.

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Let’s state the most important thing first, and that is

Forgive yourself. Regardless of the circumstances why you weren’t able to hand in your assignment on time. Acknowledging you’ve made a mistake and that you need to correct it is the first step towards improvement. Come to terms with what has happened and then let go; after all, there’s no use in torturing yourself over what you could have done differently once you can’t do anything else about it.

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Speak to your professor

If you weren’t able to complete your assignment because you or someone in your family have had a health-related problem, teachers are more likely to put themselves in your place and give you a chance to compensate for the mishap. Also, if you or one of your relatives have been ill, ask the doctor for a medical letter to show to your professor and prove that you’re not just making up an excuse.

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There’s (almost) nothing a good dialogue can’t solve

Even if you’ve missed your assignment deadline because you prioritized other things or simply because you procrastinated too much, talk to your lecturer if there’s anything else you could do in order not to fail the subject. Perhaps for this class, they’ll be taking the final exam’s marks more into account; or there are other assignments which would give you a good opportunity to make up for the incident. Keep in mind, however, that every professor is a world of their own. Just because Professor X told you that you could do a paper about tropical fish to compensate for the missed assignment doesn’t mean that Professor Y is willing to give you that chance. And furthermore, don’t try to have your way at all costs: if your professor says that there are no more opportunities, accept that no means no.

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Don’t let it happen again!

Whenever one of your professors proposes a new paper to turn in or a new project to present, take good note of it in your calendar or agenda so that you make sure not to forget about it and end up having the deadline catching up with you. Once you have the date in which your assignment is due in mind, you can start preparing it with enough anticipation.

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Get to work!

Go to your college or local library and start gathering the materials necessary for completing your project/assignment: read books, look up information online, take notes, write up some drafts… Of course, you don’t need to work yourself to death in a matter of a few days, on the contrary: dedicate every day a little time to your task, even if it isn’t more than an hour. If you start gathering up information and writing a couple of paragraphs since the very first day, you’ll see how you’ll have it done in time!

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“I’m stuck?! Help, please!”

Is your assignment topic too complicated? You don’t even know where to start? Are you at a total loss? Don’t worry we all have been there. If you see yourself struggling with your assignment, you can always ask your professor your doubts or request for a tutorship. If you address them in a polite manner and they see you truly interested in your work, they won’t refuse. Another tip that always helps is regularly attending your lectures: more often than not, your professors may drop little hints about what they’re looking for in an assignment… or even in the final exam! You can also resort to asking around your circle of college friends for some solidarity between partners. Keep in mind that at least two heads think more than one!

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If you follow these tips, you’ll see how you won’t miss another assignment again during your college years. But even if missing an assignment is not a very nice experience, think that you’re also a human after all and that it is impossible not to make a single mistake every now and then. Furthermore, there is always a valuable lesson to be learned from our slip-ups.

Do you think there are any other pieces of advice that should be taken into account for not missing your assignments’ and projects’ deadlines? If so, feel welcome to share them with us in the comment section.

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Tackle Your Assignment Easily When You’re stuck Somewhere

Are you stuck with an assignment? We’ve all been there. When you’re stuck with an assignment, it can feel like the world is against you. You spend hours on something, trying everything to complete it, but for some reason, it feels like it’s a never-ending task.

But there’s no need to panic or start looking at whether someone can write my assignment online . If you are stuck with an assignment, you can take some simple steps to get out of the situation. And the good news is, we’ve described these steps in this blog for you. So without any further ado, let’s start exploring!

9 Steps To Take When You Are Stuck In An Assignment

Here are 9 actions to take if you find yourself in this situation:

1.   Set A Timer

When we’re not sure what to do next with an assignment, our minds wander and we start thinking about the next thing we need to do. The best way to stop this from happening is by setting a timer for 10 minutes (or even 15) and then just doing one thing every time the timer goes off: whatever that thing is, just do it!

When working on an assignment, set aside at least 2 hours per day for uninterrupted work hours where there will be no distractions from emails or phone calls or texts from friends asking what you’re doing. This can help you stay focused on the task at hand and prevent any procrastination from happening.

You may also want to set a timer for how long you will take breaks between assignments. So that there isn’t any confusion about when exactly one should stop working or rest up during the day.

2.   Ask For Help.

If you are stuck on an assignment, don’t feel afraid to ask for help. If possible, find someone who has already done the assignment and can explain it to you. You may also want to look for a tutor or an expert on your topic who will be able to help break down the information into smaller chunks and make it easier for you to understand.

Don’t wait until the last minute! The best way of learning something is by doing it yourself. So that when there comes a time when something needs explanation or clarification then you’ll already have some background knowledge. This also means less stress and more enjoyment during study hours!

3.   Don’t Procrastinate.

The next step is to not procrastinate. Procrastination is a common problem for many students. It can be very frustrating to be stuck in an assignment for weeks or months, but then find out that you have made some big mistakes and need to start over. This can be hard to deal with because you feel like your life is falling apart around you.

There are many things that people do when they procrastinate:

• They wait until the last minute.
• They take on more than they can handle.
• They put off until tomorrow what could happen today, etc. 

The first step is to realize that you are procrastinating. This can be hard because it often feels like something else is happening, but if you look closely at what is going on in your life and how you feel at the time of writing this assignment, you will probably see signs of procrastination.

4.   Never Give Up.

No matter how much you may think that you’re struggling with an assignment and are completely stuck, there is always a way out. You can always reach the end of your assignment if you keep at it enough and never give up on yourself and your work.

Try different ways of approaching the problem—maybe there’s a way of approaching the problem that works better than what you were doing before. If so, try it out!

If this is not an option for some reason (perhaps due to lack of time or motivation), then ask someone else for help! There are many resources available online, including forums where people from all over are willing to lend a hand to each other. They will help you get out of your situation.

5.   Organise Your Thoughts, Take A Break And Clear Your Mind.

The next step is to organize your thoughts, take a break and clear your mind. You can do this in several ways:

• Write down your goals for the assignment and make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
• Take a break by doing something else for an hour or so. This may be reading a book or watching TV, but it should not be work!
• Ask for feedback from someone who knows more about the subject than you do.
• Get some good quality sleep before tackling the problem again. Research has shown that we perform better at tasks when we are well-rested than when we are tired after sleeping less than 6 hours during the night.
• Take a walk and think about what you are doing. This can help clear your mind and give it a rest for a while before returning to work.

6.   Study The Assignment Examples.

You should study the assignment examples to see if you understand what the instructor wants. If there are any parts of the assignment that you don’t understand or need more information on, try to find a similar assignment and look at how other students have done it.

If you are still having trouble, ask the instructor. The instructor should be able to provide more information about what they want in a final paper or project.

7.   Learn Time Management Techniques.

Create a to-do list, and prioritize it by importance. So you can complete all tasks in order. Don’t try to do too many things at once or procrastinate on an assignment because if you put off one thing until later, then another will take its place as soon as possible!

Spend some time scheduling your day according to what’s most important. Instead of waiting until later when it might seem like there’s nothing left to do but play Candy Crush Saga or watch Netflix all afternoon long!

Don’t waste more time than necessary on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. They’re not worth your precious minutes.

8.   Try Breaking Down The Assignment Into Smaller Pieces.

Break down each step into its smallest parts until it seems doable—then move on to the next step! You’ll start seeing progress when you see tangible steps happening. Instead of waiting around for completion or sitting around waiting for inspiration from somewhere else.

You can break down the task into smaller pieces and do each piece in small intervals of time. If a task doesn’t seem like it will complete on time, ask yourself why you need to complete it. If it’s not important enough to complete now, then maybe you can skip this one for now! 

This will help you succeed at completing tasks more easily because it gives you more free time for other activities such as studying or playing games with friends.

9.   Create A Checklist Of All The Tasks You Need To Do 

The next way that works well when faced with a tough assignment is using this checklist:

• Try breaking down the assignment into smaller pieces.
• Set deadlines for each one.
• Use this checklist as an organizing tool so you can complete all your tasks before their deadline.
• Distribute tasks according to free time in your schedule.

You might finish up some of these tasks early in the day, but others could take longer or require more effort than expected. That’s okay! Just prioritize them based on how important it is to complete the assignment. This will help keep your mind focused on the task at hand. And you’ll not wander into other thoughts about what could be done instead.

If you’ve got an assignment that’s just not going the way you want, take a break. Don’t worry about what other people are doing! It is great to keep up with everyone else and see how they are doing, but remember that every project is unique and has its own challenges. You don’t have to rush through things. Take time to think about what your next steps should be so you can move forward in an organized way.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

What to Do When You Are Stuck

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

This page provides resources for grades 7-12 instructors and students

First, know that it is normal to feel stuck. This is what we call writer’s block . Sometimes you just do not know what to say next when you write. If this happens to you, try some of these ideas:

• Do not panic. Remember, feeling “stuck” is normal even for the most experienced writers. Think of your favorite author. He or she experienced writer’s block at some point, too.
• (If your paper is on the computer) Try handwriting the next part with a pen or pencil. Or, even try writing with something fun, like a gel pen or crayon.
• Take a step away from the writing. This will clear your mind. Take a walk, ride your bike, pet your dog, call a friend, etc.. Whenever possible, try not to force ideas.
• Start early with the writing process. If a teacher assigns a paper that is due in a week, start inventing right away. This will help you avoid forcing ideas or simply writing the first thing that comes to mind, even if it is not very good.
• Talk about your paper with a friend or family member, or even talk to the family pet.
• Talk with your teacher about his or her ideas to get “unstuck.”
• Have patience. Coming up with ideas takes time. Sometimes it takes a lot of time .
• Know that you can always change your ideas before you turn in the final draft of your writing.
• Try listening to music while you come up with ideas. While this might distract some writers, many writers find that music helps ideas flow. Try your favorite music or music that you think is calming.
• Do not worrying about grammar and spelling when you invent and write your first draft.
• Trust your voice and ideas. Do not compare yourself with other people and their work. Know that you have something special to say and your unique way of saying it.

See the Symptoms and Cures for Writer’s Block resource on the Purdue OWL for more information about beating the block.

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• Corporate investors

Stuck on an assignment?

Argh! Worried what the hell you’re going to do with that first university assignment deadline coming up?

Don’t worry we’ve all been there!

You may feel like the move to university and independent study has ripped that safety net of sixth form teacher or college tutor away from you but don’t fret about it, everyone’s in the same boat and is having the same concerns.

So, what can I do?

Don’t keep putting it off, get started at your earliest opportunity. Try to avoid getting into the trap of leaving assignments until the last minute, as that’ll make things worse. By getting it done out of the way, you can revisit it with a fresh pair of eyes before submitting the assignment and you’ll have more time to chill out before the next one lands on your desk.

If you have no idea of where to start or are simply stuck on a few bits…

Your university lecturer gave you their contact details for a reason, so use them, talk to them, email them, or even phone them during office hours, and talk through it. Lecturers are passionate and want to talk about their subject and pass their knowledge onto you, they also want you to get the best pass mark possible, they’re there to help and support you.

Remember you’re paying to be at university, and the support from your lecturers is why you pay the £9k+ a year.

You’re never alone in university, talk through the assignment with your course mates. Set up a WhatsApp group and ask questions or share ideas or good articles you may have found, we can almost guarantee that someone is thinking or wondering exactly the same as you about the assignment – there’s no such thing as a stupid question.

And who knows what someone else may have thought of? But when you bring that element into your assignment, with some proper individual research, that one thought on the WhatsApp group could take your 2:2 equivalent grade to a 2:1 or even a first.

Create a study group . It doesn’t have to be anything formal. Just grab a few course mates and go through the assignment. Brainstorm it over a coffee, a drink in the SU. Or if a few of you live in the same student accommodation get together over a curry and work it all out before going off and completing your own assignment.

Just remember that unless it’s a group project. Never work together on actually writing the assignment as that could be found to be academic cheating and that just opens a whole new can of worms for you.

And be persistent , break the assignment down. 9 times out of 10 the assignment question will be made up of a number of elements. Take each individual element and work on it. Then bring it all together at the end.

Know what you need to write but just got writer’s block?

Here are a few ways to get rid of writer’s block.

• Skip the intro. And get stuck in with the main body. It’s much easier to write your intro at the end when you know what the main content is all about.
• Write what you know.  Just make a simple list of the key points. No doubt, you already know what you need to cover in the assignment. So, usse this as a checklist to frame your main content.
• Run, swim, walk.  Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, which can heighten your alertness and energy. After a bit of exercise. You will get the creative juices flowing faster and allow you to crack on with the assignment.
• Listen to music.  Like exercise, music is scientifically proven to get the cogs going. It encourages the creative process and expressive thinking that you need to smash a good pass.
• Annotate the hell out of it.  Annotate your lecture notes, your textbooks and any journal articles you find, highlighting the useful sections or quotes. Then review and build your content around them. It’s probably best not to take a highlighter to a library book. They tend to get a bit upset when you do that.
• Take a break.  As well as exercise, sleep and food are also essential for good brain function. Avoid getting pulled towards the all-nighter. More than likely you will become even more unproductive and the writer’s block will get worse. Your brain will work much better after a good night’s sleep or some tasty food. Try to avoid that dreaded carb coma though!

How do you work your way through an assignment? Let us know on our socials, Instagram , Facebook and Twitter .

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• Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)

Forming New Habits: Helpful Strategies for When You Get Stuck

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In the HABIT program , we're are all about forming new habits to help our patients --hence the name!  Our habits are about ways to compensate for memory changes in Mild Cognitive Impairment and ways to keep your brain as healthy as possible. In today's blog post we hope to offer some strategies to help you in those moments when you get stuck in your process where you no longer feel like you are making progress toward your goals.  We hope this will be helpful both for those of you who are living with MCI and members of other groups on Connect (e.g., goal setting groups).  These tips come from a friend and colleague of mine, Dr. Leslie Baxter, a neuropsychologist with here at Mayo Clinic Arizona. Thank you Dr. Baxter for sharing these tips!

Everyone gets “stuck” from time to time. Sometimes you get stuck just trying to get started on a task. Other times you might become stuck during a task. Or, maybe you completed a task once or twice, but have a hard time making the task a part of your routine. There are several different reasons why people get stuck. Here a few reasons people get stuck and strategies that might help you get going again!

• I’m not sure HOW to do something

We might not even be aware of it, but often we are afraid of starting something because we can’t see what the steps are, or how we will be able to do something. This can feel overwhelming and may discourage you from even attempting a task. Fear of something new, or the unknown, may take a little help to figure out.

• Am I supposed to do something I don’t know how to do?
• Reach out to your partner or other family member to ask them if they can teach you.
• Look up the steps for completing the task online.
• Seek professional support for tasks that require specialized training (e.g., car mechanic; plumber).
• Am I trying to do too much at once?
• Break the task up into smaller parts and put those small parts on my to do list one day at a time.
• Identify a time in the next 48 hours when you will have enough energy to complete the task. Once you identify a time, add it to your calendar and reward yourself when you’re done.
• I tried but it didn’t go well

What can you do if you try something and it does not go well? While your initial reaction toward the activity might be negative, it is possible that the trouble is specific to a part of the task, rather than the whole task itself.

• Can I change just one step so the task is easier?
• Do I need help with a step?
• Think about engaging your partner in the conversation to see if they can identify a part of the task that could be changed or help you with a step if needed.
• I just don’t like to do it

Unfortunately, there are other tasks that seem not to work out well because we just do not like to do them. We all have activities that we would rather not do, but we usually need to do them anyway. If a task does not go well because you do not like to do it, there are a few strategies that might help.

• Review the reasons why you need to do the activity. Is it necessary to live at your desired level of independence? Are you in conflict with someone else, like your partner, because you have not been doing it? Reminding yourself of the goal and purpose of a task that you do not like to do will help you cope with doing it.
• Can you reward yourself for doing the activity? Sometimes an incentive can help to get a task done. Having something to look forward to when the job is complete is often the motivator we need to get through it. Anticipating something good at the end diverts our “emotional self” from thinking about how we might not like doing something.
• I don’t have time to do this

Fitting new things in to your routine can be difficult. Part of this comes from imagining how long it will take to do the new activity. Sometimes, finding the right time to do something requires “trial-and-error”. You need to try something to see how long it takes to do it.

• A planner is one of the best ways to organize your time. In HABIT, we recommend a day-at-a-time planner with sections for appointments/scheduled tasks, a to do list for that day, and a place for notes.
• Some activities can be broken down into smaller steps, which can help with managing your time.
• Time yourself. Set up a timer for each step. We often cannot judge how long something takes to do until we try it.
• Time other activities Sometimes comparison works well to put a task in perspective. This is really helpful when comparing how much time you spend doing things that you enjoy versus tasks that you may not enjoy. For most people, time seems to pass more quickly for fun activities than for necessary tasks like household chores.
• I always intend to complete these tasks, but other things get in the way

Have you heard the expression “best-laid plans”? It is a well-known expression that refers to something that did not turn out like you wanted. The fact that there is an expression to represent this concept means that it is VERY common to experience obstacles to your plans and goals. That is why it is important to have back-up plans. Think about one of the tasks that you have chosen to work on. If for some reason you are unable to complete the task when you scheduled it, should you just forget about the task? Probably not. You’ve selected this task because it is important for you to achieve your desired level of independence and improve your quality of life.

• Find another time to complete the task on the same day. Put it in your planner at that time to make a commitment.
• Find another time to complete the task the next day or on a day in the near future that is less busy. Put it in your planner to be sure to hold that time for the task.
• Is the task urgent? Sometimes, you may want to ask for help from your support partner to make sure you can complete time-sensitive tasks like paying your bills or getting to your doctor’s appointment on time

In summary, introducing new activities and tasks to your life can be overwhelming because you may not know how you will feel during and after the activity. You may also be worried about doing it wrong, so the first time you try a new activity or task is often the hardest. With repetition, the task becomes easier because you know what to expect. Think of blowing up a balloon- it is hard to blow up the first time, but it is easier the next!

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Stuck with University Assignment – Best ways to proceed?

All of us have gone through the pressure and anxiety of meeting assignment deadlines and stuck with university assignments. The independence of higher-level education also brings its own set of challenges. Especially when you feel unprepared to tackle them head-on.

It most often happens during the initial years when you are unused to the added burden and multi-tasking. But with the right guidance, you can overcome the overwhelming fear and give your best performance. Here are some easy-to-follow practices which can help you move forward from the horrors of a blank page.

So, how do I handle it?

The first thing you must avoid at all costs is procrastination. It is tempting, especially when you have no clue how to begin. But leaving it till the last minute can only end up in a negative outcome. As soon as you receive an assignment, start planning and working upon it. That will also give you enough time to have breaks between the process to refresh your mind.

You are able to approach everything with relaxed and calm thoughts which ensures good writing. While hurried and hasty submissions are likely to be sprinkled with errors as you never get time for reviewing. Start at the earliest opportunity so you can wrap up everything before the deadline.

Ask for assistance

Have a detailed meeting with your lecturer to overcome any confusions. Email them, make a call, or talk in person and clearly communicate your problem. Often enough you will find them eager to talk with students and pass on knowledge apart from class lectures. Do not hesitate and be embarrassed at your predicament. Even at university level, it is the instructor’s responsibility to support and aid a student whenever needed.

You can also discuss the assignment and any issues related to it with your classmates if you are stuck with your university assignments. Creating a group chat and sharing ideas and resources on it can dispel confusions for many. Forming or participating in a study group is also a lively way to get out of a rut. Brainstorming and exchanging points with each other can be intellectually stimulating. But make sure everyone understands and respects academic boundaries so there is no danger of cheating.

Persistence is your best friend

Working with patience and determination can ensure rewarding outcomes. Focus on each section of your assignment separately instead of hastening. Break the University assignment writing into phases. There are several elements which come together to form an assignment. The introduction, body, conclusion, references are some standard structural sections every assignment comprises of. Create an outline to define which points each of these sections will hold. Keep working to refine your argument and ideas so they are genuinely impact your reader.

How to get past if you are experiencing writer’s block

Not knowing at all what to write is one thing. But there are also occasions when you have both the skill and knowledge, yet you are unable to write. This is called writer’s block. Getting over a writer’s block can be tricky but not impossible. Following are some surefire solutions to wish your writer’s block farewell:

Write the introduction in the end

It is best to skip the introductory paragraph because the hardest part is thinking how to start. Get straight into the body paragraphs and discuss your argument and supporting evidence. Once you have these sorted out you can return and write a much better introduction .

Focus on what you know

Make a list of the basic points which you are well-informed about from your studies. Perceiving the extent of your familiarity with the topic can restore your confidence. The list can serve as a checklist for the research and outlining stages of the assignment.

Take exercise breaks

A good workout increases the blood flow to your brain and heightens your energy and alertness level. Exercising can bring a marked difference in spurring on your creativity. You can swim, run, walk, do yoga, or play a quick round of your favorite sport. All have the same influence.

Listening to music

Similar to exercise, music is scientifically proven to have intellectual benefits. It opens the clogged parts of your mind and allows expressive thinking. It is easier to come up with a good idea if you have some Mozart playing in the background.

Realize the value of annotation

Annotate everything from your textbooks to lecture notes and every useful source in between. When reading for research purposes, always highlight the quotes and sections you find useful. Make certain not to do that with a library book though. Just use a sticky note or bookmark when you find the material you need.

Following these simple words of wisdom can give you the tools to fight off any assignment related blocks. Keep in mind that your mental well being is directly related to your academic performance. Hence, let yourself have a break when things seem too overwhelming. Sometimes that is all your mind needs to come back into form.

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• Stuck Getting Started on a Task? Get Going With These Simple Tricks

When you just can't seem to get started on something, use one of these tricks to get you over the hump.

When we talk about productivity , we tend to focus on maximizing our effort for work that is already in motion. But sometimes, the biggest hurdle is getting started at all. The next time you find yourself staring at a blank page or a task on your to-do list and feeling no momentum whatsoever to get started, use the following tips to get going.

1. Write Down Everything You Know

When a task is daunting, you might think, "I don't even know the first thing about this task!" But that's not true. You do know something. You know the name of the task or when it needs to be done. You know something , so write down everything you do know.

I use this trick all the time when I have to write an article. Sometimes, I don't even know what the topic will be, but I do know the name of the publication that will run it, the date it will run, or even just my name since I'm the author. Sometimes, there's information that I know will come eventually, like the headline, and even if I don't have it yet, I'll write "Hed" as a placeholder. As you start to write down what you know, more ideas and information will come.

2. Talk About the Problem

One reason people can feel blocked on a task is that they haven't figured out or deconstructed something about it yet. It's the feeling of knowing what the end goal is but not being able to see the path there.

In times like these, it helps to talk about it. Chat with a friend or coworker about what you have to do. In the process of clearly explaining the problem or task, you may find that it becomes clearer to you as well. If your friend doesn't understand, they'll ask follow-up questions, which once again forces you to clarify what you need to accomplish. Explaining the issue to someone else may help you define the task better so you can have a better handle on how to do it.

3. Break the Task Down Into Its Smallest Parts

One task that famously blocks me every time is anything that involves a phone call. I hate making phone calls. I procrastinate calling as long as humanly possible. When it's time to buck up and get those kinds of tasks done, I find it helps tremendously to break down the task into absolute minutiae before I get started. I might write down on my to-do list, "Look up the phone number," for example, or "Look up the business hours" for whatever business I have to call. As I complete these smallest, simplest subtasks related to making the phone call, I trick myself into thinking I'm making progress, and now that I'm on a roll, I'll actually dial and make the call. I still don't like it, but it feels more achievable.

4. Clear Your Mind With Repetitive Motion

I wish I could say that taking a long walk lets me meditate on a hard task and figure out how to accomplish it. It doesn't, but it's still extraordinarily helpful. The reason? A 30-minute walk lets me clear my mind of other tasks that may be competing for my attention, and that's what ultimately helps me get to the task at hand.

Walking is my preferred mindless physical activity, but it's not the only one I use. If it's raining, I might sweep for 15 minutes. As long as it's some kind of repetitive movement that I don't have to think about or concentrate on, it helps me process or move to the side whatever else is on my mind.

5. Tack the Task Onto an Existing Routine

Completing a one-off task is one thing. Doing the same task over and over again is another. One of my favorite ways to ensure I consistently complete a new task is to tack it onto an existing routine.

Let's say you have to start taking new medication every day and you don't know how to turn it into a habit. I recommend finding an existing habit and adding your medication to that routine. It has to be something you do every single day—not every weekday or only on days when the weather is nice, but every day. Brushing your teeth is a good example. If you're a daily coffee drinker, that's another habit to easily leverage for something else. I started journaling every day when I drink my coffee, and I've been at it consistently for almost ten years now!

6. Choose Your Own Commitment Device

Deadlines are wonderful motivators. Writers love to joke about how they can't even get started with an assignment until the deadline is breathing down their necks. A deadline is a type of commitment, a promise to someone that something will be completed by a certain date and time. Deadlines aren't the only type of commitment, though. 

A commitment device (a term coined by writer Stephen J. Dubner and economist Steven Levitt, both of Freakonomics fame) is another. The idea is to make a promise to someone or something that locks you into doing the task or action you need to do. For example, a commitment device could be something as simple as telling a coworker that you will complete a task by the end of the day. Nothing in the world has changed, but now your coworker knows what you need to get done and can hold you accountable, if only in the sense of making you feel bad about not doing the task. You can get creative with commitment devices, too. Maybe you tell your partner that you're going to be better about paying the bills and that every time you miss a bill payment, your partner gets to pick the destination of your next vacation together.

Commitment devices are generally thought of as tricks that help you see a task through to completion rather than getting started on it, but I think they work for both.

For more productivity advice, see my list of tips for a more productive work week and how to take better breaks during your workday.

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About Jill Duffy

I've been contributing to PCMag since 2011 and am currently the deputy managing editor for the software team. My column, Get Organized , has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you're going to have a panic attack.

My latest book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work , which goes into great detail about a subject that I've been covering as a writer and participating in personally since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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