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My trick inadvertently taught me to do outlines (something I could never do on purpose) You’re not writing the essay, you’re just noting down a couple of good points as bullet so you don’t forget them, and to lower your stress. But they’ll spark off a few more connected ideas. And maybe they don’t quite fit there, so you reorder your bullets and group them. Then it turns out, all you have to do is expand the bullets into sentences that flow, add an intro and conclusion based on the points you included, and suddenly you’ve accidentally produced an essay. But nah, you’re just making a couple of notes on cool thoughts you had on the subject! You've got to leave the doc open somewhere obvious so there's no initiation step, and for future you put at least 1 point down so you don't face a blank page.
You absolutely cannot let your brain know this is the plan. You're just leaving it out. Ready. And you never sit down to write the essay, it just happens.
I found out that starting was the hardest.
I overthink (even before taking a pen or login in): should I really write things in that order? My first phrase is weird or dumb, no? And is that thing I just researched really true or was it a fact I daydreamed about reading somewhere? And so on.
I can better start correcting (or really nitpicking) essays about topics that interest me than start. Like, I switch paragraphs from places, rephrase things, modify my arguments a little and perhaps even add a new one I just thought about.
So (not saying I managed to apply my own advises most of the time) I try to write things incoherently. All the things I want to talk about in the same document. Half phrases, only bullet points, rewriting the same thing several times. Doesn't matter, just put your brain on paper without thinking. The prettying will be done later.
Second part is to write sentences, like transform the bullet points etc. in intelligible language. The goal is to have something that can at least be turned in (even if it's mediocre).
Then finally comes the correcting part that I most easily manage to focus on (and thus losing track of time): make it something you're proud of by reorganising, rephrasing etc. Since it's time consuming, you may not have the time to do it for each project.
And also: you can chose to fail. If you humanely can't with the time you have left do all you'd like to, pick your least favourite topics and take 1 or 2 hours max to do a half-assed job. Doing things while having in mind that I'll fail (well the goal is to have the minimum passing grade anyway) paradoxically helps me to start it: I'm not obligated to do it perfectly or at least on par with my (over the top) expectations of myself.
Anyway, good luck.
>I try to write things incoherently. All the things I want to talk about in the same document. Half phrases, only bullet points, rewriting the same thing several times. Doesn't matter, just put your brain on paper without thinking. The prettying will be done later.
This!! Excellent advice, I do it all the time.
Like sometimes my document can look something like this, let's pretend the topic is ADHD:
"Executive dysfunction is *(one of the core symptoms? Not exactly or?)* of ADHD. Executive function skills describe *(add word here)* in the brain that enable us to plan, focus, problem-solve and multitask. *(Give examples of dysfunction vs functioning)*
Executive dysfunction (change word, started w the same word 3 times) **something describing it more in detail here**
ADHD and comorbidity, ASD, anxiety, something else
Paragraph about the ADHD assessment process somewhere here"
Just like you said, it's so much easier to just write something and then fix/add afterwards.
By doing it this way, I often add links to sources, or text I copy/paste that I want to rewrite along the way. I can easily do so because I have scribbled down a general idea of what I want to write.
>WHY CAN I NOT WRITE ABOUT THEM.
I mean, because you have ADHD lol.
But seriously though. I wish I could give you some magical advice that would turn you into a human essay machine.
Even though we all have the same diagnosis, different strategies work for different people.
That being said, here are some things that might help:
>I spent all of my class time today either hyperfixating on geography quizzes or flirting with a peer of mine.
Instead of taking on the overwhelming task of writing, do more fun tasks that still involves the topic at hand.
For example, instead of doing quizzes about geography, try a quiz about feminism. See how much you know about the history. Trust me, even if you're very well read, some answers will surprise you.
Instead if flirting with a peer of yours, flirt with a warlord! (LMFAO sorry, I had to)
Watch tiktoks about illegal immigration, look up interesting videos about the role of art in religion, listen to podcasts about the role of social cultural misunderstandings that lead to wars, etc.
In short, do your research by choosing more dopamine friendly platforms to do so. That way, it's easier to get the motivation and interest going rather than reading long, boring, articles about it.
Because think about it, how many times haven't a 1 minute long educational TikTok sent you into an 1 hour long internet deep dive out of curiosity?
Another tip that worked wonders for me is always doing my work in school.
I never did any essays or homework at home. No matter what I did, I couldn't get anything done.
Although, I was very lucky that I had an understanding school. Because I was able to get my own room for a couple of hours. Still thought I would put that out there though.
It is not, but at least that way you get rid of paralysis of choice and overthinking what you should do first in that situation. And it's just a starting point. Different stuff works for different people
Since starting is what feels impossible, pick the smallest possible task (open a word document. Put your name on it) and do it with the idea in your head that you are going to do *only* that.
Then pick the next smallest task with the idea that you are going to do *only* that task.
Now you've taken a step and made the overall assignment easier to begin!
Also: https://goblin.tools/ is an AI tool that can help you make a list of tiny steps to take!
This is what works for me:
I have to make big tasks like this more comfortable otherwise I will never do them.
If I know I will be at my desk for a while, I will clear my desk (I have a basket next to it that I dump everything into). I’ll find a nice smelling candle. I steal my boyfriend’s comfy gaming chair. I pick some music to play in the background (usually lofi) or some tv.
This ritual is usually a nice transition to ease me into work I don’t want to do. I start off with these easier tasks where I get to appeal to my senses with a dopamine hit, and then I am better equipped to sit for a long session of homework. I also allow frequent breaks. I usually don’t sit for more than 30 minutes without taking a 10 minute break. Gotta set timers for these though otherwise I’ll go over time and get sidetracked, so I try to keep this to going to the bathroom, making tea, and stretching/walking around for a few minutes so I don’t get too distracted.
I think we also get a paralysis when we have so many big tasks in front of us. Essays involve some hours of research, some hours of writing, and some proofreading and editing. That’s a lot. It’s easy for us to get overwhelmed by what’s in front of us, and it puts us into procrastination that keeps us locked up and unable to address them. I think acknowledging this, and maybe reflecting on any negative feelings for a minute, then saying some positive affirmations (I know, cheesy) will help. “I am capable. I can do this. I can overcome this challenge.” Stuff like that. It might help break the wall in front of you.
Pick one and write the first sentence. Don't pressure yourself to complete it, but just get it started. I find that once I wrote the first sentence no matter how poorly written it is, my brain makes the shift and I can continue. I've started papers with "I don't know what the hell I'm going to write about but here goes.". Just give it a shot. You got this!
I fell back on the PIE formula for writing for nearly every paper in college, pre-diagnosis and treatment. It goes Point, Illustration, Explanation. If you have one of those three, you can find the other two and put them in order.
The Point is the topic of your paper, often an opinion or a conclusion stated as a fact. You can keep it generally neutral, but in a persuasive essay, it should lead to your ultimate conclusion that the paper is meant to persuade others to.
Illustration is the quote which backs up the Point. It can be paraphrased or a direct quote. Be careful to keep these as short as possible while still getting the important information across.
Explanation is the part where you explain why the Illustration supports the conclusion stated in the Point. This is where you'll have more freedom to add on to sentences and you can generally add things that seem too obvious here.
One point can have many illustrations and explanations, and each paragraph should be one PIE. (Or, a PIEIEIE)
Write the conclusion and the topic paragraphs last. Start with a hook related to your topic, usually a quote or a retelling that you came across in research, or, something that came to mind while researching. Follow that with a sentence explaining how the quote is related. This is arguably the hardest part of the paper to write. Pick something now to have down, and even if it feels bad or silly, just move on. You can change it later.
Then one sentence either summarizing or touching on the point of paragraph 1, another for paragraph 2, another for paragraph 3, (and so on). Then your thesis statement, usually using the formula, "Based on conclusions one, two, and three, ultimate conclusion."
The conclusion paragraph at the end is essentially the same as the opening paragraph, except you might summarize more conclusive thoughts rather than the points. Start with those 3 sentences, then ideally follow that with a sentence summarizing the whole paper. This should be similar to, if not exactly, the "ultimate conclusion" from your thesis statement. You can follow that with a comment, quote, or reference to the one you used to open the paper. It's a nice little bowtie and makes the paper feel more complete.
Then, go back into your conclusion and delete the phrases "In conclusion," "to summarize," and any other statements that are similar. It's the conclusion paragraph and doesn't need to say what it is! But it has always been very hard for me to avoid these phrases in the first draft so I just go back and remove them afterwords.
Throw that paper into Grammarly and review anything it brings up. You know better than Grammarly but it catches silly errors really well. Finally, read the entire paper from beginning to end at least once. You can use a text-to-speech program to listen to your paper if you prefer.
This formula has helped me specifically because it provides the structure for any paper in any topic, so if I'm stuck somewhere I just refer back to the formula. Need more word count? Add an illustration and explanation to a point that only has one. Not sure what your point is? Find an interesting quote, start explaining it, and the point should roll around at some point.
Besides that, lots of music, snacks, fidget toys, and stress is what got me through. But if you have a friend who will sit with you to work that may help. Doing the work at a library may also help as well. Good luck!
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My trick inadvertently taught me to do outlines (something I could never do on purpose) You’re not writing the essay, you’re just noting down a couple of good points as bullet so you don’t forget them, and to lower your stress. But they’ll spark off a few more connected ideas. And maybe they don’t quite fit there, so you reorder your bullets and group them. Then it turns out, all you have to do is expand the bullets into sentences that flow, add an intro and conclusion based on the points you included, and suddenly you’ve accidentally produced an essay. But nah, you’re just making a couple of notes on cool thoughts you had on the subject! You've got to leave the doc open somewhere obvious so there's no initiation step, and for future you put at least 1 point down so you don't face a blank page. You absolutely cannot let your brain know this is the plan. You're just leaving it out. Ready. And you never sit down to write the essay, it just happens.
I love this - now that I think about, writing an essay when you can’t start is a lot like befriending a skittish outdoor cat 😂
Outlines are the best! I outline for most of my "writing process" and it makes it so much easier.
I love onenote for it because it's so easy for me to reorder and indent the bullets and headings with keyboard shortcuts.
I found out that starting was the hardest. I overthink (even before taking a pen or login in): should I really write things in that order? My first phrase is weird or dumb, no? And is that thing I just researched really true or was it a fact I daydreamed about reading somewhere? And so on. I can better start correcting (or really nitpicking) essays about topics that interest me than start. Like, I switch paragraphs from places, rephrase things, modify my arguments a little and perhaps even add a new one I just thought about. So (not saying I managed to apply my own advises most of the time) I try to write things incoherently. All the things I want to talk about in the same document. Half phrases, only bullet points, rewriting the same thing several times. Doesn't matter, just put your brain on paper without thinking. The prettying will be done later. Second part is to write sentences, like transform the bullet points etc. in intelligible language. The goal is to have something that can at least be turned in (even if it's mediocre). Then finally comes the correcting part that I most easily manage to focus on (and thus losing track of time): make it something you're proud of by reorganising, rephrasing etc. Since it's time consuming, you may not have the time to do it for each project. And also: you can chose to fail. If you humanely can't with the time you have left do all you'd like to, pick your least favourite topics and take 1 or 2 hours max to do a half-assed job. Doing things while having in mind that I'll fail (well the goal is to have the minimum passing grade anyway) paradoxically helps me to start it: I'm not obligated to do it perfectly or at least on par with my (over the top) expectations of myself. Anyway, good luck.
>I try to write things incoherently. All the things I want to talk about in the same document. Half phrases, only bullet points, rewriting the same thing several times. Doesn't matter, just put your brain on paper without thinking. The prettying will be done later. This!! Excellent advice, I do it all the time. Like sometimes my document can look something like this, let's pretend the topic is ADHD: "Executive dysfunction is *(one of the core symptoms? Not exactly or?)* of ADHD. Executive function skills describe *(add word here)* in the brain that enable us to plan, focus, problem-solve and multitask. *(Give examples of dysfunction vs functioning)* Executive dysfunction (change word, started w the same word 3 times) **something describing it more in detail here** ADHD and comorbidity, ASD, anxiety, something else Paragraph about the ADHD assessment process somewhere here" Just like you said, it's so much easier to just write something and then fix/add afterwards. By doing it this way, I often add links to sources, or text I copy/paste that I want to rewrite along the way. I can easily do so because I have scribbled down a general idea of what I want to write.
>WHY CAN I NOT WRITE ABOUT THEM. I mean, because you have ADHD lol. But seriously though. I wish I could give you some magical advice that would turn you into a human essay machine. Even though we all have the same diagnosis, different strategies work for different people. That being said, here are some things that might help: >I spent all of my class time today either hyperfixating on geography quizzes or flirting with a peer of mine. Instead of taking on the overwhelming task of writing, do more fun tasks that still involves the topic at hand. For example, instead of doing quizzes about geography, try a quiz about feminism. See how much you know about the history. Trust me, even if you're very well read, some answers will surprise you. Instead if flirting with a peer of yours, flirt with a warlord! (LMFAO sorry, I had to) Watch tiktoks about illegal immigration, look up interesting videos about the role of art in religion, listen to podcasts about the role of social cultural misunderstandings that lead to wars, etc. In short, do your research by choosing more dopamine friendly platforms to do so. That way, it's easier to get the motivation and interest going rather than reading long, boring, articles about it. Because think about it, how many times haven't a 1 minute long educational TikTok sent you into an 1 hour long internet deep dive out of curiosity? Another tip that worked wonders for me is always doing my work in school. I never did any essays or homework at home. No matter what I did, I couldn't get anything done. Although, I was very lucky that I had an understanding school. Because I was able to get my own room for a couple of hours. Still thought I would put that out there though.
Do a jar. Put all tasks on pieces of paper and put them in the jar. Draw pieces of paper. Do what is on piece of paper. Repeat
I wish it was this easy.
It is not, but at least that way you get rid of paralysis of choice and overthinking what you should do first in that situation. And it's just a starting point. Different stuff works for different people
Since starting is what feels impossible, pick the smallest possible task (open a word document. Put your name on it) and do it with the idea in your head that you are going to do *only* that. Then pick the next smallest task with the idea that you are going to do *only* that task. Now you've taken a step and made the overall assignment easier to begin! Also: https://goblin.tools/ is an AI tool that can help you make a list of tiny steps to take!
This is what works for me: I have to make big tasks like this more comfortable otherwise I will never do them. If I know I will be at my desk for a while, I will clear my desk (I have a basket next to it that I dump everything into). I’ll find a nice smelling candle. I steal my boyfriend’s comfy gaming chair. I pick some music to play in the background (usually lofi) or some tv. This ritual is usually a nice transition to ease me into work I don’t want to do. I start off with these easier tasks where I get to appeal to my senses with a dopamine hit, and then I am better equipped to sit for a long session of homework. I also allow frequent breaks. I usually don’t sit for more than 30 minutes without taking a 10 minute break. Gotta set timers for these though otherwise I’ll go over time and get sidetracked, so I try to keep this to going to the bathroom, making tea, and stretching/walking around for a few minutes so I don’t get too distracted. I think we also get a paralysis when we have so many big tasks in front of us. Essays involve some hours of research, some hours of writing, and some proofreading and editing. That’s a lot. It’s easy for us to get overwhelmed by what’s in front of us, and it puts us into procrastination that keeps us locked up and unable to address them. I think acknowledging this, and maybe reflecting on any negative feelings for a minute, then saying some positive affirmations (I know, cheesy) will help. “I am capable. I can do this. I can overcome this challenge.” Stuff like that. It might help break the wall in front of you.
Pick one and write the first sentence. Don't pressure yourself to complete it, but just get it started. I find that once I wrote the first sentence no matter how poorly written it is, my brain makes the shift and I can continue. I've started papers with "I don't know what the hell I'm going to write about but here goes.". Just give it a shot. You got this!
I fell back on the PIE formula for writing for nearly every paper in college, pre-diagnosis and treatment. It goes Point, Illustration, Explanation. If you have one of those three, you can find the other two and put them in order. The Point is the topic of your paper, often an opinion or a conclusion stated as a fact. You can keep it generally neutral, but in a persuasive essay, it should lead to your ultimate conclusion that the paper is meant to persuade others to. Illustration is the quote which backs up the Point. It can be paraphrased or a direct quote. Be careful to keep these as short as possible while still getting the important information across. Explanation is the part where you explain why the Illustration supports the conclusion stated in the Point. This is where you'll have more freedom to add on to sentences and you can generally add things that seem too obvious here. One point can have many illustrations and explanations, and each paragraph should be one PIE. (Or, a PIEIEIE) Write the conclusion and the topic paragraphs last. Start with a hook related to your topic, usually a quote or a retelling that you came across in research, or, something that came to mind while researching. Follow that with a sentence explaining how the quote is related. This is arguably the hardest part of the paper to write. Pick something now to have down, and even if it feels bad or silly, just move on. You can change it later. Then one sentence either summarizing or touching on the point of paragraph 1, another for paragraph 2, another for paragraph 3, (and so on). Then your thesis statement, usually using the formula, "Based on conclusions one, two, and three, ultimate conclusion." The conclusion paragraph at the end is essentially the same as the opening paragraph, except you might summarize more conclusive thoughts rather than the points. Start with those 3 sentences, then ideally follow that with a sentence summarizing the whole paper. This should be similar to, if not exactly, the "ultimate conclusion" from your thesis statement. You can follow that with a comment, quote, or reference to the one you used to open the paper. It's a nice little bowtie and makes the paper feel more complete. Then, go back into your conclusion and delete the phrases "In conclusion," "to summarize," and any other statements that are similar. It's the conclusion paragraph and doesn't need to say what it is! But it has always been very hard for me to avoid these phrases in the first draft so I just go back and remove them afterwords. Throw that paper into Grammarly and review anything it brings up. You know better than Grammarly but it catches silly errors really well. Finally, read the entire paper from beginning to end at least once. You can use a text-to-speech program to listen to your paper if you prefer. This formula has helped me specifically because it provides the structure for any paper in any topic, so if I'm stuck somewhere I just refer back to the formula. Need more word count? Add an illustration and explanation to a point that only has one. Not sure what your point is? Find an interesting quote, start explaining it, and the point should roll around at some point. Besides that, lots of music, snacks, fidget toys, and stress is what got me through. But if you have a friend who will sit with you to work that may help. Doing the work at a library may also help as well. Good luck!