how to stay focused while writing an essay

How to Focus on Writing an Essay (Ultimate Guide)

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: February 19, 2022  - Last updated: March 25, 2022

Categories Education , Self Improvement , Writing

One of the main problems students face when writing an essay is a lack of concentration. There is nothing worse than a lack of concentration during a school exam – it can be equally difficult to write an essay when you are already behind and feeling the pressure. Before you start academic writing, whether for school or for college, it is important to find a way to focus on the task at hand. The following tips will help any student focus in order to write a good essay.

Why We Lose Focus

Believe it or not, our minds are programmed by evolution to lose focus because it is a mechanism essential for survival. After processing something we have paid attention to, our brain notices things that are either dangerous or desirable.

In our hunter-gatherer days, when we saw a wild animal, our brain focused on that dangerous animal. When something tasty grew in the forest, our brain focused on that tasty plant.

In the modern world, our brains still try to do their job when we try to write a school paper. But instead of focusing on wild animals, they focus on social media sites, Facebook, and anything else that is considered desirable.

As a result, we pay a high price: It takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes or more before we can focus again. Distractions are poison for long periods of concentrated work.

Nor are all distractions external. The opposite is true. About 40 percent of all distractions are internal thought processes. We can get lost in a sea of thoughts that take up all of our attention, which can cause us to stop paying attention to what we should be doing.

This makes it all the more important to find ways to focus on writing the essay, as this helps to keep our thoughts in the right place. And to make sure we write the essays the right way!

7 Ways to Focus While Writing Essays

Essays are an essential writing skill for all students – whether at the level of a college essay or in school. There are a number of things that help us stay focused.

The most important thing is not to wait until the moment before writing to decide what you actually want to say. When writing an essay, you should have a good idea of what you want to say, how you want to say it, and how you want to support your thesis.

If you follow a specific outline when writing your essay, you are much less likely to suffer from writer’s block. You will also be better able to present your arguments clearly and engage in good writing practices, that will serve you well whether you need to tackle an essay or even a research paper.

1. Understand the Esssay Process

It will help you to have a clear idea of the whole process of essay (and non-fiction) writing.

The process is:

• Research : sift through existing arguments and background information relevant to the essay prompt.
• Ideas : Formulate your own arguments and ideas about the essay topic. The main idea will go in your thesis statement, and usually will appear in the Introduction of your essay.
• Outline : create an outline of your main arguments to guide your writing, including citations and references.
• Writing : Write your essay with as much clarity as possible. From the essay introduction all the way down to your final conclusion.
• Revising : Review and edit your essay, getting each body paragraph to flow well and progress your overall argument.

Anyone who has ever written an essay can probably recite these steps in their sleep. But it’s not enough to memorize the process.

2. Avoid Research Recursion Syndrome

Cal Newton, in his book How to Become a Straight-A Student , describes a phenomenon that can lead to endlessly searching for research sources, either out of fear of not having enough – or out of a desire to constantly improve one’s work.

When you do not complete the research process, you embark on a search for sources that consume too much time and energy, which is detrimental to the rest of the essay writing process.

The best way to avoid getting into endless research loops is to be clear about how much research is actually required for the various points you make in your essay.

For critical points, you may need two or more citations; for less important ones, only one source.

Take a broad research approach first: find a readable general source on the topic first, perhaps use an AI summary tool to get an overview (see the “Tools” section later in this article), and search the bibliography for interesting specific sources to consult.

You can use the Internet to your advantage, but you should avoid citing it unless absolutely necessary. For academic papers, you are usually better served by citing academic books and papers that are referenced and perhaps even peer-reviewed. Google Scholar is a tool you can use to help find these sources.

3. Be Clear About the Topic of the Essay

Nothing undermines your efforts to focus on the topic more than writing a bunch of stuff only to find that you do not quite address the essay question!

The first thing you should do is take the time to digest FULLY the essay question or topic. What exactly does it mean? What angle is best suited to answer the question? Do you already have initial ideas about how to bring the topic to life? Think about all of this – and jot it down in bullet points – before you start researching, outlining, and writing.

For a complex sentence, it can be helpful to break down the sections in parentheses – and then represent them visually, e.g., as a drawing, mind map, Venn diagram, doodle… The point is that you have used an active technique to take the sentence apart and see how one part relates to the other. A kind of theme analysis.

It’s also important to keep your focus on the topic while researching and writing.

It’s amazing how quickly you can lose sight of the topic if you do not make sure it’s always at the forefront of your mind while writing.

The best way to keep the prompt in front of you is to keep it in front of you! I personally use a notebook, but you can also use a PostIt on your screen, a whiteboard, or other ways to have a simple statement and maybe 3-5 bullet points that you really want to address.

4. Be Clear About the Type of Essay You Want to Write

There are a number of different terms associated with an academic essay, and it’s a good idea to know them in order to write the best response.

• Expository Essay : requires the student to investigate an idea, evaluate evidence, expound on the idea and set forth an argument.
• Descriptive Essay : requires the student to describe something, in order to develop the student’s written accounts of particular experiences.
• Narrative Essay : requires the student to tell a story – whether anecdotal, personal, or experiential. Often requires creative writing.
• Timed Essay : require a writing sample within a limited time period.
• Persuasive Essay : requires the student to attempt to get the reader to agree with his or her point of view.
• Argumentative Essay : requires the student to establish a position on the essay topic.

5. Use Essay Structure to Help You Focus

Some back and forth examinations of arguments are useful in academic papers to show that you know the different sides of an argument. However, you usually choose one side or the other and support it with evidence and arguments.

If you structure your essay clearly and have a clear line of argument, you will work better overall and be able to concentrate more easily. This is where a clear and detailed outline and perhaps the use of mind mapping (as I do) can help.

As an example, take a look at the mind map and outline I created before writing this article.

The rough ideas were brainstormed before I did more detailed research and recorded the subtopics. The subtopics, by the way, are not strictly in the order I wrote them – but my first draft follows the order of the main topics as I laid them out in the mind map.

The trick to developing a good, clear structure is to first capture the main line in an essay outline, and then start fleshing out that outline.

6. Include Source Material Directly in Your Outline

Make sure you can easily move blocks around to get a clearer overall line through your essay.

A clear outline will also help you get your essay to the right length: Know how many words you need for each section, so you can make sure you do not write one section too much and another too little. This way, you’ll have a balanced essay that covers the different points well.

Think of quotes and citations as blocks that you can insert into the structure of your essay – set aside a source and incorporate it when it makes sense to you. Do not be afraid to swap them out if you find a better quote.

7. Some Additional Structure Tips for Essay Focus

Effective structuring will make the difference between a good essay and a great essay. It’ll help you deliver a successful essay that will win you points, and boost your confidence.

Write clearly and simply. Use an active tense. Use quality sources.

Look for surprises and really interesting points – chances are, if they surprise and stimulate you, they will do the same for others when you write about them!

Write the introductory paragraph and conclusion last!

Learn to Sift Through Ideas and Concepts Quickly

The following advice is very useful not only for essay writing but also for learning in general.

Chunking is a very valuable concept when it comes to gathering research material, sorting it into buckets, using it, and writing with it.

Think of it as large pieces and small pieces.

A whole section of an essay can be one big chunk into which you insert a whole series of smaller chunks.

In nonfiction writing, which includes essay writing, you can think of a small section as a specific idea expressed in a few sentences at most.

Breaking your ideas down into individual paragraphs (even if you group them later) can do wonders for gaining clarity of thought flow and connections.

Nonlinear Work

Working non-linearly is important: It’s a fact that we can not write down all of our ideas one by one in one sitting; at least, most of us do not.

If we have a system for putting ideas and evidence we encounter in the right place in our essay structure, we make our lives much easier.

Broadly speaking, it will help you to stick roughly to the following work structure:

1. Define the objective

2. Research

I say “roughly” because in practice there will be some overlap with other areas. But if you have a rough flow, you can better manage your overall process and energy.

As a general rule, it’s a good idea to write first drafts before tweaking grammar, spelling, structure, etc. The faster you can get an overview of your essay, the more motivated and original your work is likely to be.

Quick Questions to Keep Asking as You Write

In journalism, there are classic questions that are asked at every stage of research and writing: Who, What, When, How, and Why.

These questions are also very useful in essay writing because if you remember to ask (and answer) the “how” and the “why” at each stage of your essay, you will bring your essay to life.

These simple questions will help you focus on your argument and the evidence you have to support it.

Sometimes it can be easy to get lost in details and not see the forest for the trees.

A good solution to this is to step back from writing. Literally, stop for a few moments or minutes and remember K.I.S.S.: Keep It Super Simple (in the original it’s Keep It Simple Stupid – but I prefer my wording!).

Ask yourself: does the basic argument make sense? What is the main point you want to make? What is the main point that is missing? What is the most important thing the essay needs now to make it work better?

If you can not find the answer to any of these questions, ask yourself, “ How can I figure this out quickly? ” – let your mind find a solution.

If THAT does not work, you can try saying to yourself, “ If I had the answer to this question, what would it be? ” Basically, this is a psychological trick to enable yourself (and your mind) to find the right connections and name them.

Methods to Help You Focus Better When Studying and Writing Essays

There are a number of things you can do to help your overall concentration, which will also help you when writing your essays.

The Pomodoro Technique

You can use the ” Pomodoro Technique” to complete short, focused periods of work (sprints) each day that will help you get into the right frame of mind.

The basic idea is that you set a timer for 25 minutes and then work during that time without distractions. There are free and paid apps available on various mobile device stores to act as timers. During those 25 minutes, do not check email, Twitter, Facebook, or other websites.

Once the 25 minutes are up, take a 5-minute break. Repeat this process four times and then take a 15-minute break.

The reason is that it’s very hard to concentrate for more than 25 minutes – but after that, you have a nice break before starting a new 25-minute burst. You’ll find that you can get a lot more done in those 25-minute periods than you normally would. This gets you into the flow.

It also increases the total amount of work you get done over multiple sprints, making you much more productive. The short concentration phases make it easier for you to focus.

Although 25 minutes is the default setting, some people find that other time intervals work better for them; I personally tend to set mine to 45 minutes with a 5-minute break. Otherwise, it’s too short for me to be able to write sufficiently.

This technique is especially helpful for those of us who are easily distracted.

It’s not just about concentration. The Pomodoro technique has the added benefit of giving you a physical break from the screen and keyboard, allowing your muscles to rest and your body to stretch.

The v for Victory Technique

Posture is very important when learning and writing. Firstly for general health, and secondly for writing efficiency.

But that’s not all.

Did you know that you can literally program your mind for success by using a body language hack?

Try this: Stand up and stretch your arms above your head in a V shape. Hold them for a few seconds and breathe normally. Bonus points if you close your eyes and imagine success.

Now go back to doing what you were doing before. Do you feel better? Do you feel more positive?

This is a great technique for all kinds of situations.

Eliminate Auditory Distractions

As we learned above, any kind of distraction can seriously disrupt your work. It’s important to learn how to study peacefully.

Related: Where Can I Study Peacefully

Auditory distractions are especially troublesome because, while they may not be loud, they can be intrusive when you are trying to concentrate hard.

There are several obvious solutions: Close doors and windows, work in a room away from the source of the noise and ask the person making the noise to stop.

Less obvious, perhaps, is the use of noise-canceling headphones. Especially if you combine them with focused music or sound effects like forest rain or wind. I personally use YouTube Premium, which has several Focus playlists built-in. You can also try using the headphones without music, but with noise cancelation turned on.

Some people also report great success with binaural beats. If you search for “binaural beats focus,” you’ll find many options, including hour-long soundtracks.

These binaural tracks have the advantage of not only eliminating the source of the interference but also programming your brain’s waves to help you focus and write better.

Once you find a soundtrack or playlist that works for you, add it to your favorites and repeat if that helps.

Eliminate Visual Distractions

Ideally, remove all visual distractions from your workspace and leave only what is actually relevant to the work in front of you. In most cases, a tidy desk means a tidy mind.

In practice, it’s not always that simple. What you can do, however, is move the unimportant things to the edge of your desk and keep the area directly in front of you clear so you do not have a connection to the keyboard and screen.

It’s worth thinking about the overall placement and ergonomics of your workspace. For me, a good amount of natural daylight falling on the desk is helpful. I make sure it comes from the side and not the front.

I also use a small blue light on the desk when I am working, which helps me think positively and focus.

If you have the space, you might want to try putting your desk in the middle of the room. I first noticed this when I visited the home of Charles Darwin, the famous English naturalist. The first thing I noticed in his study was that the desk was right in the middle of the room. The same was true of Churchill’s desk in the attic of his country residence.

The point is that regardless of your particular circumstances, you can have a considerable amount of control over your visual environment. I would advise you to try different configurations and find one that works best for you. You may also find that changing the configuration of your room from time to time helps your motivation and concentration.

Screen Arrangement

I find that the arrangement of windows and applications on the screen I use for studying and writing is very important for efficiency when working and writing.

Right now, I have a 27-inch iMac right in front of me with two windows on it: On the left side of the screen is my mind map and outline, and on the right side is the writing surface where I am currently writing this article. To the right of the iMac is a laptop on which I have the mind map of this article at a glance.

Although I have experimented with 3 and even 4 screens, I personally find that two screens are sufficient for my particular needs. With more than 2 screens, I feel distracted. Of course, you should experiment and find out what works best for you.

I find that having the most important data immediately in view makes it all the better. I like to avoid switching back and forth between different applications and windows as much as possible.

I also find that having a clear visual memory system (a bit like muscle memory for the mind) helps a lot with writing. That’s why I always have the writing surface on the right side of the iMac screen, while the various research windows are always on the left.

Movement and Posture

What writers and students sometimes forget is the importance of posture and movement while working.

It is very important for motivation and health to move around during a workday, especially to protect your back.

I use a sit-stand desk for this purpose. This allows me to use different types of stands, chairs, and standing positions throughout the day to vary my posture and the angle at which my back moves throughout the day. This allows me to write for long periods of time without harming my body.

If you use the Pomodoro technique described above, you could use the 15-minute breaks for sprints to do a short exercise session. This could be a few short stretches combined with some push-ups, planks, sit-ups, or something similar.

Cold Therapy

It may sound like a terrible cliché, but the value of cold showers is incredible. I had the privilege of going to a British private school called Stonyhurst College when I was young. Stonyhurst has, I believe, the very first school swimming pool, which in my day was nicknamed The Plunge . When I was at Stonyhurst, the pool was surrounded by scary-looking showers and enormous baths with invariably cold water.

What I did not know then, but know now, is the value of cold water for overall mood, health, and learning performance. You may have heard of Wim Hof, the Iceman, who advocates cold therapy for health. If not, check out his videos on YouTube. They are incredible.

The way I practice it is not by jumping straight into the cold shower in the morning, although that’s probably the best method, but by washing with warm water for a few minutes and then turning the water to cold for 1 or 2 minutes. This always makes me feel more invigorated and better prepared for the morning’s work.

All I can say is: try it!

One technique that I think really contributes to efficiency in writing is dictation.

I personally use the app VoiceIn for this, but there’s also a free alternative from Google that I describe later in the “Tools” section of this article.

I either handwrite or type out the outline for the essays and articles I write and then I use a combination of typing and dictation when I write the article or essay.

I find that the decision whether I dictate or not is psychological. Sometimes I feel like dictating the article, sometimes I find it better to type it. Often I have found it helpful to start writing and then move to dictate when I am in the flow.

It’s a matter of trial and error, and I encourage you to keep a regular journal of what works and does not work for you personally to discover the best methods for you.

If you find that dictation is helpful, my advice is to get a good microphone on a stand that you can swivel in and out, and position the microphone very close to your mouth for much better results with the dictation software or app.

Finding Flow When Writing Essays

The ideal state when writing – including essay writing – is a flow state. This is the state where everything comes easily to you and you feel like you are doing your best while fully concentrating on what you are doing.

There are some things that can help you achieve this state:

Awareness of Resistance

Resistance is the enemy of flow. Resistance is anything that distracts you from your work and causes you to turn your attention away from what you are doing. The more you are aware of it, the more you can avoid it.

I think it’s important not to give up too soon when resistance comes in the form of procrastination or motivation. In the short term, it’s worse to give in to resistance and procrastinate, so you need to be prepared for it.

I find the easiest way to deal with resistance is to acknowledge it, then just ignore it and get on with the task.

Forming Habits

To make learning and writing a habit, which then makes everything easier, it’s good to understand how habits can be formed.

Habits are formed through three steps:

• the routine

The best way to form a habit is to choose a cue that is so repetitive that you can not help but do the routine every time you encounter the cue. The best cue is often a place, time, person, or feeling. For example, if I write in the same place at the same time in the morning and I feel a certain way, I can not help but do it, and so a habit loop is formed.

So if you want to make it a habit to write in the morning, you have to find a cue that you can not ignore. Perhaps the moment you finish breakfast.

However, make sure you have a reward at the end of the routine that you look forward to. This will make it easier for you to motivate yourself to do the routine, and encourage the formation of a new habit.

Learn Keyboard Shortcuts

One of the best favors you can do for yourself as a writer is to learn keyboard shortcuts.

If you do not know them yet, you should figure them out and use them. You’ll be amazed at how easy it all is.

Sleep, Diet and Hydration

This may sound familiar, but it’s worth reiterating how important it is to eat right, get enough sleep, and drink enough water.

When you are in optimal condition, you can make better use of the time you have.

A good tip is to darken the room where you sleep as much as possible. You will then have a deeper and more restful sleep.

Use Mental Management Techniques

Top athletes and their coaches use mental management and visualization techniques for a reason. It works.

If you spend a little time visualizing the feeling of success, what it will bring you and how you will get there, the actual process will be easier for you.

Instead of racking your brain over the steps, you’ll have them pre-programmed in your head – and you’ll just do them.

An important part of mental management is to NOT focus on failures, but instead focus on and celebrate when you do something well. This has the effect of anchoring in your mind the practices that lead to success, while not anchoring those that lead to failure.

Tools and Apps That Help With Essay Writing

When writing nonfiction, I use a number of apps on a daily basis that helps me immensely with my work.

This is a powerful research database app (unfortunately only for Mac) that uses AI to find useful snippets of information.

Related: Is DEVONThink Worth It

This is an amazing app that allows you to review and edit text very quickly and adapt to any tone of voice you want.

Related: What Is InstaText

This is the mind mapping and thought development app I use to brainstorm and outline my non-fiction writing. In fact, all my writing.

A very useful AI summary app that gives you a useful snapshot of a PDF file or book.

A reliable dictation extension that lets me dictate directly into my writing canvas. Or you can use the free Google Docs tool.

Something of a secret among writers. It is one of the best, if not the best AI GPT -3 app.

Related: What Is Sudowrite

Concentration: 22 ways to help you focus on writing

Embed these 22 tips on how to focus on writing into your life and watch your productivity soar. We cover how to concentrate and achieve flow.

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How I focus on writing 

To be a great writer, you have to be able to concentrate. It’s not the only thing you’ll need, but it’s certainly a good start!

It sounds simple enough, but a lot of us (myself included) often struggle to stay on-task.

I’m writing this post to share some of the habits and techniques that have (sometimes) helped me to improve my own concentration. And yes, I know that some of them are contradictory. That’s the ‘sometimes’.

In any case, I hope you find the following 22 tips useful, especially if you're gearing up for a big writing push, like for the annual  NaNoWriMo  (or the  poetry equivalent ). That's a whole lot of concentrating! 

Without further ado, here are my secrets to staying focused:

1. Get in the flow

Psychologists describe a powerful form of concentration called ' flow '. It happens when someone concentrates and is fully engaged with what they are doing. (See the Wikipedia  definition .) When you’re writing like this, writing fluently comes naturally.

We all recognise this state. “Time flies when you’re having fun” is one version. Meditation is, perhaps, another version. If you play sports or video games and you find yourself ‘at one’ with what you’re doing, that’s another. All these mental states require concentration.

2. Multitasking doesn't work

Conversely, failure to concentrate can be very unproductive. In fact,  multitasking makes us stupid . People who think they are good at multitasking aren’t, according to  researchers at Stanford University. That’s you and me, dear reader.

3. Accept your distractions

You will get distracted. Your mind will wander. You won’t want to get started. Accept it. The trick is to stand back and notice your brain doing these things. When it happens, stand back from yourself. Notice the distraction. Name the monster. Gently remind yourself that you’re trying to concentrate, and it will be easier to return your focus to your work.

4. Use a concentration timer

I like using meditation timers when I write. A little bell every five minutes helps remind me to put my focus back onto my writing if my mind has wandered.

5. Go somewhere else

Do you write a bit more neatly when you get a new pen? Change can be beneficial, even if the effect is temporary. Sometimes a change of location (go to the park, Starbucks, the Kitchen – anywhere but here) or a change of method (use a quill, a pencil, a typewriter, a different word processor, Linux, smoke signals) can help.

6. Stay where you are

I’m always getting up and going somewhere to get something or do something. To counter this tendency, I keep scrap paper (recycled A4 printer paper cut in half) by my desk and scribble reminders. Then back to the writing.

7. Write at a different time

I write best if I get up early. (See ‘ How I trained myself to get up earlier in the morning ’ for more on that.) Just changing your routine can be helpful, so try waking up a little earlier. It also feels more virtuous than staying up late with work.

8. Write to a schedule

When I have a busy week laden with deadlines, I block out time for my work in Microsoft Outlook. This helps me allocate time and measure progress on longer-term projects and ensure that I have enough time to do all the work I planned. Other people find it helpful to determine their most productive writing-time and stick to it.

9. Morning pages

I have to admit that I haven’t tried Julia Cameron’s technique for unblocking your creativity, but other people – including my wife – swear by it. It involves writing in a stream of consciousness first thing every day.

10. Switch off distractions

Turn off your radio, TV, shut the door, close your email program, put your phone on mute, close unnecessary tabs (stop working on your own blog!) and use a  distraction-free word processor . Full-screen your writing software. The more you can do to stop distractions before they happen and allow you to focus on writing, the better.

11. Tame your muse

Your muse works for you, not the other way around. Think of it as a recalcitrant employee. Give it deadlines, tell it to show up for work at a fixed time every day, give it feedback and praise, and define what you expect from it.

12. Seek inspiration

Lots of people praise walking or running as a source of inspiration. The best advice I ever had was from my history tutor at Oxford – keep a notebook with you at all times, because you never know when you will have a good idea.

13. Quantify

Use word count to set goals – 500 words and then a break, for example. Track writing output over time in a spreadsheet. Use a platform like  Joe’s Goals to keep track of habits in the long term. Some people, like me, are highly motivated by a sense of progress.

14. Silence

External noise can break your concentration. Try noise cancelling headphones (I use Bose), music (see ‘ Music for working ’), silent PC (see ‘ Tools for writing: Silent PCs ’) or ear plugs.

15. Meditate to develop concentration and calmness

I find it helpful to meditate a little before I start work. It’s not easy for me, but when I do it I find it really helps. I sit cross-legged in a quiet room and count my breaths.  The Headspace app  or Calm may be a helpful place to start. (See our post on apps for mental wellbeing for more)

I like tea (See ‘ Tools for writing: A nice cup of tea ’). Other people prefer cigarettes, Jaffa cakes - whatever. I would just be wary of too many sugary treats, because they could cause a sugar crash later on – you end up borrowing energy from yourself. Try healthier snacks like fruit or nuts to keep your energy levels steady throughout the day.

17. Punishment

Try  Write or Die if you really want to light a fire under yourself. If you don’t keep writing, it starts deleting what you have already written! This is brilliant for writing to deadlines, but potentially painful.

18. Shame and greed

Instead of running a 26-mile marathon, aim to write 26,000 words and get your friends to sponsor you for charity. If you fail to do it, you won’t raise any money and you’ll feel bad. Nothing like social pressure to keep you at the keyboard. Alternatively (and if it applies to you) remind yourself that you’re getting paid for what you write, might not get paid again if it’s late.

19. Buddy writing

Working with a friend, even over an open Skype line, can encourage concentration, providing you both have the same work habits. Somehow the peer pressure keeps you both working hard. It’s also an antidote to the potential loneliness of the long-distance writer.

20. Chunking

Write for 45 minutes, take a 15-minute break. Repeat. That's how you go from nothing to  starting a blog  AND finishing it. The Pomodoro Timer is a good place to start for this approach to productivity.

21. Don’t worry

Editing is not writing. Don’t let your mental self-editor get in the way of the super-productive copywriter in you. Learning how to write well is accepting that your first draft might not be perfect. Leave notes to yourself in your text – fact-check, tidy up, rewrite, condense. The important thing is to keep writing now and edit later.

This is a special case of ‘Don’t worry.’ If there’s something you don’t know, don’t stop to look it up. Just put TK in the text. It means ‘to come [later]’. For example, ‘When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in TK DATE, he didn’t expect to meet little green men.’ Fill in the blanks later. TK is easy to search for because it doesn’t occur often in everyday writing. (There are a few exceptions, such as the band Outkast.)

Bonus: Rock and river

Water is soft and rocks are hard, but a river can defeat a rock with patience and constant effort over time. I think it’s the same with writing. A little every day beats a lot once a year. If you keep this in mind, concentrating for a short period every day becomes easier.

Leave a hook to get you started

When you  finish writing each day , try to leave a few notes in your text to help you get started the next day. This will make it easier to overcome inertia and re-engage with the work.

I hope you've enjoyed these tips, and that they help you on your way to writing stardom. Don’t forget us when you’re a famous author.

Like anything, concentration comes down to preparation. If you can set yourself up to enter a concentrated mindset, you'll be able to concentrate. As the Scouts say, 'always be prepared'.

[Originally published in 2009, this has been updated in 2020]

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When You Write

How to Stay Focused While Writing

Staying focused sounds simple, but for most of us, it isn’t. I, for one, love writing but I also often struggle to stay focused.

“The spirit is willing but the flesh weak.”

I know that failing to stay focused is one of my worst writing demons, but I also know staying focused is essential for anyone in this writing profession or any other profession.

I don’t think you landed on this page accidentally. You probably have the same problem—and you want to find ways around it.

You’ve landed on the perfect post. I made this post to share some of the tips and techniques that a lot of people (including me) use to gain, improve, and maintain focus while writing.

Let’s get started!

The Importance of Maintaining Focus When Writing

The truth is: staying focused is more than necessary in every serious endeavor one undertakes—you can’t expect results if you’re not invested in whatever task you’re involved in.

For you to create a masterpiece, you have to stay on track and always make sure that regardless of the circumstances, you are getting some work done.

If anybody asked “how they could become a successful writer,” my answer would be: “staying focused is how you do it.”

It is as simple as that!

It’s all about how bad you want success. Do you want to get published? Impress your boss with a neat, well-cooked report? Do you want to pass your academic assignment perhaps?

In line of work, especially creative work, staying focused will get you far.

How to Build Focus to Write

For you to maintain focus, you need to have that focus already, right? You have to have some strategies to summon that focus—and, I have to say, some are contradictory but it’s because you can’t do all of them at the same time and the context should always be considered.

Here are some tips on how you can build your focus to write:

1. Start Free Writing

Freewriting is a simple concept: what one does is set a timer and jot down whatever is on their mind for 5-10 minutes. You can write about random issues, associated things in a particular topic, or write about an idea.

The idea is that when you’re freewriting, you’re also offloading some of your thoughts, feelings, or anything that could have been blocking you from writing.

To utilize this method, writers write about three pages of freewriting each morning or shortly after waking up.

2. Plan ahead

I previously wrote about Pantsers vs. plotters and in that article, I covered the advantages and disadvantages of each habit. One of the disadvantages of being a panther is getting stuck when your story starts to lack direction. When you get to a point where you’re out of ideas because you didn’t plan ahead, your focus dips. To circumvent this problem, you have to plan ahead—and you don’t necessarily have to have your plans in writing.

A lot of writers complain about not having enough time for planning, but it doesn’t have to be a very elaborate plan or plot. You can think about a character’s backstory while driving to work or contemplate some plot twists and structure during your lunch break.

Luckily, we have notes apps and you can add notes to your plot on your phone, which is something I find convenient when a computer or pen and paper aren’t nearby.

3. Meditate

On the list of probable causes of writer’s block is a clouded mind, the chaos in your mind might be making you lack focus. Is there a better way to calm your mind than meditation?

There are a lot of writers who use meditation to quiet the mind and build focus. And the good thing is that, nowadays, you don’t need to consult a guru or an instructor to practice meditation, you can just download an app and follow the instructions.

Plus… meditation can help you deal with other kinds of stress not related to writing.

4. Set Writing Goals

To gain focus, you need motivation, and setting a goal can help you set a game mentality that demands focus. You can set daily, weekly, or monthly goals—and you can also choose among word counts, pages, or chapters .

Of course, you won’t be able to meet this goal but it’s the effort that matters because you will eventually finish your manuscript if you keep adding meat to it. Just make sure you set realistic and, preferably, small goals that will help you build your confidence.

5. Change Your Location

New things—no matter how substandard they might be—have the power to inspire people. Take for example, a new soccer coach coming to a club from a sharp dip in form, the team usually becomes a bit more energetic.

This also applies to writing, your focus could be improved just by buying a new pen, a new laptop, or a change of location.

It doesn’t have to be a permanent move, you can change your location temporarily, for an hour or two, or even a day. Go to the park, a café, or the library—anywhere comfortable enough for you.

10 Ways to Stay Focused While Writing

1. minimize distractions.

Established writers know they will get distracted, that’s a given, and you can’t completely get rid of them all.

Whatever you’re doing, your mind tends to wander about into an unknown cosmos and before you know it, you’ve lost track of whatever you were doing.

You have to accept that there will be distractions and have to take stock of these distractions—mark every one of these and decide on the best way to deal with them. Once you take notice of these weaknesses, you are better equipped to deal with them and stay focused.

If you happen to realize that it’s your phone and computer that are the biggest sources of distractions, you can use apps to help you stay away from online distractions. There are a lot of apps that let you list the websites and apps you want to block, and they’ll be unavailable when you want to write.

2. Use music

Music is good for building and maintaining focus while writing, but I must also point out that it’s not for everybody.

For some, it’s a distraction, but for others, it’s a productivity-inducing thing.  Properly set up your workspace and complement it with smooth, relaxing ambient sounds that will help you heighten your concentration.

The trick is having music that fits well in the background and does have content or lyrics that will be distractive. A lot of my friends use classical music, some use white noise, and others have told me that it’s Jazz—as for me, anything goes.

3. Bribe Yourself

The human mind and body work better when they are given rewards, so give yourself some treats.

Food comes to mind for me. Reward yourself with something that you can eat or drink in between writing sessions. I usually reserve sugary treats or heavy carbohydrates to the end because I just don’t want to be dealing with an unnecessary sugar crash.

4. Join a Writing Sprint

The concept of a writing sprint is pretty straightforward: You and fellow writers come together (face to face or online) and agree on a focused period of writing, sit down and write throughout the agreed time.

Writing sprints are efficient because the only time you waste is when you’re exchanging pleasantries, which, if you set strict rules, don’t consume a lot of time.

So, writing sprints are a great way to help you regain or maintain focus and speed up your writing process.

That’s not all; at the end of the writing session, you can share writing-related stuff, i.e., things you’ve accomplished thus far and the challenges you’ve encountered.

If you’ve been solo, try to find writing groups or people you can do writing sprints with. And the beauty of modern times is that you don’t have to be in the same geographical area to do a writing sprint, you can have a writing sprint during a zoom call.

5. Don’t Edit As You Go

If you’re trying to be perfect, don’t! No one cares whether your first draft is perfect or not, and neither should you.

It’s a waste of time and you’ll probably get stuck because a lot of things will seem out of place.

What should you do then?

All you need to do is write as many words as you can (fill your paper or screen, which canvas you have, just paint!).

Neither should you edit as you write nor on your breaks. Rather, schedule ample time after you’re done writing your draft and get your blue-penciling mojo and edit, edit, edit!

6. Find a Focused Writing Buddy

When I was in college, I used to force myself to read by going to the library with a no-nonsense friend.

Whenever I started my playful antics they always had some harsh words for me, and they quickly put me back in a focused mode.

This can also work for you, all you need is someone who is gung-ho about finishing their writing project. Word of advice, don’t go overboard with your annoying playfulness, they might just label you as a distraction and avoid you, and never want to write with you.

7. Don’t Multitask

Not only does multitasking lead to inefficiency, but it’s also bad for creativity. I see people always boasting that they are good at multitasking, but the truth of the matter is creativity requires total engrossment.

It’s either you want to write or do the other task.

8. Employ a ‘Marshal’

Have someone check if you’re achieving your writing goals or objectives, you can pay them for doing that and—to make their role more relevant to you—promise to pay them some amount if they find out that you’re accomplishing the goals you set.

This adds a little bit of necessary pressure and motivates you to write because the capitalist in you doesn’t want to lose any money or whatever bonus you promised ‘the marshal.’

9. Work Smarter, Not Harder

I always say that writing is one of the hardest things ever—it’s a lot of work. But, it’s a bit harder when “keep your nose to the grindstone.”

Instead of unceasingly beavering away, you can have shorter, ordered, and rhythmic writing sessions. When you take breaks, your body relaxes and your mind is uncluttered, and you can think about what or where your story, essay, the blog post is heading to.

Writing in short sessions that are rapid will help maintain your writing focus and also make the work look simple.

You can develop your own technique, but I advise you to try the Pomodoro technique, a tried and tested method of increasing writing productivity. The Pomodoro technique splits up your writing sessions into 25-minute bursts, with 3-5 minute respites and a longer one after every four short sessions or Pomodoros in short.

10. Look for New Inspiration

If you depend on something for inspiration during writing but you still end up losing focus, then you need something new for inspiration.

Is music no longer working for you? Do those long walks no longer have an impact on your focus?

Maybe you need to find a different source of inspiration.

Traveling to a place you’ve never been to is the best thing you can do when you feel uninspired. And, never forget to have with you a notebook or any device you can use for note-taking because when you go to a new place, it’s a guarantee that a story or two will pop up from somewhere unexpectedly.

It’s Time to maintain that Focus and Get Published

Inspiration and staying focused work hand in hand, you cannot stay focused if you’re uninspired.

Always try to nourish your inspiration before and during a writing session—before starting, you need a spark and during writing, you need to keep the creative juices flowing.

Do whatever keeps your focus levels high, use music, meditate, join a writing sprint, travel, or give yourself some treats.

Recommended Reading...

Best music for writing – be more focused and productive, what is the iceberg theory, why do authors use pen names, how to motivate yourself to write: write that book now.

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7 Actionable Tips for Consistently Focused Writing

It is almost universally acknowledged that anyone who can procrastinate on a project, will find a way to procrastinate. Most of us are familiar with the experience – you start watching Netflix, scroll through Twitter, or make an unnecessarily time-consuming sandwich – all while your deadline grows closer and closer. You know what needs to be done, but you just can’t seem to bring yourself to do it. 

This can be especially true for any writer working to their own self-imposed deadlines. But as all prolific writers will know, the secret to working up the motivation and concentration isn’t some enigmatic, inaccessible well of inner strength. Instead, success lies in consistency and consistency requires knowing what comprises a productive routine . Having a routine makes going through the motions easier — even when writing seems impossible. To that end, here are seven tips for how to stay focused while writing — from the moment you sit down at your laptop, to the glorious reward of crossing the finish line at last.

1. Start with a head-clearing ritual

One of the easiest, most effective things you can do for your focus, at least in my experience, is to establish some regular activity before writing that makes you feel settled-yet-sharp. For me  (and I imagine many other writers out there), this means having my daily cup of coffee.

This time before I’m about to start writing becomes sacred: I’ll take my coffee and drink it slowly and deliberately, without doing anything else at the same time. That means no social media, people-watching, or even mentally outlining the forthcoming piece. These few minutes facilitate a much smoother transition into the task ahead than tossing back an espresso shot and sitting down in a frenzy.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be coffee. Your head-clearing ritual might be stretching, meditating, splashing your face with cold water, or even just taking a few deep breaths. Whatever helps you get into the right headspace, figure it out and start doing it before every single writing session.

2. Define your own pomodoros

There’s been much praise for the Pomodoro Technique over the past few years, especially in the lifehacking and productivity communities. For those who don’t know, the Pomodoro Technique involves committing to a certain chore for a period of 25 minutes, followed by a five-minute break before diving back in for another 25 minutes. It’s named for the classic tomato-shaped timer used to perform this technique, and each period of work is referred to as one pomodoro (Italian for “tomato”).

While I love the Pomodoro Technique, and have seen pretty good results with the standard 25-minute pomodoros, I feel there’s even more to be gained by experimenting with the timing. For example, I tend to get very immersed in writing, and personally feel my most efficient and productive when I write for 45 minutes to an hour without stopping.

On the other hand, someone who’s just beginning to apply this rigorous approach to writing might struggle with the 25-minute pomodoros. That person would probably feel more efficient with 15-minute writing sessions at first — though ideally, they’d be working toward a goal of longer pomodoros.

My point is that you shouldn’t force yourself to use productivity measures that don’t actually help you focus. That said, you can use a general productivity framework to create measures that do work for you! It may take time to find the right balance, but it will be worth it.

3. Alternate between fun stuff and grunt work

Speaking of balance, it’s not just important in terms of working and breaks, but also in terms of the kind of writing you do each session. Most writers look forward to writing their most dramatic scenes, but for every exciting paragraph, there’s at least a few “filler” paragraphs. Not that these passages are unimportant — they ensure that your pacing works and your exciting bits stand out from the rest. However, from a writer’s perspective, they can be a real drag.

That’s why you need to plan each writing session such that you don’t get too sick of them. The best way to do this? Outline in advance, and write your scenes/sections slightly out of order. This way you can skip to more interesting material when your attention falters, and to less interesting material when you have several exciting bits in a row. Just don’t give yourself too many free passes on the drier scenes — you don’t want to end up leaving them all for the end.

I’m a chronological writer by nature, and it was extremely hard for me to break out of that pattern. But once I did, I found myself much more focused and productive, as I was no longer agonizing over scenes that I didn’t want to write; I would simply skip them and come back to them later. And the extra-great thing about this tactic is that writing a strong scene really primes you to write more — so when you do return to that “boring” scene, your prose alone should be able to pep it up.

4. Double down on productivity apps

Remember how I said that you can’t depend on inner strength alone when it comes to writing? Well, that’s where this tip comes in. When your willpower inevitably wavers, you need backups to keep you from getting sucked into the whirlpool of the Internet — and you should try to have more than one preventive measure in place.

One of my favorite writing apps is FocusWriter, simply because it’s so… well, simple. The app emulates the experience of writing longhand, and the interface looks just like a piece of paper on a desk. You can navigate formatting and other features by hovering over the top, but a full screen of FocusWriter is pretty much devoid of distractions. (Bonus fun fact: FocusWriter was actually created by the spouse of one of our Reedsy writers, originally for her use!)

However, just because your laptop screen looks like a wooden desk, doesn’t mean you’re going to forget about all the other wonderful features behind it. This is why you want to double down on apps with both designated writing software AND website-blocking software, like Freedom . These softwares combine perfectly to facilitate true, deep focus as you write, so that you may even find yourself surpassing those pomodoros you set earlier.

5. Save research for another time

So far I’ve mostly been giving you things to add to your writing routine, which should all aid you in your quest for focus. But here’s one thing you should definitely eliminate: research.

Obviously I’m not telling you not to research at all, just to conduct it before or after your actual writing session. It’s way too easy for one little Google search to turn into hours of Internet time — especially when you’ve been restricting yourself and craving it, like a true social-mediaholic. Yes, Freedom should already be blocking your “danger” sites, but you can still end up in a Wikipedia black hole during research.

This is another habit that I’ve found difficult to break, as I like to Google things whenever they crop up. However, I’ve gradually learned to take notes on what I should double-check later, and to mark up my text where I still need exact figures. Another godsend for me is the built-in Dictionary app for Mac, where I can find synonyms without having to search the web. If you don’t already have an app like this on your computer, I’d highly recommend downloading one.

6. Schedule something for the end of the day

For all the mind-sharpening tricks and productivity hacks out there, I still find that the most potent motivator is knowing that I need to finish writing by a certain time. And while you can set as many writing deadlines as you want, they only really work when they mean something — i.e. meeting the deadline results in a reward, or failing to meet it has clear-cut consequences.

Because positive reinforcement is so much more effective than negative reinforcement, I prefer the first route. So whenever I plan a long writing session, I also try to schedule something nice to do at the end of the day: a meal out with friends or a trip to the movies, for example. This gives me a tangible incentive to focus — mostly the promise of a pleasant reward, but also a little bit of social pressure, since other people will be counting on me. (Again, as with all things in writing, balance is key.)

The “schedule something” strategy works especially well if you already have regular plans that you don’t like to miss. So if you’re a social butterfly on the weekends, try to fit in some writing every Friday or Saturday; that way, when you go out, you’ll feel like you truly deserve it.

7. Leave off in the middle of an idea

Fittingly, this last tip advises how to wrap up your own writing session. While it’s not so much about focusing in the moment, it will absolutely help you refocus as quickly as possible when it’s time for your next session. I should also be honest and tell you that this tip isn’t really mine — it’s Ernest Hemingway’s . Here’s the exact quote:

“The best way [to end a session] is to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck … your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.”

In other words, don’t stop when you feel you’ve just finished up a thought or a scene — stop when you’re still in the thick of it and you’re really enjoying the process! It might be difficult, but not nearly as difficult as starting again when you’ve wrapped up the previous section so neatly.

This technique — and all these techniques — are calibrated for maximum focus, based on my own personal writing experiences. For you, some of them may work better than others, and some may not work at all; every writer needs to determine their own best practices. But it also never hurts to try, especially if your lack of focus has been weighing you down. Trust me that once you find the right tactics, you’ll wonder how you ever wrote without them.

This week’s guest post was brought to you by Emmanuel Nataf, a co-founder of Reedsy , a marketplace that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. Emmanuel dedicates most of his time to building Reedsy’s product and is interested in how technology can transform cultural industries. In his spare time, he tries to get a little writing done.

It is almost universally acknowledged that anyone who can procrastinate on a project, will find a way to procrastinate. Most of us are familiar with the experience – you start watching Netflix, scroll through Twitter, […]

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How to gain & keep focus for writing

Our ability to focus is a precious resource. And in this distracted world, it’s becoming increasingly rare. There are too many things pulling at our attention: too many articles to read, too many talks and seminars, too many topics to think about… But as scientists, we need to concentrate deeply to advance our research — and to write up our findings clearly and effectively. So what can you do when your mind refuses to settle in and focus on the work at hand? Below you will find a tried and proven *minimal* approach how you can gain focus — and keep it throughout the day.

Yesterday was not a productive day for me. In the morning I sat down at my desk, and instead of writing an article I started to reply to emails, look up random things on the internet, then cleaned something in the kitchen, chatted with some friends on social media, ate a snack, discovered some new emails and got new ideas that needed to be checked online…

I was going in circles like this almost the whole day. Many times I opened the empty document intended for my article… but could not force myself to actually write anything. I did not have a clear picture of what exactly I was going to write, I did not know how to start — and I could not focus and cut through the brain fog.

I was surprised by this state — I haven’t had a bad day like this in ages. After lunch I sat down to meditate, to clear my head and get it under my control. As I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my breath, a thousand pictures and words were jumping on me from all sides.

And I understood what was the problem: the day before I spent the whole evening on the couch, “binge consuming” news & social media. Then, as I woke up in the morning, I automatically grabbed my phone and before I knew it, it was an hour later. And all these images, words, and emotions got stuck in my head, spinning in the background, and luring me from my demanding work into shiny worlds of distraction.

It is hard to focus when you start your day with distraction. It clutters your mind with exciting, beautiful, or troublesome images that are optimized for not letting you go.

This is usually not a problem for easy tasks (which don’t require your full concentration) or exciting tasks (which engage your full attention easily). During my PhD, for example, I could format my manuscript according to journal guidelines or program and run simulations even when I was spending my mornings (and lunch breaks) on news & social media sites.

However, (scientific) writing is different. It requires your full attention, as you are juggling your ideas, searching for the right words, and trying to guess whether your readers will understand what you mean. (Not to mention the troubles when you try to improve your text as you write it .)

How to gain focus for writing

If you find it hard to focus on your thesis or manuscript, try a little experiment during the next days:

• Reserve your mornings for writing. If you can’t reserve the whole morning, an hour or two will do as well. Even when you consider yourself a “night owl”, I suggest you give this a try: in the morning, our head is fresh and the potential to focus the highest. Unless… and here we come to the second point:
• Don’t go to online distractions before your morning writing session is completed. Don’t check any news or social media sites in the morning. No blogs, no articles, no insta chat with friends. Ideally, also don’t check your email. If needed, just glance quickly over your inbox to see whether there are any emergencies, but don’t engage with the messages if it’s not necessary. Resisting the temptation for update and distraction in the morning will be easier if you:
• Refrain from computer and phone during the last hour or two before you go to bed. Instead, you can read a book, listen to a podcast, talk to your partner, play a game with your flatmates, do some calming (yoga) exercises, write into your diaries, etc.

Avoiding online distractions late in the evening and in the morning helps to clear your head during the night and start the day off fresh, with a focused mind that is not running away from difficult tasks. Moreover, refraining from the blue screen light in the evening makes you sleep tight, so that you wake up well-rested and ready to tackle the challenging tasks — like writing your thesis 🙂

I followed this plan yesterday evening and this morning. And the difference in my concentration is enormous: there are no impulsive ideas, no urges to go do something else… I am calmly sitting at my desk and writing this article.

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Block online distractions with an app

Fortunately, there are apps out there that can support our limited willpower and help us stay away from online distractions. These apps let you specify the websites you want to block and when you want to block them.

For my laptop, I am currently using Leechblock that is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and other Chromium-based browsers such as Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi. It allows me to block selected websites during certain hours (for example, in the mornings when I want to focus on my important work) but there is also the possibility to set a time limit (like 10 minutes) for the selected websites and the app will block them for the rest of the day after I have spent the defined time on them. I also love the additional feature of preventing the access to the settings during active times when I’m blocking some websites. It’s great to avoid cheating, but it can also lead to difficult situations when you do need to access some of the blocked sites. My favorite workaround: keep 5 minutes of unblocked time every hour (XX:00-XX:05), to keep the possibility to change the settings if the situation requires it.

StayFocusd is a similar app for Chrome that has the additional (optional) feature of presenting you with a challenge (re-typing some text about procrastination :D) before you are allowed to change your settings.

If you work on Mac, you could try one of the popular distraction-blocking apps SelfControl or Focus .

After the blocking app on my computer proved to be a great productivity tool, I knew I needed something similar also for my phone. However, I have not found an app (yet) that would allow to block individual websites. What is possible is to block individual apps. So I am now using AppBlock on my android phone, blocking my web browser and few other apps when I am supposed to focus and work hard, but don’t feel like it. It has the function of preventing me from changing the settings while the app-blocking is active — and I use this function a lot 😉

Another similar app is Offtime that is available for android as well as iphone.

Troubleshooting

This is not a spiritual meditation — it’s one where you concentrate on your breath to calm down your mind. That’s all. And it works!

Here’s how it goes:

• Set a timer for 10 minutes so that you don’t need to worry about the time.
• Prepare a pen and paper so that you can take a brief note if something important pops into your mind that you don’t want to forget.
• Sit down in a comfortable position. Sitting cross-legged or in other position where your feet are close to your buttocks is best, as you effectively cut your height by half, which makes it easier for your heart to pump enough blood to your brain. This alone helps with concentration!
• Close your eyes and start noticing your breath. Feel how the body tension increases as you inhale, and decreases when you exhale. For a couple of breaths, focus on the exhalation and use it to consciously relax your body and mind (a bit 😉 ).
• Now move your attention to your nostrils. Feel the cool sensation at your nostrils as you inhale, and observe the difference in your sensation as you exhale.
• Keep your full attention at your nostrils, observing the sensations due to breathing.
• If you catch your mind wandering off, just gently move your attention back to your nostrils. Don’t engage or fight your thoughts. Just attend the nostrils and your breathing again.
• If it seems impossible to concentrate on your nostrils (which is normal at the beginning), count your breath (while you keep your attention on your nostrils). Count from one to ten, and when you get distracted, start again from one.
• Keep counting (or trying to count :)) your breath until the timer gets off, or stop counting and only focus on the breath if your mind allows it.

Don’t worry if your mind won’t calm down and keeps popping up distracting thoughts. You will feel a positive effect also from “just” trying… If you repeat this exercise regularly and make it a habit , it will become easier for your mind to concentrate.

Stay focused throughout the day

Alright, let’s say you have gained focus by consciously managing your online distractions with the help of blocking apps and meditation. That’s great — but how can you prevent your focus from draining as the day proceeds? This is not a trivial task…

This resembles the workings of a muscle — and, indeed, this popular metaphor helps us find a way how we can keep our concentration throughout the day:

The key to sustained — and sustainable — productivity are power breaks .

Similarly to our muscle power, we can focus for much longer if we take regular short breaks. However, you’ll gain little from such breaks if you spend them in online distraction.

Instead, use your breaks to stand up from your desk and get your blood circulating : walk around, take some stairs, visit the toilet (not necessarily the nearest one 🙂 ), get out for a minute or look out of the windows, breathe deeply, and stretch a bit. This will refresh your mind and get you ready for the next round of work.

As I was writing up my thesis, working hard and focusing deeply, I developed a routine for my breaks: I would walk down the stairs, visit a toilet, exit the building through the back door, stretch outside, then walk around the house while breathing deeply, enter the house through the front door, and return to my office. All of this would take me around five minutes. I would sit down at my desk truly revitalized, ready to continue my work with full focus.

If this timing sounds familiar to you: yes, this is the essence of the Pomodoro technique . After 1.5 — 2.5 hours (3–5 work sessions) it is usually good to take a longer break of at least 0.5–1 hour. That qualifies as a coffee or lunch break 🙂 .

To summarize, you can gain deep focus for writing by avoiding online distraction in the late evening as well as in the morning, where you schedule your writing and other important work. Block online distractions with apps and help establish your focus with meditation as needed. You can stay focused for the whole day if you take regular power breaks: work for 25 minutes and take a break for 5 minutes, as the Pomodoro technique is suggesting.

If you want to improve your focus for writing, try this method during the next couple of days and share your experience in the comments!

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Focused Writing: How to Stay Focused by Improving Your Concentration

Just get it done: How to create content efficiently as a writer.

This blog post will provide an expansive plan to help you strengthen your writing process and achieve deep focus. It outlines techniques such as building up a routine, overcoming interruptions, honing concentration skills, balancing research with actual writing, generating forward motion in the project’s timeline, and working with others who can also lend some accountability. Writing productivity won’t remain stagnant anymore.

Short Summary

Establish routines, set specific goals, and choose a dedicated workspace to stay concentrated while drafting.

Overcome distractions by controlling the digital environment, managing interruptions, and organizing physical space.

Utilize focus techniques such as the Pomodoro Technique, mindfulness/meditation & breaks/movement, balance research with drafting, and write in short bursts to build momentum in your work.

Establishing a Writing Routine

Creating a consistent drafting procedure is fundamental to boosting your writing focus and staying motivated. Formulate particular objectives, opt for an allocated composition area, and compose a pre-writing custom – such activities will generate the grounds for a practical yet productive writing session. For example, you can plan by setting aside time either on how long run how many pages or words should be written, choose an isolated space with minimal disruption to concentrate correctly, also establish a practice before writing, like drinking tea or playing soothing music which serves as a cue that it’s time to write something!

Enacting these tactics allows repeated results without worrying about being overwhelmed when starting work on an article. Maintaining healthy habits helps increase productivity, especially during rough drafts - adequate sleep patterns, nutritious snacks provided at regular times, plus engaging in exercises keep one’s brain fresh while still keeping attention determinedly geared towards completing tasks related to drafting.

Set specific drafting goals

Creating specific objectives while drafting can drastically sharpen your concentration and inspiration. You can effortlessly assess your advance and remain motivated by constructing well-defined aspirations such as word count or time dedicated to composing.

For example, aim for 500 words before taking a break from your writing session, which will help keep focus away from any peer pressures or social pressure that may be present. It’s important to remember: The more demanding yet possible our targets for creating are, the greater the likelihood of retaining engagement to deliver on our first outline effectively!

Choose a dedicated writing space

Having a suitable and interruption-free space is essential for enhancing efficiency and concentration. Whether you like writing in your home, coffee shop, or library, ensure that it enables you to concentrate only on what needs doing.

A separate area dedicated solely to putting pen to paper could give you the necessary organization and patterning needed for diminishing distractions while maintaining motivation levels high enough to remain concentrated, an example of this might be having one room or part of your home where all tasks are handled exclusively away from other projects such as research material, etc.

Create a pre-drafting ritual

Engaging in a routine before a writing session can signal to your brain that it is time to concentrate on the job ahead. Performing an activity such as having coffee, stretching, or washing with cold water can aid you in remaining composed and invigorated for the task. The pre-writing ritual not only assists in changing into an alert mindset but also reduces stress associated with producing content. By constantly practicing this preparation method beforehand, writing sessions become more manageable. Giving greater focus and energy during them.

Overcoming Distractions in a Writing Session

It is essential to minimize disruptions to write productively. By controlling your digital environment, blocking out external noise sources, and keeping a neat workspace, you can create an ideal atmosphere for successful work sessions.

As an example of how to do this effectively: switch off apps and notifications on phones or computers while working in order not to be distracted by messages or social media, look for quiet places to sit where there are minimal disturbances, organize your surroundings to make for calmness, which allows less mental stressors from visual clutter.

Studies suggest that up to 40% of interruptions come internally from our thought processes, often preventing us from concentrating. Still, they must be considered when aiming to be productive writers. By managing internal divergences and those outside influences and distractions, we can significantly improve concentration during writing times and overall output performance.

Control your digital environment

To stay on track while writing your article, it is essential to control your digital environment. There are productivity apps and tools that can help you avoid distractions as well as keep focus during your session of writing your article. For example, using a website-blocking app such as Freedom can hinder access to social media sites or any other internet distraction throughout your task.

For Immersion in deep focus mode, try setting up full-screen settings for your computer – they will aid by minimizing visual disruptions and assisting you in staying attentive while completing that first outline. By managing our online space carefully, we can achieve a concentrated state allowing the rest of us to write without the distraction of disturbances from outside sources productively.

Manage external noise

Eliminating or minimizing distractions is essential in creating an efficient writing atmosphere. You can use noise-canceling headphones to reduce external disturbances such as traffic sounds, music, conversations, and construction noises to achieve this. Music can provide some background sound while working if it doesn’t interfere with your concentration. White noise machines and other soundproofing materials are also options for deadening intrusive audio, which hinders the flow of words on paper (or screen). With these tools at hand, one should be able to stay concentrated throughout their writing journey while being free from disruptive visual distractions brought by unwanted noise sources – allowing them to reach their objectives more readily!

Organize your physical space

A well-structured workstation is critical for maintaining concentration while writing and achieving the desired outcomes. Here are several tips to help you construct an optimal environment.

Ensure your desk surface remains free from any objects distracting or disturbing your focus.

Place all of the required equipment in easy reach so as not to disrupt productivity when needed during working sessions.

Take away anything unnecessary on top of or around your workspace area. This will create clarity and order over chaos within its perimeter.

Constructing one’s workflow surroundings deliberately with thought-provoking material helps attain a mindset directed towards effort while creating content.

By following these suggestions, you should be able to design an atmosphere conducive to purposeful writing capabilities. Keeping everything neat and uncluttered allows maximum retention levels throughout each task conducted at the desk!

Utilizing Writing Focus Techniques

To be successful in writing, improving focus is a must. Writers can use techniques like the Pomodoro, mindfulness, and meditation exercises, as well as taking regular breaks with light movement to maintain concentration while working on their tasks. Implementing these practices helps eliminate fatigue and keeps creativity alive so writers are efficient.

Find out what works for you since strategies might affect one writer differently. Some may find that using the Pomodoro Method aids them more, whereas others may benefit from practicing mindful meditation more often during work sessions. Regardless of your preference, it’s essential that whatever technique(s) you use to keep concentration suit the best way to maintain productivity.

The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is widely used to regulate one’s work to promote productivity and concentration. It works by having an individual sit and concentrate on their writing for 25 minutes, then taking 3-5 minutes off before continuing with another session or “Pomodoro” interval. After every four intervals are completed, the user takes a longer break lasting about an hour and 15-30 mins.

This system allows writers to steadily work towards achieving their first draft without worrying about being too overwhelmed due to insufficient sleep or lack of extended time dedicated solely to the writing focus required. Following this method diligently would help any writer maintain efficiency and control over their project while allowing them to schedule sufficient downtime between periods spent working hard at the task ahead.

Mindfulness and meditation

Developing a writing focus can be significantly improved through mindfulness and meditation. Concentration is enhanced, stress is relieved, and creativity is increased when we become aware of our current thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment or analysis. It helps us cultivate peace and clarity so that it’s easier to concentrate – thus promoting higher-quality output in our written works. By incorporating these techniques into your writing routine, you’ll experience an elevated level of productivity.

Downtime and movement

Writers should rest and do physical activity to maintain the focus required while writing and avoid burnout. Relaxing your mind for a few minutes allows you to be more energized when going back into editing, making it easier to concentrate on what is being written. Some authors incorporate movement, such as walks or stretches away from work, to keep motivation high. This practice has proven successful in helping them stay concentrated yet still efficient with their output. Experimentation can help identify what kind of break will most benefit each writer’s concentration level so they remain sharp throughout all stages of writing sessions!

Balancing Research and Writing

Identifying when you need to cease researching and start writing is critical. Too much time devoted to research can cause procrastination, stifle creativity, and slow down the progress of your article. Finding a good equilibrium between conducting research and crafting words is necessary for keeping concentration while avoiding getting too easily distracted from other activities. By isolating investigating sources from producing literature, utilizing summaries or notes generated beforehand, and implementing certain boundaries on searching relevant data, one may stay concentrated throughout their writing project, resulting in steady improvement until reaching completion of its first draft form with lesser distractions hindering Productivity leading up to it.

Separate research from writing

When working on a writing project, dedicating different time to researching and creating content is essential. Researching before or after you start writing can help you stay concentrated instead of getting distracted by constantly looking up information while trying to write. This increases efficiency and prevents losing concentration, forming a solid first draft. Keeping separate sessions dedicated solely to these tasks helps keep your work organized so that when it comes time to craft the initial piece, all attention is given to successful results.

Use outlines and notes

Coming up with an ordered structure when writing is essential to staying concentrated and on target. Employing diagrams and records can help you take in pertinent facts and organize your ideas logically. By constructing a defined outline and taking careful notes, the writer can simplify their writing procedure while concentrating on what they need to communicate through that work – especially if your article is complicated or lengthy, like a research document.

Set research limits

It is crucial to set boundaries on how much time and resources one uses when researching to avoid getting caught up in countless pieces of information and stay concentrated while writing. This will optimize your time during the composition process resulting in better output quality. Setting limits for research also enables you to put more energy towards actually crafting words which can promote a more fruitful experience with composing.

Building Momentum

Remaining motivated and concentrated while writing is essential to achieve positive results. Why not try out a schedule of short writing intervals that can be paused in the middle of an idea followed by a reward? You may find this approach helpful in preventing writer’s block, maintaining focus on your work, and slowly but surely accomplishing the completion point of the draft.

The trick lies with finding what works best according to your style – some authors benefit more from punctuated bursts rather than pausing mid-idea. While others may prefer vice versa. Utilize various techniques to ensure you’re always focused and efficient when it comes time to write!

Write in short bursts

Making incremental edits in smaller, more doable chunks can help keep attention and avert exhaustion during your writing periods. By dividing up the stages of the composition into short spans, it is possible to focus on one task at once without becoming overburdened or losing momentum.

This strategy may be especially effective for those who have difficulty concentrating longer stretches or are easily sidetracked. Shorter sessions allow you to focus while slowly advancing toward completing your initial version.

Stop mid-idea

When writing, it can be beneficial to end when you know where the story is headed. This allows for a seamless continuation of thought and prevents roadblocks regarding progress and creativity. Finishing sessions with a purpose provides focus and motivation toward reaching the finish line, something every writer strives for! Keeping track of ideas throughout the process lets one stay focused without losing sight of which direction they want their work to take.

Reward yourself

Staying focused during your writing process is essential, so it’s important to recognize and reward yourself when reaching milestones. Creating a positive feedback loop by setting goals can help you stay motivated: after achieving each one, take a break to write or treat yourself as an incentive to keep up the momentum! Celebrating accomplishments helps maintain focus throughout your sessions and drives progress in the best way.

Collaboration and Accountability

By incorporating collaboration into your writing, you can stay focused and motivated. Working with others, such as joining a writing group or having a partner share updates, challenges, and support, is an effective way of creating accountability that can help writers remain productive throughout their process. Making public commitments along with goal setting and tracking deadlines provides beneficial feedback from other sources, which increases the chances of achieving goals efficiently. Finding out what strategy works best for individuals – whether working in groups or on one’s own – can improve focus on writing while keeping motivation levels high during each session dedicated to completing tasks.

Writing groups and partners

Connecting with like-minded writers and partners can offer valuable assistance, accountability, peer pressure, and incentives to stay focused on your writing objectives. When you exchange accomplishments, trials, or successes with others in the same field as yourself. It may help bring forth knowledge, remarks, and pushing that motivate you to achieve your goals when starting a project.

To find partnerships or groups relating to writing: look into online discussion panels, social media networks designated explicitly to this life goal, and local organizations advocating writing activities, such as libraries/universities’ resources devoted to literature topics, etc. By surrounding oneself with others enthusiastic about producing meaningful pieces, one forms an encouraging atmosphere that will bolster concentration, enabling efficient work rates and stimulating creative output.

Public commitments

Publicly stating your life aims for writing can cause a sense of obligation and enthusiasm to remain devoted to your chosen projects. You show how committed you are by making public declarations, telling friends and relatives about it, or providing updates via the internet and social media platforms, such as blog posts informing your followers of any improvements made. This way, you can use society's influence to ensure your ambition is maintained and successfully attained.

By voicing out what one wants to do with their writing tasks, they benefit significantly since now there’s an extra push towards success due to this shared mindset of being focused leading up until the point where desired goals are achieved!

Deadlines and goal tracking

Creating deadlines for your writing projects and keeping track of your advancement will help you maintain focus and inspiration while working on the task. Setting firm objectives with precise due dates and monitoring how far along they are helps establish a sense of urgency that motivates you to reach those goals. Analyzing progress makes it easier to make necessary changes or allocate more time to keep your project up-to-date according to its planned schedule. Tracking efficiency lets writers sustain concentration throughout their process while allowing them to finish within set deadlines.

By crafting a routine and a plan ahead utilizing focus techniques, maintaining the balance between research and writing focus creating content, and building momentum with collaboration for accountability purposes. You can improve your concentration level and elevate the quality of your work. Taking action on this set of strategies will permit you to refine your process–which should boost productivity levels significantly!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is focused writing.

Writing an article with purpose and clarity is essential for effective communication. To achieve this, focus must be placed on the chosen topic to ensure only crucial concepts are included in the text. This means developing a central argument or idea that drives your piece of writing as well as identifying which sentences will form part of each paragraph, cutting out anything unnecessary to ensure everything remains focused and clear.

How do you become a focused writer?

Writers need to block out writing time each day and eliminate distractions. Breaks between your focus sessions should be taken, too, for concentration levels to stay high. By doing so, successful authors can become more concentrated and Hone their craft!

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that allows individuals to break up their tasks into smaller chunks, working with a focus in 25-minute intervals. Short breaks are taken between intervals; after every four sessions, a longer one is allowed for refreshment. This helps improve productivity and also reduces distractions or the urge to procrastinate while providing a sense of accomplishment as tasks progress being completed successfully. The overall result encourages most people to make better use of their time, thus gaining more focus on work-related matters without straining themselves mentally so as not to get overwhelmed by it all!

What are some strategies for minimizing distractions while writing?

Writing successfully requires focusing on the task at hand. To stay productive, it’s vital to manage distractions. Begin by regulating your digital environment: turn off notifications and close irrelevant windows or tabs so they do not intrude upon you while writing. It would help if you also aimed to reduce external noise as much as possible. If this is proving difficult, putting some headphones in with calming music playing gently in the background will help block out any troublesome sounds from outside sources. Lastly, organizing your physical space beforehand can make a difference in concentration levels when beginning work. Removing unnecessary items, such as extra paperwork, helps maximize productivity.

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Maintaining Your Focus

To focus your writing, you'll need to know how to narrow your focus, so you don't overwhelm your readers with unnecessary information. Knowing who your readers are and why you are writing will help you stay focused.

A Definition of Focus

Kate Kiefer, English Department, Composition Director 1992 -1995 The focus of the text is also referred to as its thesis, theme, controlling idea, main point. In effect, writers tell readers what territory they plan to cover. That's the focus. A focus can be very narrow--as when a photographer takes a close-up of one mountain flower--or it can be broad --as when the photographer takes a long-range shot of the mountain. In practical writing, the focus is often specified for the writer by the "occasion" for the writing.

In their discussions of focus, writers may use a number of terms: main point, thesis, theme, position statement, and controlling idea. What these terms have in common—and what focus is really all about—is informally known as sticking to the point.

Sticking to the point involves having a clear idea of what you want to write and how you want to write about your topic. While you write, you'll want to keep in mind your supporting details to help your readers better understand your main point.

Coordinating all the aspects of your paper requires you to make each part work with the whole. Imagine your writing is a symphony orchestra in which one out of tune instrument will ruin the sound of the entire performance.

How Audience and Purpose Affect Focus

All readers have expectations. They assume what they read will follow a logical order and support a main idea. For instance, an essay arguing for a second skating rink for hockey players should not present cost figures on how expensive new uniforms have become.

Your audience and writing purpose will help you determine your focus. While it may seem obvious to include certain details, your audience may require specific information. Further, why you are writing will also affect what information you present.

Michel Muraski, Journalism and Technical Communication By articulating the problem, you give yourself focus. You must have done your audience analysis to have asked the question, "What kinds of information does the audience need? What are they going to do with it? Are they going to use it to further their research? Are they going to use it to make a decision?" Once you've identified your audience and what they're going to do with your information, you can refine your problem statement and have a focus. It's a necessary outcome.

Different audiences require different ways of focusing. Let's look at a proposal for a second ice rink in town for hockey players only.

Audience One: City Council

This audience will want to know why another ice rink is necessary. They will need to know how practice hours were shortened due to increases in open skate and lesson hours. They will need to know about new hockey teams forming within the community and requiring practice and game time on the ice. They should also be informed of how much money is made from spectators coming to view the games, as well as of any funding raised by existing hockey teams to help support a new rink. Every detail they read should support why city council should consider building a new rink.

Audience Two: Hockey Coaches and Players

This audience should be informed of the need for a new rink to inspire their support, but chances are they already know of the need. Ultimately, they will want to know what is required of them to get a new rink. How much time will they need to donate to fundraising activities and city council meetings? In addition, they will want to know how they will benefit from a new rink. How will practice hours be increased? Every detail they read should inform them of the benefits a new rink would provide.

Steve Reid, Composition Director 1973-1977 and 1994-1996 Focus, for me, is a term we borrowed from photography. This means we narrow something down to a very sharp image. First, it's a notion of narrowing to something, but also, it's a notion of sharpness and clarity. Focus is one of the things that clarifies purpose. So once we get a sense of thesis, that helps illuminate the photography image, illuminate what the overall purpose of the paper is.

Your purpose is why you are writing about your topic. Different purposes require different ways of focusing. Let's look at a proposal for a second ice rink in town for hockey players only.

Purpose One: Arguing

Proposing a new ice rink to city council members would require convincing them the rink was necessary and affordable. You would need to acknowledge reasons for and against the rink.

Purpose Two: Informing

Informing fellow hockey coaches and players about a new rink would require telling them of the steps being taken to achieve a new rink. This audience most likely knows most of the issues, so selling them on the idea probably won't be necessary. Give them the facts and let them know what they can do to help.

Don Zimmerman, Journalism and Technical Communication Department Typically, when I'm writing a report for a person out there, I provide them with the information they need to either increase their knowledge or make a decision. When I talk about focus, I really mean targeting. Here's an example. This comes out of a trade magazine. In Nursing '96 , you'll find articles written by nurses for other nurses. They will generally open with essentially two or three paragraphs. They will say, "You know, here is the problem I had as a nurse in this setting." They tend to set them in what I would consider, soap opera-ish kinds of settings. They set up a real life situation with real people. In other words, "I went into Sally's room and discovered she'd thrown all the covers off the bed and she was sweating profusely." the article goes on to describe what it was. Then it will come back and say, "Here's the problem. Now we've had a number of patients who did this kind of activity, and we found they fell out of bed. To minimize those injuries, here are three things we've done." Then they will give you the summary and then they will elaborate those procedures. That's very targeted. Targeting influences the kind of language used. This means the nurses in the hospital are dealing with "X" kind of patient and "X" kinds of situation. This means a lot of terms and terminology are used. The other nurses reading about this will understand it because of their interest in that topic; it's going to fit them.

Narrowing Your Focus

Writers who cover too much about a topic often overwhelm their readers with information. Take, for example, an essay focused on the tragedies of the Civil War. What tragedies? Readers have no idea what to expect from this focus, not to mention how difficult it would be to write about every tragedy of the Civil War.

After writers choose a topic to write about, they need to make sure they are not covering too much nor too little about a topic. The scope of a focus is partially dictated by the length of the writing. Obviously, a book on the Civil War will cover more than a 500 word essay. Finally, focus is also determined by its significance, that is, its ability to keep readers' interest.

What It Means to be Focused

Donna Lecourt, English Department What it means to be "focused" changes from discipline to discipline. Say for example, in literature, my "focus" comes through a novel. I want to write about Henry James's Turn of the Screw . On one hand it could come through theory. I want to do a feminist analysis and Henry James's Turn of the Screw just happens to be the text I apply it to, or I might add another text. I might just approach a novel and say, "Okay. Everybody's read it in these ways before. Here's yet another way to read it." I don't have to show that I'm adding to, in some ways, I can show I'm distinguishing or coming up with something new. What my "focus" is, is determined disciplinarily as well as by my purpose. Another example would be a typical research report where a "focus" is what's been done before because that determined what an experiment was going to be about. And so, in some ways, you're not coming up with your own "focus" the way in English, in some ways, you can. You have to look at "X," "Y," and "Z" studies to see what was done on this topic before you can prove your point. Focus comes out of what was achieved before. You have to link what you're doing to previous research studies which is a requirement of a lot of research reports.

Focus is Too Broad

Michel Muraski, Journalism and Technical Communication The biggest conceptual shift in most students is having too broad of a statement and literally finding everything they ever knew about this topic and dumping it into a term paper. They need to consider what they write a pro-active document: a document that's going to be used by a specified audience for a specified reason about a specific area of that broader topic.

Kate Kiefer, English Department, Composition Director 1992 -1995 A broad focus looks easier for students, but it turns out that a narrow focus is generally easier. General articles and essays with a broad focus require lots of background information and a pretty clear sense of the readers' goals in reading the piece. Otherwise, writing with a broad focus tends to result in pretty boring prose. Most academic writing requires a narrow focus because it's easier to move from that into the specific supporting detail highly valued in the academic community.

A broad focus covers too much about a topic. It never discusses the fine details necessary to adequately present a topic and keep readers' interest. A good way to narrow a broad topic is to list the subcategories of the topic. For example, two subcategories of Civil War tragedies are:

• The breakdown of families as a result of divided loyalties.
• How the small details of battle strategies affected the outcome of the war.

When you list subcategories, be careful not to narrow your topic too much, otherwise you won't have enough to write about it.

Focus is Too Narrow

A narrow focus covers too little about a topic. It gets so close to the topic that the writer cannot possibly say more than a few words. For example, writing about gender interactions in one of your classes is too narrow. You can use your class to make a point about gender interactions, but chances are, you'll find nothing specific in the library about your particular class. Instead, you might look at gender interactions in group settings, and then use your class as an example to either agree or disagree with your research. Be careful not to make your focus too broad as a result.

As you refine your focus, check to see if you pass the "So What?" test. To do so, you should know who will read what you write. Readers have to care about your topic in order to continue reading, otherwise they may look at what you have written and respond "So what?" You need to determine what readers need to stay interested in your writing. Ask yourself why readers will be interested in your specific topic. Is it significant enough to hold their attention? Why or why not?

Citation Information

Stephen Reid and Dawn Kowalski. (1994-2024). Maintaining Your Focus. The WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/writing/guides/.

Copyright Information

Copyright © 1994-2024 Colorado State University and/or this site's authors, developers, and contributors . Some material displayed on this site is used with permission.

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Writing Strategies

8 proven ways to stay focused in essay writing.

Writing an essay can be difficult, especially when there are outside distractions that make it difficult to concentrate. Maintaining focus is essential for writing excellent essays that clearly communicate your ideas and points of contention.

These are some of the eight proven strategies to help you stay focused during the essay writing process.

By incorporating these techniques into your routine, you can boost your productivity and achieve outstanding results.

Establish a Distraction-Free Atmosphere

Setting up a distraction-free atmosphere is one of the most crucial steps in staying focused when writing an essay. Locate a place that is peaceful and conducive to uninterrupted concentration. To avoid accessing social media or other distracting websites, turn off the notifications on your phone and computer, and think about using internet blockers. You may totally commit to writing your essay by removing any outside distractions.

Set Specific Goals and Deadlines

Setting specific goals and deadlines is crucial for maintaining focus while writing an essay. Divide up your essay into manageable assignments and give each section a certain amount of time. By using this strategy, you may stay organized and avoid being disorganized. Additionally, as you complete each objective, you feel a sense of accomplishment that drives you even harder to continue.

Create a Structured Writing Plan

A structured writing plan can help you stay focused while writing your essay. Outline your major points and supporting evidence first, then arrange them logically. This strategy serves as a road map, directing you as you write and ensuring that your essay has a logical flow. The assignment will be easier to complete if you have a clear structure in place because you can concentrate on each section separately.

Practice Mindfulness and Deep Breathing

Exercises that promote mindfulness and deep breathing can greatly improve your focus when you are writing an essay. Before beginning, take a few seconds to gather your thoughts. You should close your eyes, take a deep breath, and concentrate on the present. Your focus will improve, and your stress levels will go down, thanks to this practice. You will find it simpler to maintain concentration and engagement if you incorporate mindfulness into your writing process.

Break Up Writing Sessions

Prolonged writing might result in mental weariness and loss of concentration. Instead, divide your writing sessions into shorter, easier-to-handle segments. Set a timer for 25 to 30 minutes and write exclusively during that period. Take a little pause after the session to refuel and clear your head. The “Pomodoro Technique,” as it is often known, aids in maintaining focus and averts burnout.

Use Powerful Research Techniques

While research is a necessary component of essay writing, it may also serve as a possible source of distraction. Develop efficient research tactics to maintain attention. Make a list of the precise information you require and choose credible sources in advance. This method saves you time and keeps you from idly perusing the web for the right information. You can reduce time spent on research and improve the caliber of your essay by concentrating on pertinent sources.

Find Your Optimal Working Time

Discovering your optimal working time can significantly improve your focus during essay writing. Pay attention to when you feel most alert and productive, whether it is early in the morning or late at night. Schedule your writing sessions during this period to take advantage of your peak concentration levels. By aligning your work with your natural rhythm, you can optimize your focus and produce your best work.

Seek Professional Assistance

Despite your best efforts, it can occasionally be difficult to stay focused while writing an essay. If you are having trouble, think about getting help from a professional. Expert writers are available through services like https://canadaessaywriting.com/write-my-essay to help you get beyond writer’s block and stay on track. With their advice, you can finish your essay successfully while lowering your stress level and sharpening your attention.

Wrapping it up

For great work when writing an essay, concentration is key. You may eliminate interruptions, establish specific goals, and construct a disciplined writing schedule by using these eight tried-and-true techniques. Additionally, practicing mindfulness, breaking down writing sessions, using efficient research techniques, figuring out your best working hours, and getting expert help can all help you stay focused and meet your essay-writing objectives. Remember, maintaining concentration is a talent that can be developed with effort and practice. So, use these strategies and set out on your essay-writing adventure with newfound productivity and confidence.

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Getting and Staying Focused While Writing

“A person who chases two rabbits catches neither.” ~ Confucious

I DON’T KNOW if my brain has become more scattered over time, or if it’s a result of too much digital communication and attempted multitasking, but it sure seems more challenging than ever to get focused when I sit down to write. Staying focused can also be a challenge, though less so.

On a bad day, a writing session might look something like this:

I sit down, open my laptop and my writing application or a document I’m working on. I write a few words and then think of something I should research. I switch to my browser and google it, then spend the next 15 minutes reading information on various websites. By this time I have more questions and maybe I’m linking to additional sites, having forgotten why I started my research in the first place. Blinking, I come up for air, realize what I’ve done and switch back to my writing app, read what I wrote, add a few more words, decide I’m thirsty and get up to get a glass of water. As I’m pouring the water, I remember I need to transfer a load of laundry to the dryer…and, well, you get the picture.

Eventually, I make my way back to my computer and manage to get focused, but I’ve wasted precious time in which I could have been a lot more productive.

Does this happen to you too?

Fortunately, I know that when I come prepared, there are strategies I can employ to get focused more quickly and then stay focused until my writing goals for that session are accomplished. And when I use these strategies on a regular basis, I am more productive as a writer. More than that, I feel happier and more fulfilled as a person because I am satisfying my inner calling and need to write.  

As a quick aside before we get into strategies for focusing, one of the writers in my critique group pointed out to me that the creative process for writing isn’t always about being focused. And, of course, she’s right. Sometimes, you need to allow your mind to wander and explore ideas in order to travel unforeseen thought-paths and develop those ideas. In this case, what we really need is simply to show up, be present for our writing, and allow the mind to do what it does. Some of the strategies I share below will help you do just this — show up and be present. Use what works for you.

I’ve outlined my focus strategies into two sections: specific strategies and general principles.

Specific strategies:

• Have a writing topic and goal for that topic in mind when you start. Having a topic and goal is important for two reasons: the topic provides a target for your focus, and the goal guides you where to start and when to stop. Your topic can be anything from developing a character profile to an essay on garden composting. Your goal can be as simple as writing 200 words, completing a scene in your memoir, or writing an introductory chapter—it doesn’t matter. The point is to know what you’re going to write about and what you want to accomplish. –
• Prepare for your writing session by turning off your cell phone. Also turn of notifications on your computer and put yourself in Do Not Disturb mode. If you’re easily distracted by external stimuli, use noise cancelling headphones to block out external sounds. Listen to a white noise or concentration-inducing soundtrack. I like Hemi-Sync’s Concentration . You can also try searching “music for concentration” on YouTube. –
• Use an internet and social media blocking application to prevent going off track. I use Focus for Mac, which allows me to specify how long I want to focus, which applications and specific websites to block, etc. While reviewing focus applications is beyond the scope of this article, there are a many focus applications out there, and some have free or trial versions — just google “apps for focusing” to see what’s available. –
• As you begin your writing session, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and think of your topic. Imagine what you want to say. This pre-focusing ritual acts like priming the creative pump and gets your creative juices flowing. –
• If you’re in the middle of a writing project, read the last few paragraphs you wrote during your previous session and then continue .   –
• If you’re starting a new writing project, immediately write down the first words that come to you. It doesn’t matter if you will end up keeping these words in your piece or not. Getting something—anything—on the page prevents you from sitting there staring at a blank page trying to think up the perfect first words. Forget about that. The perfect first words are usually the last thing you’ll write.   –
• While writing, if you think of something you need to research, use a placeholder for the information and keep writing. As an example, if you need to know the year an event happened in history instead of switching to your browser to research, simply use brackets and replacement text as a placeholder, i.e: “[year of event].” You can look it up later, during time you’ve set aside for research.

General principles:

• If you’re feeling inner resistance, acknowledge the resistance and then ignore it. Resistance to creativity is innate to all of us. The more resistance you feel to writing, the more important it is that you write. Refuse to accept any rationalizations for not writing and, as the saying goes, “just do it.” –
• Train your mind. Learning to focus is like training a muscle; it takes practice. Start with writing goals that take 15 minutes or less. Stay focused for that amount of time, then stop for the day or take a 5-minute break. When you practice dedicating time to concentrate on your work, you will become better at getting and staying focused.   –
• Find the best time of day to write. I have found that late in the afternoon and into the early evening works best for me. I’ve taken care of all my tasks and am ready to wind down physically. For some unknown reason, it’s easier for me to concentrate between 3 and 7 PM than it is between 10 AM and 2 PM. You may find that working in the wee hours of the morning or late at night serves you best.   –
• Visualize success. At any time along the way, when you doubt yourself or find that you’ve gotten distracted, simply return your attention to your topic. Visualize completing your goal and then get back to writing.

These are the principles and strategies I’ve found that work for me. Experiment to see which strategies are most effective for you, and then practice those regularly and religiously. After a while, they will become second nature and you’ll find yourself completing your writing goals in a shorter amount of time.

If you have a funny story about getting distracted or you’ve found other focus strategies that work for you, feel free to share in the comments.

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Essay Clarity: How to Stay on Topic When Writing an Essay

My name is Debbie, and I am passionate about developing a love for the written word and planting a seed that will grow into a powerful voice that can inspire many.

Introduction: The Importance of Essay Clarity

1. understand the essay prompt: analyzing the key instructions, 2. organize your thoughts: creating a clear and coherent structure.

• tags for main sections and tags for subheadings. Within these sections, employ bold text to emphasize key points and make them stand out. 3. Employ bullet points or numbered lists: When discussing multiple supporting points or ideas within a section, consider using bullet points or numbered lists. This helps break down complex information into bite-sized chunks, making it easier for your readers to understand and remember. By implementing these strategies, your writing will not only be well-structured but also more engaging and accessible to your readers. A clear and coherent structure will guide your audience smoothly through your content, ensuring their comprehension and leaving a lasting impact. 3. Thesis Statement: Crafting a Concise and Focused Central Idea

4. Stay Focused: Avoiding Tangents and Irrelevant Information

5. use clear and precise language: communicating your ideas effectively, 6. transition smoothly: connecting your ideas and maintaining coherence, 7. revise and edit: ensuring clarity through proofreading and feedback, conclusion: mastering essay clarity for successful academic writing, frequently asked questions, in conclusion.

Why is essay clarity important?

When it comes to writing essays, clarity plays a vital role in effectively communicating your ideas to the reader. Clear writing not only helps the reader understand your thoughts and arguments, but it also showcases your ability to organize and articulate your ideas in a concise and coherent manner.

Here are a few reasons why essay clarity should be a top priority:

• Enhanced comprehension: Clear writing enables the reader to grasp the main points of your essay effortlessly. When your ideas are presented in a logical and cohesive manner, the reader can easily follow your thought process and connect the dots.
• Effective communication: Clarity in your essay ensures that your message is effectively conveyed. It helps you express your thoughts precisely and concisely, leaving no room for ambiguity or misunderstanding.
• Credibility and professionalism: Well-written essays demonstrate your competence as a writer and enhance your credibility. When your ideas are presented clearly, the reader is more likely to perceive you as knowledgeable and trustworthy.

By prioritizing clarity in your essays, you can greatly improve the overall quality of your writing and make a lasting impression on your audience.

When tackling an essay prompt, it is crucial to fully comprehend the key instructions before diving into the writing process. By carefully analyzing and understanding the prompt, you will be able to ensure that your essay addresses all the necessary components. Here are a few steps to help you navigate this stage:

Gather information: Start by reading the prompt multiple times to grasp its meaning and requirements. Identify the central theme or question posed. Highlight or underline any keywords that will shape the focus of your essay.

Break down the prompt: After gathering the necessary information, break down the prompt into smaller parts to aid your understanding. Identify the specific tasks or instructions outlined in the prompt. Create a mental or written checklist of what needs to be addressed in your essay.

Once you have gathered all your ideas and thoughts, it’s crucial to organize them in a clear and coherent structure. This will not only make your writing more digestible for readers but also help you express yourself more effectively. To achieve this, follow these steps:

1. Start with an outline: Create a skeleton for your writing by organizing your main ideas and supporting points. Think about the logical flow of your thoughts and how they connect to each other. This will provide you with a roadmap to follow as you develop your piece.

2. Use headings and subheadings: Break your content into sections to enhance readability and make it easier for your audience to navigate through your ideas. Utilize HTML headings to mark different levels of importance. For instance, use

tags for main sections and tags for subheadings. Within these sections, employ bold text to emphasize key points and make them stand out. 3. Employ bullet points or numbered lists: When discussing multiple supporting points or ideas within a section, consider using bullet points or numbered lists. This helps break down complex information into bite-sized chunks , making it easier for your readers to understand and remember. By implementing these strategies, your writing will not only be well-structured but also more engaging and accessible to your readers. A clear and coherent structure will guide your audience smoothly through your content, ensuring their comprehension and leaving a lasting impact. 3. Thesis Statement: Crafting a Concise and Focused Central Idea

A solid thesis statement is an essential component of any well-written essay or research paper. It serves as the foundation upon which the entire piece of writing is built, providing a clear direction for the reader to follow. Crafting a concise and focused central idea can be a challenging task, but with the right approach, it is achievable.

To create an effective thesis statement, consider the following tips: 1. Understand the assignment: Before diving into crafting your central idea, thoroughly comprehend the requirements and objectives of your writing assignment. This will ensure that your thesis statement aligns with the purpose of the paper. 2. Analyze and brainstorm: Take the time to critically analyze your topic and generate ideas. Jot down key points and arguments that you want to convey in your writing. This brainstorming process will help you formulate a concise and focused thesis statement. 3. Be specific and avoid ambiguity: A strong thesis statement is clear, specific, and devoid of vague language or sweeping generalizations. It should clearly state your main argument or position on the topic, supporting it with precise evidence and examples as needed.

When writing, it’s essential to stay focused on your main topic to ensure your message is clear and impactful. Avoiding tangents and irrelevant information can help you maintain reader engagement and prevent confusion. To keep your writing on track, consider the following:

• Define your purpose: Before you start writing, have a clear understanding of the goal you want to achieve with your piece. This will help you identify which information is relevant and which is not.
• Create an outline: Organize your thoughts and main points before diving into the writing process. This will provide a roadmap to follow and prevent you from going off on tangents.
• Stick to a structure: Use paragraphs to separate different ideas or concepts. Each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect related to your main topic. This way, your readers can easily follow your progression without getting lost.

Moreover, it’s important to consider your audience. Understand who you are writing for and adjust your writing style and the level of detail accordingly. By being conscious of your audience, you can avoid including unnecessary information that might not be relevant or interesting to them. Remember, keeping your writing concise and focused enhances your chances of delivering a compelling piece that resonates with your readers.

When it comes to conveying your thoughts and ideas, clear and precise language is crucial to ensure effective communication. Whether you are writing an article, presenting a project, or simply engaging in a conversation, using the right words and structuring your sentences properly can make all the difference in getting your message across.

To effectively communicate your ideas, consider the following tips:

• Choose your words wisely: Opt for vocabulary that is appropriate for your audience. Avoid jargon or overly technical terms that may confuse or alienate your readers or listeners.
• Keep it concise: Be mindful of unnecessary fluff or excessive information. Clearly state your main points and avoid dragging your thoughts or ideas.
• Organize your thoughts: Create a logical flow by organizing your ideas into paragraphs or bullet points. This helps readers or listeners follow your argument or main points more easily.

In addition to word choice and organization, it’s essential to be mindful of potential ambiguity. Ensure that your sentences can be interpreted in only one way, leaving no room for confusion. Avoid using excessive adjectives or adverbs that could cloud the intended meaning. Instead, strive for precision by using strong verbs and concrete nouns.

Effective writing requires more than just a collection of thoughts. To truly engage your readers and convey your message, it is crucial to ensure a logical flow between your ideas. Transition words and phrases play a significant role in achieving this coherence. By understanding how to connect your ideas seamlessly, you can enhance the readability and impact of your writing.

One way to transition smoothly is by using transition words or phrases that indicate relationships between sentences or paragraphs. Common examples include “however,” “in addition,” “similarly,” and “finally.” These connective elements allow you to guide your readers through your thoughts and arguments effortlessly. It’s important to note that they can also signal a contrast, emphasis, or sequence, depending on their usage within the context. Additionally, employing subordinating conjunctions such as “although,” “because,” and “unless” can further enhance the coherence of your writing.

• Use transitional words and phrases to indicate relationships between ideas.
• Employ subordinating conjunctions for better coherence within sentences.
• Ensure a logical flow by considering the structure and arrangement of your paragraphs.
• Connect ideas by highlighting similarities, contrasting differences, or emphasizing key points.

One essential step in the writing process is to revise and edit your work to ensure clarity and coherence. Proofreading your writing not only helps in catching any grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, or punctuation errors but also allows you to refine your content for better readability and understanding. In this section, we will explore some effective techniques for revising and editing your work, along with the importance of seeking feedback from others.

To begin with, **proofreading** is a crucial aspect of the revision process. Carefully read through your writing to identify and correct any errors or inconsistencies. Here are a few tips to help you efficiently proofread your work:

– Take a break before proofreading: Distance yourself from your writing for some time to gain a fresh perspective while proofreading. – Read aloud: Read your work aloud to catch any awkward phrasing or sentences that may need restructuring. – Use spell check tools: Utilize spell check tools available in word processors to easily spot and rectify spelling errors. – Check for grammar and punctuation: Pay attention to grammar rules and punctuation marks, ensuring that your writing follows correct and consistent usage. – Look for clarity and coherence: Ensure that your ideas flow logically and that each paragraph or section is connected to the overall theme of your piece.

Apart from proofreading, **feedback** plays a vital role in refining your work. Seeking feedback from others can provide valuable insights and perspectives, helping you identify areas that may need improvement. Consider the following when involving others in the revision process:

– Choose your proofreaders wisely: Seek feedback from individuals who have a good understanding of the subject matter or possess strong writing skills. – Ask specific questions: Instead of merely requesting general feedback, provide specific areas or questions you want your proofreaders to focus on. – Remain open to suggestions: Be receptive to feedback and constructive criticism, as it can lead to significant improvements in your writing. – Compare feedback: When receiving feedback from multiple sources, compare and analyze the suggestions to determine common areas that need attention. – Revise based on feedback: Implement the suggested changes once you have thoroughly reviewed and considered the feedback provided.

The key to successful academic writing lies in mastering essay clarity. When writing essays, it is crucial to present your ideas clearly and concisely, ensuring that your message is easily understood by your readers. By following a few essential steps, you can enhance the clarity of your writing and make it more impactful.

Firstly, consider the structure of your essay. A well-organized essay is easier to comprehend and allows your readers to navigate through your ideas effortlessly. Divide your essay into sections or paragraphs, each addressing a specific point. Use subheadings to guide your audience and make sure each paragraph focuses on a single main idea.

• Additionally, use transition words and phrases to connect your ideas smoothly. Words such as ‘furthermore,’ ‘meanwhile,’ or ‘however,’ help establish logical relationships between sentences and paragraphs.
• Furthermore, be mindful of your sentence structure. Keep your sentences clear and concise, avoiding excessive use of complex language or jargon that may confuse your readers. Break down complex ideas into simpler terms and provide examples or explanations when necessary.
• Avoid using long sentences, as they can lead to confusion and may distract your readers from your main argument. Instead, aim for shorter, well-constructed sentences that communicate your point effectively.

In conclusion, mastering essay clarity is essential for successful academic writing. By organizing your essay effectively, using transition words, and simplifying your language, you can ensure your ideas are communicated clearly and concisely. So, the next time you approach an essay, remember these tips and watch your academic writing thrive!

Q: What is the importance of staying on topic when writing an essay? A: Staying on topic is crucial when writing an essay because it ensures that your ideas are clear and well-organized. It helps you convey your thoughts concisely and effectively to your readers.

Q: How can I stay on topic when writing an essay? A: To stay on topic, you should start by clearly understanding the essay prompt or question. Make sure to identify the main idea or argument you want to focus on and create an outline to guide your writing. Additionally, during the writing process, continuously refer back to your outline and revise your content to ensure it aligns with the main topic.

Q: What are some common challenges people face when trying to stay on topic? A: One common challenge is getting sidetracked by related but irrelevant information. It’s important to differentiate between pertinent and tangential details. Another challenge can be the lack of a clear thesis statement, which often results in a scattered and unfocused essay.

Q: Are there any strategies to help me stay focused on my main topic throughout the essay? A: Absolutely! One effective strategy is to use topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph. These sentences provide a clear link to your main topic, helping you maintain focus and guiding your readers through the essay. Additionally, regularly reviewing your outline and ensuring that each paragraph supports your thesis statement will keep you on track.

Q: How can I ensure that my essay stays clear and coherent? A: To achieve clarity in your essay, start by organizing your thoughts before beginning the writing process. Ensure that each paragraph has a clear point that links back to your main topic and supports your thesis. Additionally, use transitional words and phrases to smoothly connect your ideas throughout the essay.

Q: Are there any common mistakes I should avoid when trying to maintain essay clarity? A: Yes, there are a few common mistakes to be aware of. Avoid going off on tangents unrelated to your main topic. Also, be cautious with overly complex language or jargon that may confuse your readers. Finally, steer clear of abrupt shifts in ideas or contradicting statements that can undermine the clarity of your essay.

Q: How important is proofreading in maintaining essay clarity? A: Proofreading is a vital step in maintaining essay clarity. It allows you to identify any errors, awkward phrasing, or inconsistencies that may have slipped through during the writing process. By carefully reviewing your essay, you can ensure that your ideas flow smoothly and that your message is clear and easily understandable.

Q: Can seeking feedback from others help improve the clarity of my essay? A: Yes, seeking feedback from others, such as classmates, mentors, or family members, can be incredibly beneficial. They can provide fresh perspectives and identify any confusing parts or areas that lack clarity. Having someone else review your essay can help you gauge if your main topic is clearly conveyed and if your arguments are effectively presented.

Q: Is there any other advice you would give to maintain clarity in essay writing? A: Yes, in addition to the strategies already mentioned, it’s important to be mindful of your intended audience. Tailoring your language, examples, and explanations to ensure that your readers can follow your line of thinking will greatly contribute to the clarity of your essay. Finally, practice active reading to enhance your own understanding of how clarity is achieved in other well-written essays.

In conclusion, staying on topic when writing an essay is crucial for clarity. By having a focused approach, you can effectively convey your ideas and engage your readers.

The Creative Battle: How to Overcome the Writer’s Block

Navigating Choices: When Choosing a Topic for Your Writing Project

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Stress-Free Essay Writing: 11 Techniques to Overcome Stress and Improve Your Writing

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You have (yet) another essay to write, and you feel like you’re losing your mind. There's so much on your plate that you don’t know how or where to start. What’s worse is that the pressure keeps building up!

Writing essays can make you feel like you’re on a hamster wheel – it’s never-ending.

Many students tend to feel anxious and stressed by essays, which impacts their writing quality. However, with a few clever techniques, you can write excellent essays while feeling relaxed and stress-free.

What are signs of anxiety for writers?

Anxiety signs are different for every person. However, common signs include procrastination, self-doubt, and writer's block. When you feel stress and tension while writing, you might stop moving forward. It can cause a vicious cycle of self-doubt and worry, making it challenging to write.

How can I relieve my writing anxiety?

The best way to relieve writing anxiety is to prepare accordingly. Start by breaking down the essay into smaller parts and setting a reasonable deadline for each section. Take regular breaks from writing to stretch and take deep breaths. This allows oxygen to flow freely throughout your body, helping to reduce tension and improve focus.

In this blog post, we'll share eleven techniques to help you overcome stress and improve your essay writing drastically.

1. Understand the topic and purpose of your essay

Before you begin writing, take some time to analyze and interpret the topic and identify the purpose of your essay.

Read relevant materials, such as articles, books, and research papers, to gauge your understanding of the essay topic . This way, you will be clear on the direction you need to take in your writing. It will also help you stay focused when writing and save you time.

Starting to write an essay before understanding the topic and objectives can lead to confusion and stress.

2. Set achievable goals and create a timeline

Writing an essay requires time, so it's essential to set achievable goals and timelines. Decide how many words you intend to write and create a timeline to guide you through the process of researching, writing, and editing.

For instance, you can dedicate a specific time of the day to research and outline. You can also allocate one hour for every 500 words of the essay, depending on the total word count required.

A realistic timeline can help you avoid last-minute stress and ensure enough time to write a high-quality essay.

3. Research well in advance before you start writing

Research is the backbone of any essay. That’s why conducting thorough research for your essays is always essential. Research helps you better understand your topic and positions you to write authoritatively.

Before your start writing, use credible sources such as academic journals and reputable websites to enrich your knowledge of the topic. Remember to take notes while reading to help you organize your thoughts. Researching in advance will reduce anxiety and make the essay-writing process stress-free.

4. Break your essay into manageable parts

Writing an essay can be an uphill task, especially when you try to tackle it as a whole. This is why breaking your essay into manageable parts can be helpful.

Divide your essay into sections such as the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion . Each section should be focused on a specific aspect of the overall topic. This way, you can concentrate on one section at a time and avoid feeling overwhelmed.

When you finish writing one section, take a short break before starting the next section. Breaking your essay into parts helps you stay organized and focused when writing.

5. Create an outline to guide you through

Outlining is crucial when writing an essay—it helps you organize your thoughts, stay focused, and write faster.

Once you understand the topic and purpose of your essay, research and create an outline, and jot down key points under each section of your essay to guide you through writing the essay.

An outline provides a roadmap of the flow and structure of your essay. It also takes the guesswork off your writing and prevents you from veering off the topic when writing.

6. Connect with other students

One effective way to alleviate stress is to connect with other students. Sharing tips, strategies, and helpful resources with one another can reduce the pressure of essay writing.

Find study groups within your college or join essay writing forums on social media where you can engage with other students. This can help you gain new perspectives and ideas you may not have considered. Additionally, working with other students can promote accountability, which can help you stay on track with your writing.

7. Set aside an appropriate amount of time to write

One of the biggest sources of stress when it comes to essay writing is procrastination.

You might be tempted to put off writing until the last minute, but that can increase your stress levels. To avoid this, set aside an appropriate amount of time to write. Determine how long it usually takes you to complete an essay, then set a schedule, and stick to it.

It may also help to determine what time of day suits you best, whether you are more productive in the morning or at night, and schedule to write your essay during that time.

8. Take regular breaks while writing

Writing for prolonged periods can be counterproductive and negatively affect your writing quality. Conversely, regular breaks can help refresh your mind and enhance creativity.

For a stress-free essay writing experience, try taking a 10-minute break for every hour of writing. During these breaks, avoid sitting in front of your computer and, instead, move around.

Take a short walk outside, do stretching exercises, or simply talk to someone. Such breaks can go a long way in refreshing your mind and body so you can write better.

9. Find a comfortable writing environment

The environment in which you write your essay can significantly impact your productivity and concentration. To overcome stress and write a quality essay, you need to find a comfortable writing environment where you can focus and minimize distractions.

For instance, find a quiet place with little or no disturbance, such as a library study room or a coffee shop, where you can fully concentrate on writing your essay.

10. Get feedback from someone you trust

Getting feedback is one of the most effective ways to improve your writing skills and overcome stress when writing essays.

You can get feedback from a colleague, a friend, a tutor, or even your professor. The feedback you'll get will enable you to make necessary adjustments, understand your weaknesses, and refine your writing style. They can also give you a fresh perspective and highlight what you may have missed while writing.

Getting feedback can help reduce the mental pressure of writing a perfect essay, enabling you to write with ease.

11. Practice, practice, practice!

Finally, remember that writing is a skill you can develop with time and practice. The more essays you write, the more comfortable you will become with writing. You will start to identify the best strategies and techniques for you.

You can start by writing simple essays and gradually increase the complexity. Try to look at each essay as an opportunity to improve your skills. With time, you'll become more confident and be able to write essays in a stress-free way.

How do you relax and write essays?

You can relax by playing soft music and breathing exercises to reduce anxiety before you start writing your essay. Go for a brief walk to get your blood flowing, and also try to find a place that gives you peace of mind. It could help to grab a cup of tea or coffee and settle in. Once you feel mentally and physically relaxed, you can start writing.

How do I gain confidence in my essay writing?

The best way to gain confidence is to write more often. Write every day, even if it's just a few sentences. Seek feedback on your essay writing to help you learn what works and what doesn't. You might also consider taking a writing class or workshop to develop and share skills with other writers. Participating in a writing community can also help build your confidence in writing.

Key takeaway

Essay writing can be stress-free if you approach it with the right mindset and strategy. Even though writing well takes time and patience, writing under stress can affect the quality of your essays. As a result, you’ll earn fewer marks or even miss deadlines.

With the techniques explored in this article, you can reduce stress, overcome writer's block, and improve your writing skills. Remember to work on your confidence and practice self-care consistently.

If you feel too overwhelmed to handle your essays, don’t hesitate to hire a professional essay writer .

With our team of subject-matter experts, we can deliver 100% original, custom-written essays on time and as per your requirements. Whether you need it in 15 days or 5 hours, we have the resources to take away the stress that comes with writing essays and assignments.

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How to Stay Focused on Writing When You’re Easily Distracted

• May 31, 2018

Lack of focus is one of the biggest obstacles to succeeding as a writer. These four simple, effective tips on how to stay focused on writing when you’re distracted by little shiny things will help you Blossom into the writer you want to be. At the very least, you’ll learn how to start the essay, write the report, or grade the stack of student papers 🙂

One way to stay focused on writing is to get inside your reader’s mind. If you’re writing an essay for school, for example, you need to put yourself in your teacher’s shoes. What does he or she want? What are the grading criteria, assignment guidelines, essay sections?

If you’re a freelance writer who wants to pitch a magazine article, you need to learn what the readers of the magazine are interested in. Knowing who your audience is will  improve your writing focus by helping you get specific and targeted. Sometimes, you need tunnel vision to succeed — at least until the essay, report, or article is written and submitted.

In The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century , Steven Pinker says the single biggest cause of bad writing is the “curse of knowledge.”  This is what causes many writers to lose focus, or not have a lack of focus at all. Unproductive, unfocused writers don’t know how to write  clearly . They get distracted by irrelevant details, or make connections that are logical only to them.

Unfocused, unproductive writers writers think their readers already know what they know. This is often why  academic writers fall into the trap of using jargon that only other academics understand. Pinker encourages writers to stay focused on writing clearly and concretely.

Did you catch those two tips on how to stay focused on writing? Here there are again: 1) Put yourself in your reader’s shoes; and 2) Focus on the relevant details, not the irrelevant bits.

Those two tips help you stay focused by giving you something tangible to work towards.

But wait, there’s more!

4 Simple, Effective Ways to Stay Focused on Writing

Consistent routines are the foundation of these tips on focus for writers…

1. Tap into the power of consistency

I’ve always disliked schedules and routines. My husband is the opposite: he likes his routines and he resists change. When we got married, I teased him about his schedules. I thought routines were a sign of stodginess, boringness, and lack of creativity. But now, I’ve learned the power of being structured and disciplined in my daily affairs, so I can be wildly creative in my writing and blogging! That’s the power of routine.

If you’re already a great at routines, schedules, and disciplined writing – but you can’t stay focused on writing – read 10 Ways to Increase Your Writing Motivation . Perhaps you simply need to learn how to motivate yourself to write more.

2. Develop a routine to help you stay focused on writing

Here’s the note I read to myself every morning:

“Consistency is the key to success in everything you do. Updating old blog posts, writing new articles for ‘She Blossoms’, connecting with readers and newsletter subscribers, answering blog comments and interacting with your She Blossoms Facebook Group are your primary goals today. The secret to success is being consistent. Discipline and routine offer freedom, because a routine stops you from floundering around, deciding what to do next. Your plan is all laid out. No thought required. Just action. Habit.”

What routine do you need? What do you need to remind yourself of every morning – or every time you sit down to write? Writing your reasons and reading them daily will help you stay focused as a writer.

3. Learn how routine is related to focus

Here’s how it works for me: if I have my plan for the day all laid out, then I can focus on writing because I’m not distracted by thoughts of what’s coming up later or what I should’ve done earlier. For instance, I write my “She Blossoms” newsletter every Wednesday morning, and post it on my Adventurous Writer website.

Routine helps me stay focused by giving me that tunnel vision I need to succeed. I had to develop a new writing routine recently, because my first book – Growing Forward When You Can’t Go Back – will be published in January, 2019! I need to be focused and structured in my writing, blogging, and marketing. It’s essential for success.

Success as a writer, fellow scribes, requires focus.

4. Know your biggest writing distractions

What is your biggest distraction? In the comments section below, tell me the top three things that ruin your focus and stop you from writing.

My biggest distraction is what I’m doing right now: revising old blog posts and updating them so they’re consistent with my present style. Revision is both comforting and invigorating – but it does distract me from writing my new fiction book (tentatively titled She Blossoms at Sea ). I use my distraction as a reward, which helps keep me focused on writing. In other words, after I write 1,000 of my new novel I can visit my old “She Blossoms” blog posts and update them.

And that, my friend, is the fourth tip on how to focus as a writer: write first, revise later.

Do your distractions make you feel like a failure? Read  How to Stop Feeling Like a Failed Writer .

Your comments and tips for focused writing are welcome below. I’d love to hear from you – especially if you’re Blossoming as a writer or blogger!

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2 thoughts on “How to Stay Focused on Writing When You’re Easily Distracted”

I agree — marketing and social media is my least favorite part of blogging and writer. So I just don’t do it! I focus on writing. I could probably make lots more money if I marketed my posts, but I just don’t wanna.

All the marketing and social media is the hardest thing to manage…but life does ‘come at you’ and a day can slip away in a flash. Thanks for the post! Cheers! Celeste

How to Stay on Topic When Writing an Essay

How to Write an Essay With a Thesis Statement

Whether writing a personal essay or an argumentative essay, you must stay on topic so your essay is focused and compelling. The strength of your essay's argument or emotional appeal dissipates when you veer off-topic; you risk losing your readers. As a student, learning how to stay on topic may also mean the difference between getting a good or bad grade on a writing assignment. Developing a strong thesis statement and making an outline can help keep your writing focused.

Develop a strong thesis statement. Your thesis statement is your essay's primary idea. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab says that a thesis statement should be narrow and concrete, and you should be able to support it with evidence in the body of the essay.

Develop an outline guided by your thesis statement. Use a pen and paper or note cards to organize your ideas as you put together the outline.

To create the outline, note your thesis statement at the top of the page and write a large A, B and C on the left side of the paper to correspond with each of your paragraphs. Use as many letters as needed for as many paragraphs as needed.

Write a main topic idea next to each letter. Growing With Grammar suggests that even the briefest paragraph should have a main topic, and the first sentence of the paragraph is usually the topic sentence.

Each topic sentence should support the main thesis. For example, if your essay is about how kale is the healthiest food to eat, each supporting statement might focus on one of the health benefits of kale.

Write the numbers "1", "2" and "3" under each topic sentence on your outline. These will correspond to the supporting details for each paragraph's main idea.

For example, if the paragraph is about how kale is the healthiest food to eat because it contains a lot of calcium, your supporting points could include information on how much calcium it contains, how much calcium is recommended for each person, and how eating enough calcium benefits health.

Within each paragraph, you have to back up and explain your main argument, so develop supporting details for each paragraph.

For example, if the paragraph is about how kale is the healthiest food to eat because it contains a lot of calcium, your supporting points could include information on how much calcium it contains both when raw and cooked and whether the average American gets enough calcium through dietary choices.

San Bruno, California's Skyline College professors Karen Wong and Rachel Bell explain that you should ask yourself "How do I know this is true?" for the main idea in each paragraph, and the answer you give yourself will help you flesh out your argument.

Double check every line of your essay to ensure that it supports the main idea in the paragraph, which should then support the thesis. Ask yourself how each sentence provides specific evidence to support your main idea. The sentence should be able to offer support when read on its own and not in context with the other information.

• Ask a classmate or friend to read your essay, while looking for any inconsistencies or weakness in your argument. The person you ask to proofread your essay can point out any places where your essay seems to go off-topic or let you know any questions that are raised but are not answered by the essay.

Do not include "fun facts" or bits of trivia, anecdotes or personal observations in your essay unless they support your argument.

Related Articles

How to Write an Essay on Transportation Problems

How to Write an Anecdotal Essay

How to Write an Expository Essay for Grade Three

How to Write a Narrative Paper for a 12 Year Old

How to Write a Controlling Idea Essay

How to Write a Diversity Scholarship Essay

What Is a Classification Essay?

How to Start a Debate

• Purdue Online Writing Lab: Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements
• California State University Northridge: Timed Essay Strategies; Karen Wong and Rachel Bell
• Do not include "fun facts" or bits of trivia, anecdotes or personal observations in your essay unless they support your argument.

Maria Magher has been working as a professional writer since 2001. She has worked as an ESL teacher, a freshman composition teacher and an education reporter, writing for regional newspapers and online publications. She has written about parenting for Pampers and other websites. She has a Master's degree in English and creative writing.

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A (Very) Simple Way to Improve Your Writing

• Mark Rennella

It’s called the “one-idea rule” — and any level of writer can use it.

The “one idea” rule is a simple concept that can help you sharpen your writing, persuade others by presenting your argument in a clear, concise, and engaging way. What exactly does the rule say?

• Every component of a successful piece of writing should express only one idea.
• In persuasive writing, your “one idea” is often the argument or belief you are presenting to the reader. Once you identify what that argument is, the “one-idea rule” can help you develop, revise, and connect the various components of your writing.
• For instance, let’s say you’re writing an essay. There are three components you will be working with throughout your piece: the title, the paragraphs, and the sentences.
• Each of these parts should be dedicated to just one idea. The ideas are not identical, of course, but they’re all related. If done correctly, the smaller ideas (in sentences) all build (in paragraphs) to support the main point (suggested in the title).

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Most advice about writing looks like a long laundry list of “do’s and don’ts.” These lists can be helpful from time to time, but they’re hard to remember … and, therefore, hard to depend on when you’re having trouble putting your thoughts to paper. During my time in academia, teaching composition at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I saw many people struggle with this.

• MR Mark Rennella is Associate Editor at HBP and has published two books, Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders and The Boston Cosmopolitans .  

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How To Focus When Writing An Essay

Wait, we are not telling you some old methods, right? So, leave all traditional ways!

Pick one formula and stick to it. No need to come out of your comfort zone, you better be selfish and loyal to yourself, follow no guidelines and just your will power. Nothing more, nothing less.

You are not going to get marks by following ours and some other’s guidelines. Instead, you will only be able to understand how to focus when writing an essay if things are relatable.

Each student is different, so how can you stick to general ways of focusing while studying? Yeah, indeed the attention span of young students is 15-20 minutes for reading and writing, and 18 minutes for TED talks (which is so trendy but still can not hold people longer than that). So, first be relaxed and then read below and add legit ideas for you.

Table of Contents

How To Focus Better When Writing An Essay

Do you think climate change is a global problem for students? No, losing focus while writing is a universal problem. It’s understood that writing a document for a prolonged time can lead to boredom and procrastination. It’s very natural for our brain to go south when we try to focus on a straight path.

Why does our brain do that? So it started when we were in our stone age, hunter gatherer days. In those days, humans were focused on things that they desired like hunting and feeding. Our brains are developed to focus on something that we actually like and are interested in.

So, in the modern world, when you are trying to write an assignment, your brain focuses on social media and video games because that’s what your deepest wishes want. Sometimes, if you want to finish your tasks on time, an  essay writer to hire  recuses you. Well, it not only saves you from procrastination during writing but completes your full-fledged essays. That’s why they shared answers on how to focus better when writing an essay.

Tips To Focus Better When Writing An Essay

If you usually lose focus while writing, you need to train your mind on how to focus when writing. You can’t be focused 24/7; that’s why you have to make the most out of the time you are productive. In the below section, we have listed some of the best tips to focus better when writing an essay.

Set Writing Goals

You have to set some realistic writing goals to help you stay focused. You can select a word limit for your writing practice every day. You can aim for meeting that goal by not getting side tracked by distraction. Once you have a goal, your mind will automatically be focused on achieving that.

All you need to do is set a goal that is realistic, and you know that you can achieve it quickly. Whether it’s about your write up or easily taking help with essay writing of your choice.

Your concentration span will also increase if you have an aim in mind and are determined to achieve it at the end of your day.

It also helps develop self-confidence and motivates you to do better.

Take A Break

Sometimes, you lose focus because you are immersed in the writing process due to the deadline. Writing without a break exhausts the mind and takes away interest and motivation. That’s why it’s important to reward yourself with a little break in between the writing procedure. After a break, you can resume your work with a fresh mind.

Various studies have shown the positive impact of breaks on essay writing. Regular breaks are physically and mentally healthy.

Breaks also enable you to come back to writing with clearer thoughts and restored energy.

There is also a chance that after a break, you will be able to detect many loopholes and mistakes you missed earlier in your essay.

Be In Your Writing Environment

For every writer, there is an ideal environment which improves focus and productivity. There might be a particular location that positively influences your writing journey. It might be some music, a comfortable chair, a cup of coffee, or a laptop that eases your mind while writing. You can choose to be in your comfort zone to be more concentrated on writing essays. Being in a favorable environment makes the writing procedure faster and more effective.

Eliminate All Distractions

Don’t you think writing is a mental exercise that requires all your attention? For that purpose you must remove all the distractions to make your mind concentrated.

Put your phone away and turn off the notifications of social media apps.

Close all the relevant tabs and browsers.

Shut the door of your room. Get up from your bed and sit attentively on a chair to begin writing..

Be Clear About Your Essay Topic

The reason why you are losing focus might be because you are not familiar with the essay topic. Most students lose track of the essay writing procedure because they don’t know what the topic is about. That’s why the very first thing you need to do is to have a clear idea of the essay topic.

One of the most effective tips to focus better when writing an essay is to read the essay question and keywords thoroughly.

Get your research complete to develop an understanding of the topic. Make sure to make an  essay longer with words  that are relevant.

Having a clear idea for the essay topic makes it easy for the writer to stay focused on searching for answers.

Major Concentration Issues While Writing An Essay

Now that we have discussed the tips on how to focus better when writing an essay let’s talk about the issues students encounter while writing essays.

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Distractions

In this modern age, you can see that there are plenty of distractions that impact the attention span of students. Social media is the biggest distraction for students these days. Additionally, television and streaming platforms keep students engaged for an extended period of time. Also the texting apps and video games take away the productivity and focus of students.

Connectivity Problems

What do we need the most for essay writing research? Yes, you guessed it, it’s the internet. You have to use the internet and browsers in order to gather information to use in your essay. Most of the time, students lose focus due to slow internet connection and other connectivity issues. Our mind is evolved to be focused while working in a flow. Once the flow is disturbed by connectivity problems, you are automatically going to lose interest in writing.

Personal Problems

There might be some personal problems in the student’s life that distract them from their assignments. What are the common personal issues? They can be financial pressure, relationship failure, emotional instability, family issues, and learning disabilities make students mentally disturbed and distracted.

Unfamiliar Topic

The reason for an unfocused mind might be the unfamiliarity of the topic you are writing on. What usually happens is that students are asked to write an essay on a subject they know nothing about. It’s natural to lack focus when you don’t know what to write. 

Weak Writing Process 

The students might haven’t got a good grasp of the essay writing procedure. The lack of knowledge will leave students confused. They will need help to outline and arrange things properly. The overall frustration and confusion of the essay process will take away the focus.

How To Stay Focused When Writing An Essay

Now that you know the tips and major challenges of staying focused, we have brought you to some of the must try hacks to maintain concentration. Every student should know these hacks to  stop procrastinating and start studying  for the future.

Don’t Edit During Writing

Wouldn’t it be easy to do one thing at a time and refrain from multitasking? Do not edit your document in the middle of writing. Disrupting the writing process with editing will put a halt to the creativity of the mind.

Set a Timer

You are about to get a rule of thumb that does wonders. You know what’s that? It’s the timer and let us tell you how to set it.

You only need to take out your smartphone and set a timer for several intervals between the writing procedure. Write with full concentration for 25 minutes, and then take a break of five to 10 minutes to relax your mind. Then, according to the timer, work for another 25 minutes and take another break. This will help you work in a relaxed timeline and refresh your mind regularly.

Give Treats To Yourself

Nothing motivates better than treats. You can give yourself treats every time the timer goes out after 25 minutes. In the little break, eat ice cream, read a comic book, and watch videos. Spend those breaks with things that you are interested in. It will give you a sense of achievement and motivate you to do better.

Pick Something You Are Interested In

You have to get your hands on a topic you are genuinely passionate about. If your essay topic is assigned by the professor, you need to find your interest edge to keep you focused. Protect yourself from distractions by picking a topic that you love to speak about and have enough knowledge about.

Create Outline

An outline has the power to make or break your write-up. So why not make the best use of that power? Yes, you need to create an outline that helps to ensure the constant flow of ideas and arrangement of the essay’s context. Moreover, it will keep you focused and on track all the time.

Write At a Different Time

If you are not feeling motivated and focused while writing, try writing at different times of the day. Human mind has different timing to be active and lazy so choose a timing when you are most productive.

You must have heard of medication as an answer when students wonder how to stay focused when writing. Writing for an extended period of time can exhaust the mind. Meditate in between to relax your muscles and your mind. A good Yoga break can help you focus better when you return.

Lack of Focus Stopping You?

Get in touch with our  assignment writing service  if you want more clarification to maintain focus while writing.

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Now, you are all equipped with how to focus when writing an essay. We genuinely believe that our blog will help you to stay concentrated on the topic during the writing process.

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How to Stay Focused on Writing

Last Updated: June 3, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams and by wikiHow staff writer, Christopher M. Osborne, PhD . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 42,490 times.

Writing does not usually flow steadily like a rolling stream; instead, for most of us, it alternates between occasional floods and frequent droughts. It doesn't matter if you're writing a research paper, novel, blog post, or multiple freelance assignments, you will at times have trouble staying focused on the project. To stay focused on writing, you first need to manage or eliminate distractions. Then, you need to do one or both of the following: treat writing like a set task with a rigid schedule and demanding expectations; and/or give yourself space to find inspiration that can get and keep you writing.

Managing Distractions

• Many people benefit from sitting and writing at a desk that is comfortable but not cozy; that is, a place that won’t cause you discomfort but also won’t easily let you drift into a nap. Set up a desk that has what you need where you need it, so you don’t have to get up while writing. [1] X Research source
• Some people, however, do their best writing at the coffee shop or at a shaded picnic table in the park. This works best for people who can readily block out ambient noise and visual distractions. There is no single ideal writing spot for all of us; there is an ideal writing spot for you. You just need to find it. [2] X Research source

• If closing a door isn’t possible or practical, using noise-canceling headphones to block out ambient noise may be a good option for you.

• You may even need to remove the phone from your sight while you work. Put it in a drawer that is nearby but that you’d have to get up from writing to reach. Don’t worry, it will still be there when you are finished. [5] X Research source
• If you have to keep your phone on, at least shut down as many apps and silence as many notifications as you can. And keep the phone out of easy reach so you aren’t as tempted to make a quick check every couple minutes.

• That said, you’re not a machine and you can’t work non-stop. Eat a quick snack if you’re hungry, use the restroom as needed, and get up and stretch every hour or if you feel like you’re getting stiff. It’s hard to concentrate if you're uncomfortable.
• Going for an occasional walk and taking a short break can help you brainstorm and gather your thoughts.
• Try to plan out and coordinate these breaks so they don’t cause too many distractions.

• Even if it’s 8:30, and you can only write until 9:00 before you have to get ready for work, sit back down and write. Stick to your schedule as best you can.
• If you're not on a deadline and you're not finding the inspiration to write, you may want to adjust your schedule or take a break from writing for a little while.

Setting and Meeting Goals

• Also, if you’re juggling multiple writing projects — if you’re a freelancer, for instance, or if you have multiple research papers due — schedule a time for each project separately. If you have two hours in the morning, schedule Project A for 7-8 am, and Project B from 8-9 am. Give each project a dedicated time of focus.

• However, some people simply cannot write as effectively when they feel like they’re being controlled by a ticking clock. If you’re writing a novel and “write one good page per day” works better for you than “write from 1-3 pm each day,” that’s okay. Just make sure you hold yourself to that schedule just as rigidly. It will probably also help to write at roughly the same time each day. [12] X Research source

• Your writing partner doesn’t have to be physically present; you could start your shared “writing time” with a text (then turn your phone off!) and end it with another. And, if it’s not possible to write at the same time, you can still keep track of each other’s daily writing results — and hold each other accountable if you come up short.

• For example, you can set aside Friday nights for going to a movie or hanging out with friends. However, take away one hour of your “fun time” for each hour of scheduled writing you skipped out on during the week.
• Or, if there’s a certain pair of shoes or video game that you really want, put a dollar in your “wish list piggy bank” each time you complete a scheduled writing session. In time, you’ll have earned your reward.

• Sharing milestones (and when you ought to achieve them) with others also helps keep you on schedule and accountable.

Seeking Inspiration

• That said, and especially if you are writing creatively, you want to make sure you can write freely and without particular concern for form, structure, grammar, spelling, etc. Do research beforehand to provide you with the content and context you need, and edit afterward to clean up and clarify what you’ve written. Allow your “writing time” to focus exclusively on precisely that. [19] X Research source

• Use headphones (with noise-canceling if possible) to block out distractions and allow the music to support your focus. If you find the music to be a distraction, try changing genres or go without it. Use white noise sounds with the noise-canceling headphones instead. [20] X Research source
• Typically, classical or instrumental music is considered to be the best accompaniment for a writing session; however, we all respond differently to music. So, if you happen to write most effectively with heavy metal blaring, go for it!

• Create and follow a clear schedule, but make sure that it is a reasonable one. Don’t try to write for more than 3-4 hours at a time, or the returns will likely diminish rapidly. Schedule little breaks every hour or so to get up, get a drink, clear you head, stretch your back, etc. Then get right back to writing. Don’t let a mini break turn into an extended one. [21] X Research source

• Doing a relaxing, inspirational activity before writing may also help to reduce the negative thoughts and feelings that can pop into your head when you’re struggling to write — things like “I can’t do this,” “This poem is terrible,” “I’m no writer,” and so on. Try to eliminate them before you begin writing, and power through them if they emerge while writing. You can and will overcome them by continuing to write. [22] X Research source

Expert Q&A

• Inspiration doesn't always come at handy times, so be ready when it comes calling. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Find what keeps you on task. What you learned here is general, but you need to find what works best for you. This article can't tell you what that is. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you're having problems with doodling, start writing on the computer. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.dailywritingtips.com/6-tips-for-focusing-when-writing/
• ↑ http://positivewriter.com/how-to-stay-focused-on-writing/
• ↑ http://karakey.com/phdadvice/phd-advice-3-tips-to-more-productive-writing/
• ↑ http://simplewriting.org/how-to-focus-on-writing-5-tips-that-work/
• ↑ https://www.freelancewriting.com/freelancing/freelance-writers-a-dozen-ways/
• ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.
• ↑ http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/2010/12/03/keeping-focused-on-your-novel/

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Maintaining Your Focus

Updated June 2022

To focus your writing, you'll need to know how to narrow your focus, so you don't overwhelm your readers with unnecessary information. Knowing who your readers are and why you are writing will help you stay focused.

A Definition of Focus

Kate Kiefer, English Department, Composition Director 1992 -1995 The focus of the text is also referred to as its thesis, theme, controlling idea, main point. In effect, writers tell readers what territory they plan to cover. That's the focus. A focus can be very narrow--as when a photographer takes a close-up of one mountain flower--or it can be broad --as when the photographer takes a long-range shot of the mountain. In practical writing, the focus is often specified for the writer by the "occasion" for the writing.

In their discussions of focus, writers may use several of terms: main point, thesis, theme, position statement, and controlling idea. What these terms have in common—and what focus is all about—is informally known as sticking to the point.

Sticking to the point involves having a clear idea of what you want to write and how you want to write about your topic. While you write, you'll want to keep in mind your supporting details to help your readers better understand your main point.

Coordinating all the aspects of your paper requires you to make each part work with the whole. Imagine your writing is a symphony orchestra in which one out of tune instrument will ruin the sound of the entire performance.

How Audience and Purpose Affect Focus

All readers have expectations. They assume what they read will follow a logical order and support a main idea. For instance, an essay arguing for a second skating rink for hockey players should not present cost figures on how expensive new uniforms have become.

Your audience and writing purpose will help you determine your focus. While it may seem obvious to include certain details, your audience may require specific information. Further, why you are writing will also affect what information you present.

Michel Muraski, Journalism and Technical Communication By articulating the problem, you give yourself focus. You must have done your audience analysis to have asked the question, "What kinds of information does the audience need? What are they going to do with it? Are they going to use it to further their research? Are they going to use it to make a decision?" Once you've identified your audience and what they're going to do with your information, you can refine your problem statement and have a focus. It's a necessary outcome.

Different audiences require different ways of focusing. Let's look at a proposal for a second ice rink in town for hockey players only.

Audience One: City Council

This audience will want to know why another ice rink is necessary. They will need to know how practice hours were shortened due to increases in open skate and lesson hours. They will need to know about new hockey teams forming within the community and requiring practice and game time on the ice. They should also be informed of how much money is made from spectators coming to view the games, as well as of any funding raised by existing hockey teams to help support a new rink. Every detail they read should support why city council should consider building a new rink.

Audience Two: Hockey Coaches and Players

This audience should be informed of the need for a new rink to inspire their support, but chances are they already know of the need. Ultimately, they will want to know what is required of them to get a new rink. How much time will they need to donate to fundraising activities and city council meetings? In addition, they will want to know how they will benefit from a new rink. How will practice hours be increased? Every detail they read should inform them of the benefits a new rink would provide.

Steve Reid, Composition Director 1973-1977 and 1994-1996 Focus, for me, is a term we borrowed from photography. This means we narrow something down to a very sharp image. First, it's a notion of narrowing to something, but also, it's a notion of sharpness and clarity. Focus is one of the things that clarifies purpose. So, once we get a sense of thesis, that helps illuminate the photography image, illuminate what the overall purpose of the paper is.

Your purpose is why you are writing about your topic. Different purposes require different ways of focusing. Let's look at a proposal for a second ice rink in town for hockey players only.

Purpose One: Arguing

Proposing a new ice rink to city council members would require convincing them the rink was necessary and affordable. You would need to acknowledge reasons for and against the rink.

Purpose Two: Informing

Informing fellow hockey coaches and players about a new rink would require telling them of the steps being taken to achieve a new rink. This audience most likely knows most of the issues, so selling them on the idea probably won't be necessary. Give them the facts and let them know what they can do to help.

Don Zimmerman, Journalism and Technical Communication Department Typically, when I'm writing a report for a person out there, I provide them with the information they need to either increase their knowledge or make a decision. When I talk about focus, I really mean targeting. Here's an example. This comes out of a trade magazine. In Nursing '96 , you'll find articles written by nurses for other nurses. They will generally open with essentially two or three paragraphs. They will say, "You know, here is the problem I had as a nurse in this setting." They tend to set them in what I would consider, soap opera-ish kinds of settings. They set up a real-life situation with real people. In other words, "I went into Sally's room and discovered she'd thrown all the covers off the bed, and she was sweating profusely." The article goes on to describe what it was. Then it will come back and say, "Here's the problem. Now we've had a number of patients who did this kind of activity, and we found they fell out of bed. To minimize those injuries, here are three things we've done." Then they will give you the summary and then they will elaborate those procedures. That's very targeted. Targeting influences the kind of language used. This means the nurses in the hospital are dealing with "X" kind of patient and "X" kinds of situation. This means a lot of terms and terminology are used. The other nurses reading about this will understand it because of their interest in that topic; it's going to fit them.

Narrowing Your Focus

Writers who cover too much about a topic often overwhelm their readers with information. Take, for example, an essay focused on the tragedies of the Civil War. What tragedies? Readers have no idea what to expect from this focus, not to mention how difficult it would be to write about every tragedy of the Civil War.

After writers choose a topic to write about, they need to make sure they are not covering too much nor too little about a topic. The scope of a focus is partially dictated by the length of the writing. Obviously, a book on the Civil War will cover more than a 500-word essay. Finally, focus is also determined by its significance, that is, its ability to keep readers' interest.

What It Means to be Focused

Donna Lecourt, English Department What it means to be "focused" changes from discipline to discipline. Say for example, in literature, my "focus" comes through a novel. I want to write about Henry James's Turn of the Screw . On one hand it could come through theory. I want to do a feminist analysis and Henry James's Turn of the Screw just happens to be the text I apply it to, or I might add another text. I might just approach a novel and say, "Okay. Everybody's read it in these ways before. Here's yet another way to read it." I don't have to show that I'm adding to, in some ways, I can show I'm distinguishing or coming up with something new. What my "focus" is, is determined disciplinarily as well as by my purpose. Another example would be a typical research report where a "focus" is what's been done before because that determined what an experiment was going to be about. And so, in some ways, you're not coming up with your own "focus" the way in English, in some ways, you can. You have to look at "X," "Y," and "Z" studies to see what was done on this topic before you can prove your point. Focus comes out of what was achieved before. You have to link what you're doing to previous research studies which is a requirement of a lot of research reports.

Focus is Too Broad

Michel Muraski, Journalism and Technical Communication The biggest conceptual shift in most students is having too broad of a statement and literally finding everything they ever knew about this topic and dumping it into a term paper. They need to consider what they write a pro-active document: a document that's going to be used by a specified audience for a specified reason about a specific area of that broader topic.

Kate Kiefer, English Department, Composition Director 1992 -1995 A broad focus looks easier for students, but it turns out that a narrow focus is generally easier. General articles and essays with a broad focus require lots of background information and a pretty clear sense of the readers' goals in reading the piece. Otherwise, writing with a broad focus tends to result in pretty boring prose. Most academic writing requires a narrow focus because it's easier to move from that into the specific supporting detail highly valued in the academic community.

A broad focus covers too much about a topic. It never discusses the fine details necessary to adequately present a topic and keep readers' interest. A good way to narrow a broad topic is to list the subcategories of the topic. For example, two subcategories of Civil War tragedies are:

• The breakdown of families as a result of divided loyalties.
• How the small details of battle strategies affected the outcome of the war.

When you list subcategories, be careful not to narrow your topic too much, otherwise you won't have enough to write about it.

Focus is Too Narrow

A narrow focus covers too little about a topic. It gets so close to the topic that the writer cannot possibly say more than a few words. For example, writing about gender interactions in one of your classes is too narrow. You can use your class to make a point about gender interactions, but chances are, you'll find nothing specific in the library about your particular class. Instead, you might look at gender interactions in group settings, and then use your class as an example to either agree or disagree with your research. Be careful not to make your focus too broad as a result.

As you refine your focus, check to see if you pass the "So What?" test. To do so, you should know who will read what you write. Readers have to care about your topic in order to continue reading, otherwise they may look at what you have written and respond, "So what?" You need to determine what readers need to stay interested in your writing. Ask yourself why readers will be interested in your specific topic. Is it significant enough to hold their attention? Why or why not?

Reid, Stephen, & Dawn Kowalski. (1996). Maintaining Your Focus. Writing@CSU .. Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=28

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How to Structure an Essay

Essay writing is a fundamental skill, a basic task, that is expected of those who choose to pursue their undergraduate and master’s degrees. It constitutes a key requirement for students to complete a given course credit. However, many students and early career researchers find themselves struggling with the challenge of organizing their thoughts into a coherent, engaging structure. This article is especially for those who see essay writing as a daunting task and face problems in presenting their work in an impactful way.  

Table of Contents

• Writing an essay: basic elements and some key principles  
• Essay structure template 
• Chronological structure 
• Problem-methods-solutions structure 
• Compare and contrast structures 
• Frequently asked questions on essay structure 

Read on as we delve into the basic elements of essay writing, outline key principles for organizing information, and cover some foundational features of writing essays.  

Writing an essay: basic elements and some key principles

Essays are written in a flowing and continuous pattern but with a structure of its own. An introduction, body and conclusion are integral to it. The key is to balance the amount and kind of information to be presented in each part. Various disciplines may have their own conventions or guidelines on the information to be provided in the introduction.  

A clear articulation of the context and background of the study is important, as is the definition of key terms and an outline of specific models or theories used. Readers also need to know the significance of the study and its implications for further research. Most importantly, the thesis or the main proposition should be clearly presented.  

The body of the essay is therefore organized into paragraphs that hold the main ideas and arguments and is presented and analyzed in a logical manner. Ideally, each paragraph of the body focuses on one main point or a distinct topic and must be supported by evidence and analysis. The concluding paragraph should bring back to the reader the key arguments, its significance and food for thought. It is best not to re-state all the points of the essay or introduce a new concept here. 

In other words, certain general guidelines help structure the information in the essay. The information must flow logically with the context or the background information presented in the introductory part of the essay. The arguments are built organically where each paragraph in the body of the essay deals with a different point, yet closely linked to the para preceding and following it. Importantly, when writing essays, early career researchers must be careful in ensuring that each piece of information relates to the main thesis and is a building block to the arguments. 

Essay structure template

• Introduction 
• Provide the context and share significance of the study 
• Clearly articulate the thesis statement 
• Body  
• Paragraph 1 consisting of the first main point, followed by supporting evidence and an analysis of the findings. Transitional words and phrases can be used to move to the next main point. 
• There can be as many paragraphs with the above-mentioned elements as there are points and arguments to support your thesis. 
• Conclusion  
• Bring in key ideas and discuss their significance and relevance 
• Call for action 
• References 

Essay structures

The structure of an essay can be determined by the kind of essay that is required.  

Chronological structure

Also known as the cause-and-effect approach, this is a straightforward way to structure an essay. In such essays, events are discussed sequentially, as they occurred from the earliest to the latest. A chronological structure is useful for discussing a series of events or processes such as historical analyses or narratives of events. The introduction should have the topic sentence. The body of the essay should follow a chorological progression with each para discussing a major aspect of that event with supporting evidence. It ends with a summarizing of the results of the events.  

Problem-methods-solutions structure

Where the essay focuses on a specific problem, the problem-methods-solutions structure can be used to organize the essay. This structure is ideal for essays that address complex issues. It starts with presenting the problem, the context, and thesis statement as introduction to the essay. The major part of the discussion which forms the body of the essay focuses on stating the problem and its significance, the author’s approach or methods adopted to address the problem along with its relevance, and accordingly proposing solution(s) to the identified problem. The concluding part offers a recap of the research problem, methods, and proposed solutions, emphasizing their significance and potential impact. 

Compare and contrast structures

This structure of essay writing is ideally used when two or more key subjects require a comparison of ideas, theories, or phenomena. The three crucial elements, introduction, body, and conclusion, remain the same. The introduction presents the context and the thesis statement. The body of the essay seeks to focus on and highlight differences between the subjects, supported by evidence and analysis. The conclusion is used to summarize the key points of comparison and contrast, offering insights into the significance of the analysis.  

Depending on how the subjects will be discussed, the body of the essay can be organized according to the block method or the alternating method. In the block method, one para discusses one subject and the next para the other subject. In the alternative method, both subjects are discussed in one para based on a particular topic or issue followed by the next para on another issue and so on.  

Frequently asked questions on essay structure

An essay structure serves as a framework for presenting ideas coherently and logically. It comprises three crucial elements: an introduction that communicates the context, topic, and thesis statement; the body focusing on the main points and arguments supported with appropriate evidence followed by its analysis; and a conclusion that ties together the main points and its importance .  

An essay structure well-defined essay structure enhances clarity, coherence, and readability, and is crucial for organizing ideas and arguments to effectively communicate key aspects of a chosen topic. It allows readers to better understand arguments presented and demonstrates the author’s ability to organize and present information systematically. 

Yes, while expert recommend following an essay structure, early career researchers may choose how best to adapt standard essay structures to communicate and share their research in an impactful and engaging way. However, do keep in mind that deviating too far from established structures can hinder comprehension and weaken the overall effectiveness of the essay,  By understanding the basic elements of essay writing and employing appropriate structures such as chronological, problem-methods-solutions, or compare and contrast, researchers can effectively organize their ideas and communicate their findings with clarity and precision. 

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