Procrastination or writer’s block is common among students and even professional writers. As a student, when it comes to assignments I tend to procrastinate and it ends up with me cramming at the last minute, making my work rushed. It usually occurs when the writer loses motivation to write, or the assignment isn’t understood causing frustration or uneasiness. The part about procrastination that mostly confuses me is the writer knows the urgency of the assignment, but we allow the stress to prevent us from doing what we need to do.
Ramirez described writer’s block from a more positive perspective. “..writer’s block should happen every time a student writes something. And if it doesn’t, it means what they’re writing isn’t challenging enough”. I agree with this statement because this also happens to me with hard writing assignments. I noticed how the easier assignments are completed earlier and quicker than the more challenging assignments, and I hardly struggle with the easier assignments. Ramirez also provides some advice and precautions that could help with writer’s block which include skimming through the rubric if one is provided, sleeping on the topic so you could think about it, do something that calms your nerves.
Skimming through the rubric instead of reading it word for word makes more sense because she believes that reading word for word what the assignment is looking for will cause you to stress over the assignment. Ramirez advises writers to get an understanding of what is required for the assignment then once the word or page requirement is meant, read over the entire assignment to edit and finalize the assignment. Like myself and Ramirez, your skimming skills need to be sufficient enough so you retain the necessary information and your ability to understand what you need to do.
Taking time to nap and think about an assignment could also be beneficial. Sleeping gives you and your brain the chance to relieve yourself of the stress of the assignment so you could wake up and have new motivation to write. This could also not work in your favor because it could be crunch time for your assignment, forcing you to think quickly about what you need to do in such a short time forcing you to either shorten or remove your nap time. Ramirez says “If I’m in a horrible situation where an assignment is due within 2 hours, I close my laptop and lay down without falling asleep”. The purpose of this is to still calm your nerves so the stress isn’t overwhelming you, which I also find useful.
Distracting yourself or putting your time into something you enjoy could also be useful. This is another form of a stress reliever for yourself and the brain so you could better complete the task. I enjoy scrolling through TikTok or social media because it’s usually entertaining which removes the stress from my body. Some distractions Ramirez listed include watching TV, listening to music, going for a walk, or doing anything that you enjoy doing.
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