Bad day in the office....

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Today has not been a good day for studying. I have revision to do over the holiday's (for a human structure and function exam in Jan) which has been difficult to manage but has been going okay. I also have to work on an essay for another module, one which I have found much more difficult. I muddled through the first two days allocated over the holiday's, managing to write my introduction. Today was another day allocated to work on it.
Right now I've found myself no further forward with it, having spent much of the day trying to get on with it and a lot of it drifting into my own world. I have difficulty describing exactly what it is about things like this that I struggle with, so apologies but I keep trying. It's like the task of essay writing always seems too difficult and overwhelming, the only way my brain can do it is by very slowly and almost painfully grinding away to somehow get there eventually (or not as often is the case) but to be able to get myself to keep pushing through that is so difficult. I do try the various methods of trying to mind-map, think about an introduction, middle and conclusion etc. but the process remains a painful one :-/

I think maybe that's why frequently, without even realising, I find myself fall into my imagination and before I know it, a lot of time has passed and I've still not gotten anywhere with writing my essay. I have two specific scenarios I find myself acting out repeatedly atm. I thought maybe about trying to designate time where I can allow myself to do this, with the proviso that I have time before that where I try to get work done but it doesn't make the task of writing the essay any easier, so I'm not sure it's all that successful. I think part of the reason today has been especially unproductive in terms of studying, is because most of the day my mum has been at work and I've been home alone. I realise it's not my mum's responsibility to keep me on task and help me muddle through things, actually I feel a bit embarrassed that at 24 years old I still need that but it does help. I'm just stressed now because I've achieved nothing again today, I have limited time to work on it, with revision and other work I need to do as well.

I just thought I'd try and see if anyone had any helpful thoughts/tips?

Yeah...I know that Procrastinating Feeling!

What I would do: create for yourself a reward system for completion of certain tasks. Like maybe some ice cream or something.

Know when the assignment is due. When I was in college/university, I used to always wait until the last minute---then intensely concentrate on my task.

This is one of the reasons why I haven't gone too much beyond my Bachelor's--except for a few Graduate courses.

But, really, I think you'll be okay in the end, especially if you know when it's due.

I don't know what is wrong with me?! The whole writing process is just so incredibly difficult, laborious and draining. Today I've had my mum around which has helped keep me on task, and yet I've edited the approximate 300 words I already had and added no more than 50.

I don't know what's wrong with me and how I can make writing easier for myself. It isn't the procrastination that is the problem , it's the difficulties with writing that's the problem and at times causes the procrastination, if that makes sense.

Perhaps you just have to work harder than some people on your writing.

Have you received feedback about your writing from professors?

I have the same issue, and so I approach my essays from a different point of view. I go through the brief that my lecturer hands us, and bullet point what I have to do. I basically establish how my essay has to be laid out, with all the headers and sub headings. Then under each header, I'll roughly bullet point what I'm supposed to write (with the assistance of Googling everything). I then go through and turn each bullet point into a paragraph, and boom, my essay is done.

I start my essays the day they are set, and will work on them a little each night. I think on them a lot, on car journeys and when in bed at night, etc. This thinking allows me to work out what is expected of me in the essay, and how I'll go about writing it. It helps, as it takes me a lot longer than other people to establish what I'm supposed to do. When in class, I take notes with the point of view of using them for future essays, most of the time the lecturers tell you what to write if you listen closely.

Yep...she's right.

It's all about organization

But I do know what you're going through--because I went through the same thing.

Sometimes, I winged it. I achieve some success, but sometimes, the success achieved was less than if I had worked on it.

I hope everything is going all right, and that you're almost finished.

I'm a talkative person, so this kind of thing is pretty easy for me. I could write about anything, and know nothing about it. I do basically what you're talking about. Let's say I am going write about the first thing on my mind, what is right in front of me:

[Intro]
[Something about my neighbor]
[Point]
[Summary]
[Conclusion]

Then I would write the middle:

[Intro]
[My neighbor's name is Uncle Phil. This is not his actual name. I call him this because he looks like a white version of Uncle Phil from the show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (citation).][Uncle Phil rolled his trash bins out to the curb this morning because he thought it was Trash Day. I put my trash bins out on the curb as well. I knew it was not Trash Day, but, seeing Uncle Phil's bins made me second guess myself. The trash truck never came. Uncle Phil is now rolling his bins back down to his house. I will not bother to do the same.][Uncle Phil has caused me to leave my trash bins out on the road for a full day; he has further caused me to look lazy by highlighting the fact that I will not bother to return my own trash bins to my yard like he has with his own.]
[Conclusion]

As you can see, that was literally about nothing. The last thing I would do is put an introduction and a conclusion on there that almost matched each other. The conclusion would have a little more flourish in it.

In a way, your story WAS about something. It was about somebody who is obsessed with doing things a certain way.

I should have tried this from the start. I was just struggling to manage everything else at the time that I didn't designate time as soon as it was set, like you say. I have help from my mentor but she seemed to be reassuring me that I didn't need to stress about not starting it sooner as I had plenty of time. Clearly I didn't....
I struggle with the taking notes part and generally coping in this modules lectures to be honest but it's a useful idea to keep the essay in mind regularly to remember to try and take note of anything I do think might be useful to prompt and allow for more necessary thinking time.

KK - we've not really had any feedback yet. Well we should have had some with our formative essay but mine wasn't finished. I know in particular situations, when I'm very clear on what it is I want to write about, my writing is generally pretty good, so I know it's not that which is the problem, it's just the process of getting from the work being set, to a finished essay.
It's really frustrating when people just say 'but you write really well!', - it's not as easy as that! I think you're right, I know I will always have to work that bit harder than some on my writing.