With the end of the school year approaching, now is the time when many students begin to dread the long papers, which were assigned months prior. The irony with paper writing procrastination, however, is that students usually spend more time putting off an assignment than it would take to actually complete it. How, then, can you put a stop to the procrastination and just get the assignment over and done with?

Give yourself an early deadline

One way to eliminate last-minute paper writing is to simply set attainable goals. Try setting an earlier deadline for yourself so that you can train your brain to think of that as the true deadline. This is a great way to ensure that your paper is done at least a few days in advance so that you can go back and revise it with fresh eyes.

Work in a public space or with friends

As tempting as it is to do your paper writing in the comfort of your own home, a private space is an environment that makes for easy distraction. It is too easy to open a new Internet browser window to watch a quick TV show, or to run over to the kitchen for a quick snack. These distractions accumulate, and working in a public space, or with friends who can hold you accountable, may help eliminate those distractions.

Plan out small, incremental steps

Rather than viewing your paper as one massive assignment to complete, break it down into smaller components that you can actually check off each day. Make Day 1 the day you simply create the text document, Day 2 the day you find your primary resources, Day 3 the day you create your thesis statement, etc. Your assignment will become much less intimidating and more manageable when you can check things off each day as you complete them.

Create a “skeleton” first

It helps to quickly sketch out the layout of your paper before actually creating any textual content. Creating a “skeleton” of your paper—in a sequence such as Introduction, First Supporting Argument, Second Supporting Argument, Conclusion—will help you organize your thoughts as you begin writing, and then you can go back into each space in your text document and fill them in.

Start in the middle of your paper

Remember: you don’t have to start at the beginning of a paper. Did the idea for your paper start with one of the three supporting arguments you plan on making? Start with that supporting argument. Have you already thought of a clever closing? Write that first. This will give you an unexpected jump start on your paper, and your paper might even end up more cohesively written if you write, say, the introductory and concluding paragraphs at the very end.