Blog 1- Eli Davis

 I am sitting here thinking about how to start my paper on how I write papers. I guess I will start with what keeps me from getting my work done; the distractions. There are always so many distractions at my house. I live with my mom, dad, brother, and two dogs, but there are always my other siblings and their children coming on by. I love it all, but when I am trying to sit down and write a paper it is hard with the TV blaring, the babies crying, and the dogs playing. I head upstairs to my room to get away from the noise. When I get into my room, I have to get everything ready for me to start. I grab my airpods and I turn on either some Jack Johnson or Yo-Yo Ma. I absolutely love listening to music always, and so I have my homework playlist and my normal playlist. After my music is all ready, I open up my blind to let in daylight. Something about sunlight just makes me feel more productive and happy. Alright, I am almost ready. I go grab my laptop, a glass of water, and oops I almost forgot to move my phone, that's the number one distraction. Whenever I forget to place my phone away from me, I get distracted from the texts from my friends to me somehow always finding myself on TikTok or ESPN. I then place my phone away from me and I sit down to begin. I always struggle to sit down and put my first thought down on a paper. I can never think of how to start off. Should I start with bullet points and develop them, or should I write and just go with it. Eventually I get in the flow of writing. Once I get typing away, I feel like I could go for forever, well most of the time. When I write, I tend to write my whole paper in one sit down session. I do this because my mind seems to be locked into that topic at the moment. Depending on the deadline, I will either go back and review it that night or the next day. When I wait to proofread, I feel like I find more mistakes than if I proofread immediately after. I am a procrastinator, so the majority of the time I wait until the night before, but sometimes the topic changes when I write the paper. If the writing is over something I have just read, I will write it as soon as I get the prompt. On the other end of the spectrum, if it is over something I do not enjoy or if I have yet to do the reading, I will likely wait until the last minute. With my transition to college, I hope that I will improve my time management with my homework and especially with papers.