homework takes me too long

• Learning Disorders
• Too Much Time Doing Homework

Hi, I have always had a very hard time trying to concentrate on doing my homework. It takes me about 6 hours to do something that should take just 1 (not even exaggerating). I get great marks in all my classes, I can zoom through math problems super quick, but when I have to write an essay or give complete answers for questions, it takes me way longer than it should. For answering questions in science, I have to read the question over and over again until I can be sure I haven’t missed anything. I feel that my work has to be perfect or else it’s just not good enough. I put more pressure on myself than anyone else does. I have always struggled with spelling but I have never been diagnosed with a learning disability. I also suffer from anxiety (again I haven’t been diagnosed with anything). Is it possible that I might have a learning disability? Maybe it’s related to the anxiety? Is there anything I can do to help focus and get my work done quicker? var googletag = googletag || {}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot( '/22836344208/Article_Top_300x250', [300,250], 'gpt-ad-8315842314292-0' ) .addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.enableServices(); googletag.display( 'gpt-ad-8315842314292-0' ); }); Ad Thanks, Cal

• Dr. Schwartz responds to questions about psychotherapy and mental health problems, from the perspective of his training in clinical psychology.
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It is interesting that something that can be viewed as a disorder under one set of circumstances can also be viewed as a good coping mechanism at other times. What I mean is that, unless I am mistaken, your perfectionism helps you achieve very high grades in school. In the study of science, this would be considered very good.

At the same time, you find yourself spending more time at homework that you feel you should. I want to point out that the word, “should” also varies as to it’s meaning and that depends on the context. If your career goals include work in the sciences, whether it’s medical or other, most people would tell you that you are not spending too much time. The field of science is very competitive and success depends on real academic achievement.

Nevertheless, you are not comfortable with the time you are spending nor with your level of anxiety.

It is entirely possible that you have a learning disability, especially in light of the many spelling errors in your email question. Don’t feel bad a out that because it’s merely a symptom. If you do indeed have a learning disability, it might account for your level of anxiety when doing school work and with the amount of time you spend studying.

Therapists are Standing By to Treat Your Depression, Anxiety or Other Mental Health Needs

Explore Your Options Today

You have several options open to you: 1. You could go to the counselling department at your school and discuss your problem with them. They will have you tested and make recommendations based on the results. 2. You could see a psychologist, discuss the problem and he will have you tested and referred for training to help you deal with the disability and the anxiety. 3. I know some people who went to the “Sylvan Learning Center”and see what they may have to offer.

Mainly, you really have to get yourself diagnosed so that you know what you are dealing with and so that you can take the correct actions.

You are a good student and the idea is to not let anything, such as a learning disorder or anxiety, interfere with that.

Best of Luck

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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August 16, 2021

Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in

by Sara M Moniuszko

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide-range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas over workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework .

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy work loads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold, says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace, says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression.

And for all the distress homework causes, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night.

"Most students, especially at these high-achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school ," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely, but to be more mindful of the type of work students go home with, suggests Kang, who was a high-school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework, I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the last two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic, making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized... sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking assignments up can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

©2021 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Homework Struggles May Not Be a Behavior Problem

Exploring some options to understand and help..

Posted August 2, 2022 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• What Is Anxiety?
• Take our Generalized Anxiety Disorder Test
• Find a therapist to overcome anxiety
• Mental health challenges and neurodevelopmental differences directly affect children's ability to do homework.
• Understanding what difficulties are getting in the way—beyond the usual explanation of a behavior problem—is key.
• Sleep and mental health needs can take priority over homework completion.

Chelsea was in 10th grade the first time I told her directly to stop doing her homework and get some sleep. I had been working with her since she was in middle school, treating her anxiety disorder. She deeply feared disappointing anyone—especially her teachers—and spent hours trying to finish homework perfectly. The more tired and anxious she got, the harder it got for her to finish the assignments.

One night Chelsea called me in despair, feeling hopeless. She was exhausted and couldn’t think straight. She felt like a failure and that she was a burden to everyone because she couldn’t finish her homework.

She was shocked when I told her that my prescription for her was to go to sleep now—not to figure out how to finish her work. I told her to leave her homework incomplete and go to sleep. We briefly discussed how we would figure it out the next day, with her mom and her teachers. At that moment, it clicked for her that it was futile to keep working—because nothing was getting done.

This was an inflection point for her awareness of when she was emotionally over-cooked and when she needed to stop and take a break or get some sleep. We repeated versions of this phone call several times over the course of her high school and college years, but she got much better at being able to do this for herself most of the time.

When Mental Health Symptoms Interfere with Homework

Kids with mental health or neurodevelopmental challenges often struggle mightily with homework. Challenges can come up in every step of the homework process, including, but not limited to:

• Remembering and tracking assignments and materials
• Getting the mental energy/organization to start homework
• Filtering distractions enough to persist with assignments
• Understanding unspoken or implied parts of the homework
• Remembering to bring finished homework to class
• Being in class long enough to know the material
• Tolerating the fear of not knowing or failing
• Not giving up the assignment because of a panic attack
• Tolerating frustration—such as not understanding—without emotional dysregulation
• Being able to ask for help—from a peer or a teacher and not being afraid to reach out

This list is hardly comprehensive. ADHD , autism spectrum disorder, social anxiety , generalized anxiety, panic disorder, depression , dysregulation, and a range of other neurodevelopmental and mental health challenges cause numerous learning differences and symptoms that can specifically and frequently interfere with getting homework done.

The Usual Diagnosis for Homework Problems is "Not Trying Hard Enough"

Unfortunately, when kids frequently struggle to meet homework demands, teachers and parents typically default to one explanation of the problem: The child is making a choice not to do their homework. That is the default “diagnosis” in classrooms and living rooms. And once this framework is drawn, the student is often seen as not trying hard enough, disrespectful, manipulative, or just plain lazy.

The fundamental disconnect here is that the diagnosis of homework struggles as a behavioral choice is, in fact, only one explanation, while there are so many other diagnoses and differences that impair children's ability to consistently do their homework. If we are trying to create solutions based on only one understanding of the problem, the solutions will not work. More devastatingly, the wrong solutions can worsen the child’s mental health and their long-term engagement with school and learning.

To be clear, we aren’t talking about children who sometimes struggle with or skip homework—kids who can change and adapt their behaviors and patterns in response to the outcomes of that struggle. For this discussion, we are talking about children with mental health and/or neurodevelopmental symptoms and challenges that create chronic difficulties with meeting homework demands.

How Can You Help a Child Who Struggles with Homework?

How can you help your child who is struggling to meet homework demands because of their ADHD, depression, anxiety, OCD , school avoidance, or any other neurodevelopmental or mental health differences? Let’s break this down into two broad areas—things you can do at home, and things you can do in communication with the school.

Helping at Home

The following suggestions for managing school demands at home can feel counterintuitive to parents—because we usually focus on helping our kids to complete their tasks. But mental health needs jump the line ahead of task completion. And starting at home will be key to developing an idea of what needs to change at school.

• Set an end time in the evening after which no more homework will be attempted. Kids need time to decompress and they need sleep—and pushing homework too close to or past bedtime doesn’t serve their educational needs. Even if your child hasn’t been able to approach the homework at all, even if they have avoided and argued the whole evening, it is still important for everyone to have a predictable time to shut down the whole process.
• If there are arguments almost every night about homework, if your child isn’t starting homework or finishing it, reframe it from failure into information. It’s data to put into problem-solving. We need to consider other possible explanations besides “behavioral choice” when trying to understand the problem and create effective solutions. What problems are getting in the way of our child’s meeting homework demands that their peers are meeting most of the time?
• Try not to argue about homework. If you can check your own anxiety and frustration, it can be more productive to ally with your child and be curious with them. Kids usually can’t tell you a clear “why” but maybe they can tell you how they are feeling and what they are thinking. And if your child can’t talk about it or just keeps saying “I don't know,” try not to push. Come back another time. Rushing, forcing, yelling, and threatening will predictably not help kids do homework.

Helping at School

The second area to explore when your neurodiverse child struggles frequently with homework is building communication and connections with school and teachers. Some places to focus on include the following.

• Label your child’s diagnoses and break down specific symptoms for the teachers and school team. Nonjudgmental, but specific language is essential for teachers to understand your child’s struggles. Breaking their challenges down into the problems specific to homework can help with building solutions. As your child gets older, help them identify their difficulties and communicate them to teachers.
• Let teachers and the school team know that your child’s mental health needs—including sleep—take priority over finishing homework. If your child is always struggling to complete homework and get enough sleep, or if completing homework is leading to emotional meltdowns every night, adjusting their homework demands will be more successful than continuing to push them into sleep deprivation or meltdowns.
• Request a child study team evaluation to determine if your child qualifies for services under special education law such as an IEP, or accommodations through section 504—and be sure that homework adjustments are included in any plan. Or if such a plan is already in place, be clear that modification of homework expectations needs to be part of it.

The Long-Term Story

I still work with Chelsea and she recently mentioned how those conversations so many years ago are still part of how she approaches work tasks or other demands that are spiking her anxiety when she finds herself in a vortex of distress. She stops what she is doing and prioritizes reducing her anxiety—whether it’s a break during her day or an ending to the task for the evening. She sees that this is crucial to managing her anxiety in her life and still succeeding at what she is doing.

Task completion at all costs is not a solution for kids with emotional needs. Her story (and the story of many of my patients) make this crystal clear.

Candida Fink, M.D. , is board certified in child/adolescent and general psychiatry. She practices in New York and has co-authored two books— The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child and Bipolar Disorder for Dummies.

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By submitting my email address. i certify that i am 13 years of age or older, agree to recieve marketing email messages from the princeton review, and agree to terms of use., 8 easy ways to finish your homework faster.

How many times have you found yourself still staring at your textbook around midnight (or later!) even when you started your homework hours earlier? Those lost hours could be explained by Parkinson’s Law, which states, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” In other words, if you give yourself all night to memorize those geometry formulas for your quiz tomorrow, you’ll inevitably find that a 30 minute task has somehow filled your entire evening.

We know that you have more homework than ever. But even with lots and lots to do, a few tweaks to your study routine could help you spend less time getting more accomplished. Here are 8 steps to make Parkinson’s Law work to your advantage:

1. Make a list

This should be a list of everything that has to be done that evening. And we mean, everything—from re-reading notes from this morning’s history class to quizzing yourself on Spanish vocabulary.

2. Estimate the time needed for each item on your list

You can be a little ruthless here. However long you think a task will take, try shaving off 5 or 10 minutes. But, be realistic. You won’t magically become a speed reader.

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3. Gather all your gear

Collect EVERYTHING you will need for the homework you are working on (like your laptop for writing assignments and pencils for problem sets). Getting up for supplies takes you off course and makes it that much harder to get back to your homework.

The constant blings and beeps from your devices can make it impossible to focus on what you are working on. Switch off or silence your phones and tablets, or leave them in another room until it’s time to take a tech break.

Read More: How to Calculate Your GPA

5. Time yourself

Noting how much time something actually takes will help you estimate better and plan your next study session.

6. Stay on task

If you’re fact checking online, it can be so easy to surf on over to a completely unrelated site. A better strategy is to note what information you need to find online, and do it all at once at the end of the study session.

7. Take plenty of breaks

Most of us need a break between subjects or to break up long stretches of studying. Active breaks are a great way to keep your energy up. Tech breaks can be an awesome way to combat the fear of missing out that might strike while you are buried in your work, but they also tend to stretch much longer than originally intended. Stick to a break schedule of 10 minutes or so.

8. Reward yourself! 

Finish early? If you had allocated 30 minutes for reading a biology chapter and it only took 20, you can apply those extra 10 minutes to a short break—or just move on to your next task. If you stay on track, you might breeze through your work quickly enough to catch up on some Netflix.

Our best piece of advice? Keep at it. The more you use this system, the easier it will become. You’ll be surprised by how much time you can shave off homework just by focusing and committing to a distraction-free study plan.

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What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

• How long will it take to complete?
• Have all learners been considered?
• Will an assignment encourage future success?
• Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
• Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

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How to Do Homework: 15 Expert Tips and Tricks

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Everyone struggles with homework sometimes, but if getting your homework done has become a chronic issue for you, then you may need a little extra help. That’s why we’ve written this article all about how to do homework. Once you’re finished reading it, you’ll know how to do homework (and have tons of new ways to motivate yourself to do homework)!

We’ve broken this article down into a few major sections. You’ll find:

• A diagnostic test to help you figure out why you’re struggling with homework
• A discussion of the four major homework problems students face, along with expert tips for addressing them
• A bonus section with tips for how to do homework fast

By the end of this article, you’ll be prepared to tackle whatever homework assignments your teachers throw at you .

So let’s get started!

How to Do Homework: Figure Out Your Struggles 

Sometimes it feels like everything is standing between you and getting your homework done. But the truth is, most people only have one or two major roadblocks that are keeping them from getting their homework done well and on time. 

The best way to figure out how to get motivated to do homework starts with pinpointing the issues that are affecting your ability to get your assignments done. That’s why we’ve developed a short quiz to help you identify the areas where you’re struggling. 

Take the quiz below and record your answers on your phone or on a scrap piece of paper. Keep in mind there are no wrong answers! 

1. You’ve just been assigned an essay in your English class that’s due at the end of the week. What’s the first thing you do?

A. Keep it in mind, even though you won’t start it until the day before it’s due  B. Open up your planner. You’ve got to figure out when you’ll write your paper since you have band practice, a speech tournament, and your little sister’s dance recital this week, too.  C. Groan out loud. Another essay? You could barely get yourself to write the last one!  D. Start thinking about your essay topic, which makes you think about your art project that’s due the same day, which reminds you that your favorite artist might have just posted to Instagram...so you better check your feed right now. 

2. Your mom asked you to pick up your room before she gets home from work. You’ve just gotten home from school. You decide you’ll tackle your chores: 

A. Five minutes before your mom walks through the front door. As long as it gets done, who cares when you start?  B. As soon as you get home from your shift at the local grocery store.  C. After you give yourself a 15-minute pep talk about how you need to get to work.  D. You won’t get it done. Between texts from your friends, trying to watch your favorite Netflix show, and playing with your dog, you just lost track of time! 

3. You’ve signed up to wash dogs at the Humane Society to help earn money for your senior class trip. You: 

A. Show up ten minutes late. You put off leaving your house until the last minute, then got stuck in unexpected traffic on the way to the shelter.  B. Have to call and cancel at the last minute. You forgot you’d already agreed to babysit your cousin and bake cupcakes for tomorrow’s bake sale.  C. Actually arrive fifteen minutes early with extra brushes and bandanas you picked up at the store. You’re passionate about animals, so you’re excited to help out! D. Show up on time, but only get three dogs washed. You couldn’t help it: you just kept getting distracted by how cute they were!

4. You have an hour of downtime, so you decide you’re going to watch an episode of The Great British Baking Show. You: 

A. Scroll through your social media feeds for twenty minutes before hitting play, which means you’re not able to finish the whole episode. Ugh! You really wanted to see who was sent home!  B. Watch fifteen minutes until you remember you’re supposed to pick up your sister from band practice before heading to your part-time job. No GBBO for you!  C. You finish one episode, then decide to watch another even though you’ve got SAT studying to do. It’s just more fun to watch people make scones.  D. Start the episode, but only catch bits and pieces of it because you’re reading Twitter, cleaning out your backpack, and eating a snack at the same time.

5. Your teacher asks you to stay after class because you’ve missed turning in two homework assignments in a row. When she asks you what’s wrong, you say: 

A. You planned to do your assignments during lunch, but you ran out of time. You decided it would be better to turn in nothing at all than submit unfinished work.  B. You really wanted to get the assignments done, but between your extracurriculars, family commitments, and your part-time job, your homework fell through the cracks.  C. You have a hard time psyching yourself to tackle the assignments. You just can’t seem to find the motivation to work on them once you get home.  D. You tried to do them, but you had a hard time focusing. By the time you realized you hadn’t gotten anything done, it was already time to turn them in. 

Like we said earlier, there are no right or wrong answers to this quiz (though your results will be better if you answered as honestly as possible). Here’s how your answers break down: 

• If your answers were mostly As, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is procrastination. 
• If your answers were mostly Bs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is time management. 
• If your answers were mostly Cs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is motivation. 
• If your answers were mostly Ds, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is getting distracted. 

Now that you’ve identified why you’re having a hard time getting your homework done, we can help you figure out how to fix it! Scroll down to find your core problem area to learn more about how you can start to address it. 

And one more thing: you’re really struggling with homework, it’s a good idea to read through every section below. You may find some additional tips that will help make homework less intimidating. 

How to Do Homework When You’re a Procrastinator  

Merriam Webster defines “procrastinate” as “to put off intentionally and habitually.” In other words, procrastination is when you choose to do something at the last minute on a regular basis. If you’ve ever found yourself pulling an all-nighter, trying to finish an assignment between periods, or sprinting to turn in a paper minutes before a deadline, you’ve experienced the effects of procrastination. 

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you’re in good company. In fact, one study found that 70% to 95% of undergraduate students procrastinate when it comes to doing their homework. Unfortunately, procrastination can negatively impact your grades. Researchers have found that procrastination can lower your grade on an assignment by as much as five points ...which might not sound serious until you realize that can mean the difference between a B- and a C+. 

Procrastination can also negatively affect your health by increasing your stress levels , which can lead to other health conditions like insomnia, a weakened immune system, and even heart conditions. Getting a handle on procrastination can not only improve your grades, it can make you feel better, too! 

The big thing to understand about procrastination is that it’s not the result of laziness. Laziness is defined as being “disinclined to activity or exertion.” In other words, being lazy is all about doing nothing. But a s this Psychology Today article explains , procrastinators don’t put things off because they don’t want to work. Instead, procrastinators tend to postpone tasks they don’t want to do in favor of tasks that they perceive as either more important or more fun. Put another way, procrastinators want to do things...as long as it’s not their homework! 

3 Tips f or Conquering Procrastination 

Because putting off doing homework is a common problem, there are lots of good tactics for addressing procrastination. Keep reading for our three expert tips that will get your homework habits back on track in no time. 

#1: Create a Reward System

Like we mentioned earlier, procrastination happens when you prioritize other activities over getting your homework done. Many times, this happens because homework...well, just isn’t enjoyable. But you can add some fun back into the process by rewarding yourself for getting your work done. 

Here’s what we mean: let’s say you decide that every time you get your homework done before the day it’s due, you’ll give yourself a point. For every five points you earn, you’ll treat yourself to your favorite dessert: a chocolate cupcake! Now you have an extra (delicious!) incentive to motivate you to leave procrastination in the dust. 

If you’re not into cupcakes, don’t worry. Your reward can be anything that motivates you . Maybe it’s hanging out with your best friend or an extra ten minutes of video game time. As long as you’re choosing something that makes homework worth doing, you’ll be successful. 

#2: Have a Homework Accountability Partner 

If you’re having trouble getting yourself to start your homework ahead of time, it may be a good idea to call in reinforcements . Find a friend or classmate you can trust and explain to them that you’re trying to change your homework habits. Ask them if they’d be willing to text you to make sure you’re doing your homework and check in with you once a week to see if you’re meeting your anti-procrastination goals. 

Sharing your goals can make them feel more real, and an accountability partner can help hold you responsible for your decisions. For example, let’s say you’re tempted to put off your science lab write-up until the morning before it’s due. But you know that your accountability partner is going to text you about it tomorrow...and you don’t want to fess up that you haven’t started your assignment. A homework accountability partner can give you the extra support and incentive you need to keep your homework habits on track. 

#3: Create Your Own Due Dates 

If you’re a life-long procrastinator, you might find that changing the habit is harder than you expected. In that case, you might try using procrastination to your advantage! If you just can’t seem to stop doing your work at the last minute, try setting your own due dates for assignments that range from a day to a week before the assignment is actually due. 

Here’s what we mean. Let’s say you have a math worksheet that’s been assigned on Tuesday and is due on Friday. In your planner, you can write down the due date as Thursday instead. You may still put off your homework assignment until the last minute...but in this case, the “last minute” is a day before the assignment’s real due date . This little hack can trick your procrastination-addicted brain into planning ahead! 

If you feel like Kevin Hart in this meme, then our tips for doing homework when you're busy are for you. 

How to Do Homework When You’re too Busy

If you’re aiming to go to a top-tier college , you’re going to have a full plate. Because college admissions is getting more competitive, it’s important that you’re maintaining your grades , studying hard for your standardized tests , and participating in extracurriculars so your application stands out. A packed schedule can get even more hectic once you add family obligations or a part-time job to the mix. 

If you feel like you’re being pulled in a million directions at once, you’re not alone. Recent research has found that stress—and more severe stress-related conditions like anxiety and depression— are a major problem for high school students . In fact, one study from the American Psychological Association found that during the school year, students’ stress levels are higher than those of the adults around them. 

For students, homework is a major contributor to their overall stress levels . Many high schoolers have multiple hours of homework every night , and figuring out how to fit it into an already-packed schedule can seem impossible. 

3 Tips for Fitting Homework Into Your Busy Schedule

While it might feel like you have literally no time left in your schedule, there are still ways to make sure you’re able to get your homework done and meet your other commitments. Here are our expert homework tips for even the busiest of students. 

#1: Make a Prioritized To-Do List 

You probably already have a to-do list to keep yourself on track. The next step is to prioritize the items on your to-do list so you can see what items need your attention right away. 

Here’s how it works: at the beginning of each day, sit down and make a list of all the items you need to get done before you go to bed. This includes your homework, but it should also take into account any practices, chores, events, or job shifts you may have. Once you get everything listed out, it’s time to prioritize them using the labels A, B, and C. Here’s what those labels mean:

• A Tasks : tasks that have to get done—like showing up at work or turning in an assignment—get an A. 
• B Tasks : these are tasks that you would like to get done by the end of the day but aren’t as time sensitive. For example, studying for a test you have next week could be a B-level task. It’s still important, but it doesn’t have to be done right away.
• C Tasks: these are tasks that aren’t very important and/or have no real consequences if you don’t get them done immediately. For instance, if you’re hoping to clean out your closet but it’s not an assigned chore from your parents, you could label that to-do item with a C.

Prioritizing your to-do list helps you visualize which items need your immediate attention, and which items you can leave for later. A prioritized to-do list ensures that you’re spending your time efficiently and effectively, which helps you make room in your schedule for homework. So even though you might really want to start making decorations for Homecoming (a B task), you’ll know that finishing your reading log (an A task) is more important. 

#2: Use a Planner With Time Labels

Your planner is probably packed with notes, events, and assignments already. (And if you’re not using a planner, it’s time to start!) But planners can do more for you than just remind you when an assignment is due. If you’re using a planner with time labels, it can help you visualize how you need to spend your day.

A planner with time labels breaks your day down into chunks, and you assign tasks to each chunk of time. For example, you can make a note of your class schedule with assignments, block out time to study, and make sure you know when you need to be at practice. Once you know which tasks take priority, you can add them to any empty spaces in your day. 

Planning out how you spend your time not only helps you use it wisely, it can help you feel less overwhelmed, too . We’re big fans of planners that include a task list ( like this one ) or have room for notes ( like this one ). 

#3: Set Reminders on Your Phone 

If you need a little extra nudge to make sure you’re getting your homework done on time, it’s a good idea to set some reminders on your phone. You don’t need a fancy app, either. You can use your alarm app to have it go off at specific times throughout the day to remind you to do your homework. This works especially well if you have a set homework time scheduled. So if you’ve decided you’re doing homework at 6:00 pm, you can set an alarm to remind you to bust out your books and get to work. 

If you use your phone as your planner, you may have the option to add alerts, emails, or notifications to scheduled events . Many calendar apps, including the one that comes with your phone, have built-in reminders that you can customize to meet your needs. So if you block off time to do your homework from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, you can set a reminder that will pop up on your phone when it’s time to get started. 

This dog isn't judging your lack of motivation...but your teacher might. Keep reading for tips to help you motivate yourself to do your homework.

How to Do Homework When You’re Unmotivated 

At first glance, it may seem like procrastination and being unmotivated are the same thing. After all, both of these issues usually result in you putting off your homework until the very last minute. 

But there’s one key difference: many procrastinators are working, they’re just prioritizing work differently. They know they’re going to start their homework...they’re just going to do it later. 

Conversely, people who are unmotivated to do homework just can’t find the willpower to tackle their assignments. Procrastinators know they’ll at least attempt the homework at the last minute, whereas people who are unmotivated struggle with convincing themselves to do it at a ll. For procrastinators, the stress comes from the inevitable time crunch. For unmotivated people, the stress comes from trying to convince themselves to do something they don’t want to do in the first place. 

Here are some common reasons students are unmotivated in doing homework : 

• Assignments are too easy, too hard, or seemingly pointless 
• Students aren’t interested in (or passionate about) the subject matter
• Students are intimidated by the work and/or feels like they don’t understand the assignment 
• Homework isn’t fun, and students would rather spend their time on things that they enjoy 

To sum it up: people who lack motivation to do their homework are more likely to not do it at all, or to spend more time worrying about doing their homework than...well, actually doing it.

3 Tips for How to Get Motivated to Do Homework

The key to getting homework done when you’re unmotivated is to figure out what does motivate you, then apply those things to homework. It sounds tricky...but it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it! Here are our three expert tips for motivating yourself to do your homework. 

#1: Use Incremental Incentives

When you’re not motivated, it’s important to give yourself small rewards to stay focused on finishing the task at hand. The trick is to keep the incentives small and to reward yourself often. For example, maybe you’re reading a good book in your free time. For every ten minutes you spend on your homework, you get to read five pages of your book. Like we mentioned earlier, make sure you’re choosing a reward that works for you! 

So why does this technique work? Using small rewards more often allows you to experience small wins for getting your work done. Every time you make it to one of your tiny reward points, you get to celebrate your success, which gives your brain a boost of dopamine . Dopamine helps you stay motivated and also creates a feeling of satisfaction when you complete your homework !  

#2: Form a Homework Group 

If you’re having trouble motivating yourself, it’s okay to turn to others for support. Creating a homework group can help with this. Bring together a group of your friends or classmates, and pick one time a week where you meet and work on homework together. You don’t have to be in the same class, or even taking the same subjects— the goal is to encourage one another to start (and finish!) your assignments. 

Another added benefit of a homework group is that you can help one another if you’re struggling to understand the material covered in your classes. This is especially helpful if your lack of motivation comes from being intimidated by your assignments. Asking your friends for help may feel less scary than talking to your teacher...and once you get a handle on the material, your homework may become less frightening, too. 

#3: Change Up Your Environment 

If you find that you’re totally unmotivated, it may help if you find a new place to do your homework. For example, if you’ve been struggling to get your homework done at home, try spending an extra hour in the library after school instead. The change of scenery can limit your distractions and give you the energy you need to get your work done. 

If you’re stuck doing homework at home, you can still use this tip. For instance, maybe you’ve always done your homework sitting on your bed. Try relocating somewhere else, like your kitchen table, for a few weeks. You may find that setting up a new “homework spot” in your house gives you a motivational lift and helps you get your work done. 

Social media can be a huge problem when it comes to doing homework. We have advice for helping you unplug and regain focus.

How to Do Homework When You’re Easily Distracted

We live in an always-on world, and there are tons of things clamoring for our attention. From friends and family to pop culture and social media, it seems like there’s always something (or someone!) distracting us from the things we need to do.

The 24/7 world we live in has affected our ability to focus on tasks for prolonged periods of time. Research has shown that over the past decade, an average person’s attention span has gone from 12 seconds to eight seconds . And when we do lose focus, i t takes people a long time to get back on task . One study found that it can take as long as 23 minutes to get back to work once we’ve been distracte d. No wonder it can take hours to get your homework done! 

3 Tips to Improve Your Focus

If you have a hard time focusing when you’re doing your homework, it’s a good idea to try and eliminate as many distractions as possible. Here are three expert tips for blocking out the noise so you can focus on getting your homework done. 

#1: Create a Distraction-Free Environment

Pick a place where you’ll do your homework every day, and make it as distraction-free as possible. Try to find a location where there won’t be tons of noise, and limit your access to screens while you’re doing your homework. Put together a focus-oriented playlist (or choose one on your favorite streaming service), and put your headphones on while you work. 

You may find that other people, like your friends and family, are your biggest distraction. If that’s the case, try setting up some homework boundaries. Let them know when you’ll be working on homework every day, and ask them if they’ll help you keep a quiet environment. They’ll be happy to lend a hand! 

#2: Limit Your Access to Technology 

We know, we know...this tip isn’t fun, but it does work. For homework that doesn’t require a computer, like handouts or worksheets, it’s best to put all your technology away . Turn off your television, put your phone and laptop in your backpack, and silence notifications on any wearable tech you may be sporting. If you listen to music while you work, that’s fine...but make sure you have a playlist set up so you’re not shuffling through songs once you get started on your homework. 

If your homework requires your laptop or tablet, it can be harder to limit your access to distractions. But it’s not impossible! T here are apps you can download that will block certain websites while you’re working so that you’re not tempted to scroll through Twitter or check your Facebook feed. Silence notifications and text messages on your computer, and don’t open your email account unless you absolutely have to. And if you don’t need access to the internet to complete your assignments, turn off your WiFi. Cutting out the online chatter is a great way to make sure you’re getting your homework done. 

#3: Set a Timer (the Pomodoro Technique)

Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro technique ? It’s a productivity hack that uses a timer to help you focus!

Here’s how it works: first, set a timer for 25 minutes. This is going to be your work time. During this 25 minutes, all you can do is work on whatever homework assignment you have in front of you. No email, no text messaging, no phone calls—just homework. When that timer goes off, you get to take a 5 minute break. Every time you go through one of these cycles, it’s called a “pomodoro.” For every four pomodoros you complete, you can take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.

The pomodoro technique works through a combination of boundary setting and rewards. First, it gives you a finite amount of time to focus, so you know that you only have to work really hard for 25 minutes. Once you’ve done that, you’re rewarded with a short break where you can do whatever you want. Additionally, tracking how many pomodoros you complete can help you see how long you’re really working on your homework. (Once you start using our focus tips, you may find it doesn’t take as long as you thought!)

Two Bonus Tips for How to Do Homework Fast

Even if you’re doing everything right, there will be times when you just need to get your homework done as fast as possible. (Why do teachers always have projects due in the same week? The world may never know.)

The problem with speeding through homework is that it’s easy to make mistakes. While turning in an assignment is always better than not submitting anything at all, you want to make sure that you’re not compromising quality for speed. Simply put, the goal is to get your homework done quickly and still make a good grade on the assignment! 

Here are our two bonus tips for getting a decent grade on your homework assignments , even when you’re in a time crunch. 

#1: Do the Easy Parts First 

This is especially true if you’re working on a handout with multiple questions. Before you start working on the assignment, read through all the questions and problems. As you do, make a mark beside the questions you think are “easy” to answer . 

Once you’ve finished going through the whole assignment, you can answer these questions first. Getting the easy questions out of the way as quickly as possible lets you spend more time on the trickier portions of your homework, which will maximize your assignment grade. 

(Quick note: this is also a good strategy to use on timed assignments and tests, like the SAT and the ACT !) 

#2: Pay Attention in Class 

Homework gets a lot easier when you’re actively learning the material. Teachers aren’t giving you homework because they’re mean or trying to ruin your weekend... it’s because they want you to really understand the course material. Homework is designed to reinforce what you’re already learning in class so you’ll be ready to tackle harder concepts later.

When you pay attention in class, ask questions, and take good notes, you’re absorbing the information you’ll need to succeed on your homework assignments. (You’re stuck in class anyway, so you might as well make the most of it!) Not only will paying attention in class make your homework less confusing, it will also help it go much faster, too.

What’s Next?

If you’re looking to improve your productivity beyond homework, a good place to begin is with time management. After all, we only have so much time in a day...so it’s important to get the most out of it! To get you started, check out this list of the 12 best time management techniques that you can start using today.

You may have read this article because homework struggles have been affecting your GPA. Now that you’re on the path to homework success, it’s time to start being proactive about raising your grades. This article teaches you everything you need to know about raising your GPA so you can

Now you know how to get motivated to do homework...but what about your study habits? Studying is just as critical to getting good grades, and ultimately getting into a good college . We can teach you how to study bette r in high school. (We’ve also got tons of resources to help you study for your ACT and SAT exams , too!)

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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Students spend three times longer on homework than average, survey reveals

Sonya Kulkarni and Pallavi Gorantla | Jan 9, 2022

Graphic by Sonya Kulkarni

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association have suggested that a healthy number of hours that students should be spending can be determined by the “10-minute rule.” This means that each grade level should have a maximum homework time incrementing by 10 minutes depending on their grade level (for instance, ninth-graders would have 90 minutes of homework, 10th-graders should have 100 minutes, and so on).

As ‘finals week’ rapidly approaches, students not only devote effort to attaining their desired exam scores but make a last attempt to keep or change the grade they have for semester one by making up homework assignments.

High schoolers reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight, according to a study by the Washington Post from 2018 to 2020 of over 50,000 individuals. A survey of approximately 200 Bellaire High School students revealed that some students spend over three times this number.

The demographics of this survey included 34 freshmen, 43 sophomores, 54 juniors and 54 seniors on average.

When asked how many hours students spent on homework in a day on average, answers ranged from zero to more than nine with an average of about four hours. In contrast, polled students said that about one hour of homework would constitute a healthy number of hours.

Junior Claire Zhang said she feels academically pressured in her AP schedule, but not necessarily by the classes.

“The class environment in AP classes can feel pressuring because everyone is always working hard and it makes it difficult to keep up sometimes.” Zhang said.

A total of 93 students reported that the minimum grade they would be satisfied with receiving in a class would be an A. This was followed by 81 students, who responded that a B would be the minimum acceptable grade. 19 students responded with a C and four responded with a D.

“I am happy with the classes I take, but sometimes it can be very stressful to try to keep up,” freshman Allyson Nguyen said. “I feel academically pressured to keep an A in my classes.”

Up to 152 students said that grades are extremely important to them, while 32 said they generally are more apathetic about their academic performance.

Last year, nine valedictorians graduated from Bellaire. They each achieved a grade point average of 5.0. HISD has never seen this amount of valedictorians in one school, and as of now there are 14 valedictorians.

“I feel that it does degrade the title of valedictorian because as long as a student knows how to plan their schedule accordingly and make good grades in the classes, then anyone can be valedictorian,” Zhang said.

Bellaire offers classes like physical education and health in the summer. These summer classes allow students to skip the 4.0 class and not put it on their transcript. Some electives also have a 5.0 grade point average like debate.

Close to 200 students were polled about Bellaire having multiple valedictorians. They primarily answered that they were in favor of Bellaire having multiple valedictorians, which has recently attracted significant acclaim .

Senior Katherine Chen is one of the 14 valedictorians graduating this year and said that she views the class of 2022 as having an extraordinary amount of extremely hardworking individuals.

“I think it was expected since freshman year since most of us knew about the others and were just focused on doing our personal best,” Chen said.

Chen said that each valedictorian achieved the honor on their own and deserves it.

“I’m honestly very happy for the other valedictorians and happy that Bellaire is such a good school,” Chen said. “I don’t feel any less special with 13 other valedictorians.”

Nguyen said that having multiple valedictorians shows just how competitive the school is.

“It’s impressive, yet scary to think about competing against my classmates,” Nguyen said.

Offering 30 AP classes and boasting a significant number of merit-based scholars Bellaire can be considered a competitive school.

“I feel academically challenged but not pressured,” Chen said. “Every class I take helps push me beyond my comfort zone but is not too much to handle.”

Students have the opportunity to have off-periods if they’ve met all their credits and are able to maintain a high level of academic performance. But for freshmen like Nguyen, off periods are considered a privilege. Nguyen said she usually has an hour to five hours worth of work everyday.

“Depending on the day, there can be a lot of work, especially with extra curriculars,” Nguyen said. “Although, I am a freshman, so I feel like it’s not as bad in comparison to higher grades.”

According to the survey of Bellaire students, when asked to evaluate their agreement with the statement “students who get better grades tend to be smarter overall than students who get worse grades,” responders largely disagreed.

Zhang said that for students on the cusp of applying to college, it can sometimes be hard to ignore the mental pressure to attain good grades.

“As a junior, it’s really easy to get extremely anxious about your GPA,” Zhang said. “It’s also a very common but toxic practice to determine your self-worth through your grades but I think that we just need to remember that our mental health should also come first. Sometimes, it’s just not the right day for everyone and one test doesn’t determine our smartness.”

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Comments (8).

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Anonymous • Jul 16, 2024 at 3:27 pm

didnt realy help

Anonymous • Nov 21, 2023 at 10:32 am

It’s not really helping me understand how much.

josh • May 9, 2023 at 9:58 am

Kassie • May 6, 2022 at 12:29 pm

Im using this for an English report. This is great because on of my sources needed to be from another student. Homework drives me insane. Im glad this is very updated too!!

Kaylee Swaim • Jan 25, 2023 at 9:21 pm

I am also using this for an English report. I have to do an argumentative essay about banning homework in schools and this helps sooo much!

Izzy McAvaney • Mar 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

I am ALSO using this for an English report on cutting down school days, homework drives me insane!!

E. Elliott • Apr 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm

I’m from Louisiana and am actually using this for an English Essay thanks for the information it was very informative.

Nabila Wilson • Jan 10, 2022 at 6:56 pm

Interesting with the polls! I didn’t realize about 14 valedictorians, that’s crazy.

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Why Do I Waste So Much Time?

Does it take you forever to make a doctor’s appointment, clean out your garage, or do your taxes? Putting off something that needs to be done is called procrastination . We all do it sometimes.

But if you constantly struggle to finish tasks, there may be a bigger problem at play.

Once you figure out your reasons, you can work on making the most of your time.

Are You Stressed?

When you’re facing something you don’t want to do, it can make you feel tense. Putting off that dreaded chore is a way to get some short-term relief. The downside is that you’ll still have to tackle your task in the future, which may make you feel guilty or angry -- and cause your stress to rise more.

If the tension is bad enough to keep you from getting things done, you might notice it affects you in other ways, too, like:

• Trouble sleeping
• Racing thoughts
• Lack of energy or trouble focusing
• Headaches or muscle tension

Keep your mood in check with regular exercise, limit alcohol and caffeine (which can make stress worse), and get enough sleep . Talk to a friend or counselor about what’s on your mind, too.

Could It Be ADHD?

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder affects behavior. People who have it often have trouble making decisions or getting tasks done before a deadline. Some get too distracted with other activities around them. Others find it hard to plan ahead, or they get frustrated easily and give up.

Other symptoms of ADHD include:

• Daydreaming
• Forgetting or losing things
• Making careless mistakes or taking unsafe risks
• Squirming or fidgeting

Medications can often help control many symptoms of the disorder. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, which helps identify and change negative thought patterns, also can help many people with the condition better manage their time.

Are You Tired?

The amount of willpower you have changes every day and depends on many things, including whether you’ve had enough sleep . If you’ve had less than 6 hours, it’s harder for your brain to tune out distractions and focus long enough to finish what you need to do.

Other signs that you need more shut- eye include:

• Falling asleep while watching TV or reading a book
• Feeling irritable
• Sleeping longer on weekends
• Trouble waking up in the mornings

To get a good night’s rest, keep the same bedtime and wake time. Don’t smoke, and steer clear of alcohol, caffeine , and heavy meals for a few hours before bed, since they can disrupt your Zzz's.

Could It Be Anxiety?

This condition means your brain overreacts to negative emotions. You expect the worst, even when there’s nothing to fear. Some people with anxiety spend so much energy worrying about family, health, money, or work that they find it hard to carry out everyday tasks.

You might also have:

• Muscle tension
• Irritability

To stop anxious feelings, take 10 slow, deep breaths, or replace a negative thought with a positive one. It’s also important to get enough rest, exercise regularly, and make sure you don’t skip meals. Keep a journal to help you learn what triggers your anxiety . Some people need medications or talk therapy to get the condition under control.

Could You Be Depressed?

Depression alters your brain ’s chemistry. You may have very little energy, even for hobbies and activities you love. It’s also common to feel helpless and self-critical, which can cause someone with the condition to “shut down.”

Other symptoms of depression include:

• A feeling of sadness that doesn’t go away
• Low appetite and weight loss, or overeating and weight gain
• Restlessness or feeling irritable
• Thoughts of suicide or death

Call 911 if you’re thinking about hurting yourself or others. Even if not, talk to a counselor or therapist if you have any of these other symptoms. Your doctor is a good resource as well. Some people also find relief from their depression with antidepressant medicine.

Could It Be Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

If you have this disorder, your brain can’t signal when you’re doing something correctly. Instead, you have a nagging sense that your actions aren’t “just right.” Rather than finish a task, people with OCD get stuck looking for a “perfect” solution.

Other symptoms include:

• A lot of unwanted thoughts or images
• Feeling helpless to stop the thoughts
• Rituals like hand washing
• Spending at least 1 hour a day on these thoughts and rituals

Anti- anxiety medication or antidepressants can often improve OCD symptoms. Many people also use cognitive-behavioral therapy or exposure therapy, in which they learn to slowly face their fears.

What You Can Do

Be honest with yourself about what might be holding you back from getting a task done. Then think of realistic ways you can get past it.

If you think you’re stuck because of a more serious health problem, talk to your doctor to make sure you get the right diagnosis and treatment.

If good old-fashioned procrastination is your issue, break big projects into smaller ones you can do more easily. You can set deadlines to stay on track. Some people also find it helpful to reward themselves when they make progress.

When you catch yourself wasting time, forgive yourself rather than feeling ashamed or angry. You may be less likely to procrastinate again if you go easy on yourself.

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Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in.

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas about workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework. 

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says, he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy workloads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold , says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace , says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression. 

And for all the distress homework  can cause, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says, homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night. 

"Most students, especially at these high achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends, from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no-homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely but to be more mindful of the type of work students take home, suggests Kang, who was a high school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework; I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial 

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the past two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic , making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized. ... Sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking up assignments can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

More: Some teachers let their students sleep in class. Here's what mental health experts say.

More: Some parents are slipping young kids in for the COVID-19 vaccine, but doctors discourage the move as 'risky'

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Education scholar Denise Pope has found that too much homework has negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,” wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students’ views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

“The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students’ advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being,” Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as “pointless” or “mindless” in order to keep their grades up.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development,” wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. “Young people are spending more time alone,” they wrote, “which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities.”

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or “self-reporting” methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for “typical adolescent complaining” – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Media Contacts

Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 725-7412, [email protected] Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, [email protected]

A Few Strategies to Help Slow-Working Students

March 27, 2016

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A parent recently asked me for advice about her son. Although his academic skills are strong, he feels the need to complete every task to absolute perfection; this means he finishes his work long, long after the rest of his peers. Not only are his teachers frustrated by the time it takes him to complete assignments, he doesn’t especially enjoy spending hours every night making all of his work just right.

It’s easy enough to say we want all our students to work at their own pace, and in most classrooms, some flexibility is built in to allow for this. Still, when a student completes work at a significantly slower pace than his peers, sometimes taking three or four times longer than everyone else, it can create problems for the student and his teachers: Group work gets more complicated, whole-class instruction is limited, and the student is too often put in an uncomfortable position as the one everyone else is waiting for . Furthermore, working at this slow pace means the student is simply putting too many hours in on school work, time that could be spent playing, reading, socializing, relaxing, or exploring other interests.

To help this parent and her son’s teachers come up with some ways to help him, I did a bit of research, pulled together some of my own suggestions, and added strategies offered by other teachers. I shared what I knew on my weekly Periscope broadcast (you can see a replay here ) and got lots more good tips from the teachers who were watching. Here’s a summary of what we all came up with.

First, Rule Out a More Serious Issue

Your first step in finding the best way to help this student is to determine whether a more serious issue is at the root of the problem. For an excellent overview of many of the causes of slow-paced work, read Steven Butnik’s article  Understanding, Diagnosing, and Coping with Slow Processing Speed . In the article, Butnik focuses on twice exceptional students—gifted students who also have additional learning challenges such as a learning disability or attention deficit disorder. “Understanding the role of slow processing speed is essential,” Butnik writes. “Gifted students with processing speed problems who are ‘missed,’ misdiagnosed, or mis-taught may become discouraged, depressed, undereducated, underemployed, or worse. By contrast, when these twice-exceptional (2e) children are understood and well-addressed educationally, they can become treasures who shine in unique ways.”

Consider whether the student is being held back by anxiety, a learning disability that is making the content difficult to process, a condition like dysgraphia that makes handwriting especially challenging, eyesight issues that make the board or papers hard to read, or auditory processing difficulties that make working in a busy, noisy classroom very difficult. If one or more of these underlying challenges is found to be the cause, you may be able to address the problem with an IEP or 504 plan, which could establish modifications for the student such as extended time on assignments, voice-to-text support, or reducing the number of tasks required to demonstrate competence.

Whether or not the student’s slower pace can be given an official diagnosis, the strategies below are all possible ways to help.

Validate the Student’s Concerns

Sometimes, when a person demonstrates a thought or feeling that is problematic—such as the idea that she has to perfect an assignment before she turns it in—we attempt to change that feeling by dismissing it. We’ll say something like, “Perfect isn’t important! Your standards are too high!” What we think we’re doing is helping the person get past those feelings, but by flat-out denying her reality, we can actually make her cling more tightly to it.

Instead, if we begin by validating her feelings, we can help her manage the behavior that comes from them. In  The Power of Validation , Karyn Hall and Melissa Cook define validation as “the recognition and acceptance that your child has feelings and thoughts that are true and real to him regardless of logic or whether it makes sense to anyone else.” Validation is not the same as agreeing with her feelings or supporting the choices that come from them; it’s just letting her know that her feelings are recognized. Instead of trying to dismiss her desire to do perfect work, acknowledge it by saying something like “Doing high-quality work is important to you.” Once you have communicated to the student that you understand her feelings, you can then move toward helping her solve the problems this feeling creates for her.

Model Your Own Process

Students who frequently get stuck on school work may lack the problem-solving skills they need to get unstuck. So whenever you can, model your own strategies with teacher think-alouds, and get other students to do the same thing. Think-alouds can also help students let go of the kind of perfectionism that slows down creative tasks: Many kids believe that “good” students start a task at the beginning, do every part perfectly the first time around, then finish perfectly at the end. But real creative work is much less linear, so let them see you draft an idea, cross some things out, draft some more, skip over something you’re stuck on and move on to something else, then come back around and around until you reach a point where it’s good enough. And that last part is the most important—the part where you stop trying to get it perfect and declare the work good enough.

Talk Them Through It

Second-grade teacher Michael Dunlea finds that in many cases students get hung up on one specific aspect of an assignment, so if he is able to figure out what’s confusing them, he can help them continue. Sometimes it’s just that they don’t understand one particular word in the instructions, or they can’t answer the first part of a question, and that’s keeping them from moving on to the rest of it. If the child is shy or doesn’t know what they don’t know, they may not be capable of asking for the help they need; it just feels like they don’t get it.

With my own children, when they come to me for help with their homework, the first thing I’ll ask them to do is read the instructions to me out loud. They hate this, by the way, because they want me to just tell them what to do. But more than half the time, when they re-read the instructions, they discover some detail they had overlooked the first time around. Then they go, “Oh, never mind,” and wander away.

Set a Timer

For some people, simply setting a time limit for a task is enough to get them moving more quickly, so it’s worth a try with your slow-paced students. Use this one carefully, though: For some students, it could cause even more anxiety and make them shut down completely. So present this as one possible strategy you’d like to try, and see if the student thinks it might work. If it does, and you want to get more structured with this approach, take a look at the Pomodoro Technique , a method that has you work in 25-minute increments, then give yourself a small reward before starting another 25-minute chunk.

Break Large Tasks into Small Ones

Plenty of adults I know, including myself, have trouble getting started on a large task. And depending on the person, some tasks seem larger than others. Show the student how to take any assignment and break it into small, manageable chunks. Then put those chunks on some kind of checklist, so the student can mark off items as he finishes them. You create the list for the student the first time, then do it with him the second time, but eventually release responsibility so that he is able to create his own checklist.

Offer a “Can Do” and a “Must Do”

Lauren Bright often gives her second graders a list of tasks to complete. One task is a “must-do” that has to be done first, no matter what. Then she offers them up to three “can do” options to choose from after the “must do” is finished. Having these optional activities waiting at the end is often a good incentive for students to get the “must do”s taken care of.

Provide Estimated Times for Each Activity

When she noticed that some of her students took a lot longer than most to complete written assessments, high school English teacher Ruth Arseneault decided to add estimated times in parentheses beside each item. She found that this simple tweak helped slower-paced students get better at planning their work and rationing the time they spent on each task. This principle could be expanded to almost any classroom task: Whether it’s a written activity, a science lab, cleaning up after a project, or doing a set of math problems, letting students know about how long something should take can help them set a reasonable pace for themselves.

I learned this strategy when I was a college student from the book Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing by Linda Flower. You use it when you get stuck on a writing task. If you get to a point where you can’t figure out how to say something, just write “What I really mean is…” and continue in whatever language you would use if you were describing the idea to a friend.

Establish a Bare-Minimum Goal for Formative Assessment

Although he often lets his students take work home to finish, high school English and journalism teacher Gerard Dawson will have his slow-working students complete a specific portion of a task and show it to him before they take the rest home. This allows him to quickly assess whether the student is on the right track before they continue the work on their own.

Mix Low-Stakes with High-Stakes Tasks

To help her perfectionistic students learn how to flex their “good enough” muscles, high school English teacher Jori Krulder deliberately mixes high-pressure with low-pressure tasks. She alternates between the kinds of activities that require close attention to detail, like polished pieces, with quicker tasks that require a less rigid approach, like free writes, where students just have to get their ideas down as fast as possible.

Mark Problem Items for Later

Instructional coach Gretchen Schultek Bridgers advises students who get stuck on an item, especially on a test, to mark it with a small post-it note, a highlighter, or a star as a reminder to come back to the item later. This kind of strategy will be useful to everyone, not just your slow working students.

Whatever You Do…

I think it’s important to be sure you are strategizing with the student, not for him: Talk about this process as a team effort. Present a few of the above solutions and ask which one he’d like to try first. Then debrief afterwards to see how it worked. By giving the student ownership of the problem and its solution, you are building his self-efficacy. This is not something you’re “making” the student do; you’re just helping him figure it out. ♥

What Works for You?  Do you have an effective approach for helping slower workers pick up the pace? Share them in the comments so we can all learn together.

What to Read Next

Categories: Classroom Management , Instruction

Tags: differentiation , Grades 3-5 , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , Grades K-2 , time management

57 Comments

Love this post! Any ideas for slow note takers? I teach high school world history and slow note takers drive me crazy! Any strategies to get them moving? I can lose a whole class (chatty) while one or two people finish writing notes.Thanks!

Take a look at item #2 on this post about ineffective teaching practices . It’s all about note-taking, and while I would obviously not advocate giving them prepared notes, there are some links in that section that will take you to other articles about specific note-taking scaffolds and strategies that might help these students learn how to take notes in a way that works for them. I hope this helps!

I am generally a slow worker, but I was always fast at note taking. My method: In a high school class I would have about 10 pages of notes at the end of a semester, where other students took 10 pages a week. Remind those students they don’t have to write down EVERY SINGLE THING you say!

Some kids are slow note takers because they need some OT or PT therapies. All should see a special eye doctor called Vision Therapist to test if his eyes are able to work together. He may have a neurological disorder that inhibits his brain from tell his hand wht to write. But, until any of that gets done, ask the best student if she would get her notes copied (wherever there is a copier) and give them to you so you could give them to a student who has trouble writing. Decades ago we used carbon paper. The slow student will be grateful as long as no one knows about the “deal”.

I find using structured notes with some of the parts and the organization provided speeds things up a lot. I use an interactive notebook. Students with difficulty copying from the board and organizing the info spatially will be much faster. The early finishers color code, highlight their notes, or make colorful boarders with the time. Encourage those done to reread and check they have everything and think of questions. This also allows more processing time for everyone.

Hi! I’m in my second year of teaching high school math, grades 10 and 11, and I always post my own class notes on Google Classroom to help students who are slow note takers, struggle with taking neat organized notes, or who are absent. I think this is helpful for many students in my class, but I still worry that this method has holes in it. Can you offer any insight or feedback on this accommodation and it’s effectiveness?

Hey Justin,

Check out Note-Taking: A Research Roundup , particularly section #7. I think you’ll find some helpful information there.

Olá Jennifer!

Eu gostei dessa edição como um bom conselho para os educadores. Parabéns! Eloir

Obrigado, Eloir!

Great ideas here! This is something that often occurs in my classroom and is something that I have personally struggled with as well. I connected with this both as a teacher and learner! Thanks for the tips!

Thanks, Samantha! I’m glad you found them useful.

Great ideas thank you. I sometimes find that students don’t know how much is “enough”. At times, during writing I rule off where the children need to write too. I also tell them that they can write past the line and usually they do. They even get quite excited about it. I teach 8 and 9 year olds.

Rachel, thanks for sharing that idea!

I love the WIRMI idea! What a great idea to get students past their writer’s block and to add voice to their writing! Thanks for posting!

Thanks, Jessica! I find myself using that one all the time to write blog posts. I hope it helps your students as well!

Thank you so much for these suggestions! This year, I have an exceptionally bright, focused student who happens to be a much slower worker than my other students. You have provided more strategies to consider, and I appreciate that you stressed that I need to strategize WITH him and not FOR him. I want him to feel empowered and find ways to be able to pace and help himself.

Dawn, I love hearing this. I would love an update later on what worked for him!

I have taught me students visualization techniques, including 12 structures of visualization, which they can use to increase their own comprehension of a learning task. This has been a powerful tool, especially for my slower learners. My students feel success with their ability to tap into their thoughts…and relate this thinking to task completion. In addition, I found that drawing is a tool which assists students (especially when paired with the visualization process).

Susanne, that’s a great suggestion. Do you happen to have any resources I could link to so other teachers can learn specific visualization techniques?

I would suggest that teachers check out the Lindamood-Bell program Visualization and Verbalization (V/V). This program provided a model of introducing the visualization strategy and structures to students to increase comprehension. I have added the drawing piece to my teaching, as well, and have found it to be very effective with students of all abilities.

This could not be more timely. I’m working with a 3rd grader who does legitimately need a little more time to process (not enough to qualify for anything) but is also an extreme perfectionist. I am going to work with her classroom teacher to chunk out tasks and work with the student to set reasonable time limits for each chunk. Thanks!!

Thank you so much for providing the link to Steven Butnik’s article. I found it, along with your article, to be extremely timely and helpful. I have a high school freshman who is extremely frustrated right now. These resources have given me some ideas to discuss with him. Thank you!!

I found some great ideas in your article. I’m trying to see how any of them can work best with a 6 year old. I had a kindergartner in my K/1 combo this year that was very bright, but moved and worked extremely slow. Just packing up his things at the end of the day was at times difficult to watch. Teaching in a group setting, he was often way behind and appeared lost. However, if I just sat and talked with him, giving him all the time he needed, he proved to be quite verbal with advanced vocabulary and critical thinking skills. His slow pace has not affected his pre school learning and I don’t want it to become a problem now. Any ideas for the first grade experience?

My college age son was finally diagnosed twice exceptional. His ADHD was what triggered getting a 504 his senior year of high school. He was always the last to turn in his tests even in elementary school. His algebra 3 teacher mentioned to the 504 committee that even though he had a 101 in her class, he was always last. Thankfully, because of that teacher speaking up, my son is given extra time to complete tests in college. I will always be grateful for that!

I love Can Do and Must Do lists for my 2nd graders. I am looking for strategies with a student that knows the academics when asked but writing it down takes her forever. She forms letters correctly and her fine motor skills are great. I have used the timer system, more wait time to complete a task and encouragement through words and mini rewards. Now she is refusing to do work in every class. Any suggestions for this 2nd grader?

My daughter is in kindergarten. My husband and I recently had a meeting with her teacher about her slow pace. She is smart and understands everything, but she is the slowest pace child in her class. Which strategies would be best for a five year old?

Hi Angie, this is Debbie Sachs, one of the Customer Experience Managers with CoP. Having several years of experience teaching 1st Grade I can share some thoughts for you to consider. First, do you see some of the same slow-paced behaviors at home or in other settings? The reason I ask is because it’s so important to dig down to the root of what’s going on. The strategies you try will really depend on what you observe. If you notice patterns of distraction, then consider finding ways to remove them. Example: Some kids are distracted just by markers or erasers sitting in the middle of the table…move them to another location. Also consider seating placement and proximity to the teacher. If you notice it’s difficult for her to complete a task in a reasonable amount of time, try setting a timer along with using a visual checklist. I’ve found checklists work great…they help kids become self-directed and provide a sense of accomplishment. If you notice patterns of perfectionism or “fear” of getting started, consider providing lots of modeling along with teaching her when she can put more time into getting work ready for an audience. You can also check out the post The Trouble with Amazing: Giving Praise that Matters The strategies you try will really be trial and error. You may have to play around to see what works best. And if you haven’t already read some of the other readers’ comments, check those out too. There are some other good suggestions. Thanks, Debbie

I have a problem of being slow, my teachers, friends and family members say that I take an abnormal amount of time on one small task and when I study it takes me a whole day to study one small topic. Please help me

Hi, Olive. I’m a Customer Experience Manager with Cult of Pedagogy and a former teacher — thanks for writing in! I hear your frustration and want to run a few ideas by you. I’m assuming you’ve read through the post and am wondering if you came across anything you thought might be worth trying? If you’re comfortable, I suggest sharing the post with your family and teachers; these are the people who know you well and who work with you on a daily basis. Maybe they will see something in the research that makes them say, “Hey, this sounds like you! Wanna give this a try?” You also mentioned something about studying; take a look at 6 Powerful Learning Strategies You MUST Share with Students . There are great study strategies in this post that maybe you aren’t familiar with yet. You can also take a look at a bunch of videos made by Seth Perler ; he made these videos specifically for students who are looking for help with planning and organization. I hope you find these resources helpful, but regardless, I’d definitely continue having conversations with your family and teachers so you can get the support you need. Best Wishes!

Hi, I am afraid I have no answer for your question, I just want you to know you are not alone. I too am an A+ student who barely has time for any life at all outside the university and my job, because I work very-very slowly and need time to understand things.

Hi, hopefully you are doing well. Before bed time me and my son discuss how the day went. He told me the teacher made him stay behind while the rest of the class ran laps outside because he didn’t finish his work. Eventually causing him to cry. Is this a good method used by the teacher? My son gets distracted easily and has trouble keeping focus. Communication skills are excellent. He definitely works slow a lot of the time. Although his writing is neat.Should I question the teachers method?

Please help Jennifer Suby

Sorry, he is in grade 1. Writing skills are neat but slow.

Hi, Suby, this is really a great question. As a retired teacher who taught 1st grade for many years, I first suggest, if you haven’t already, requesting a meeting with the teacher. I do think it’s fair to keep in mind that for some kids, it can be appropriate to miss a recess/running laps to finish an assignment when time in class is purposely misused, and when the consequence is known in advance. (I will say though, I think recess as a consequence should be used sparingly and as a last resort.) Based on what you’ve shared about your son regarding his strengths and challenges with focus/task completion, I’m not sure this kind of consequence will be effective or have any benefit. I think moving forward it’s important for school and home to closely observe specific behavior patterns, take in data, and together discuss interventions to put in place that help your son be successful. You may find some helpful ideas in Jenn’s post, 7 Systems that Work for Outside-the-Box Learners . Overall, the idea is to consider systems that work to your son’s strengths and help manage his struggles. I hope this helps.

Thanks so much Debbie. I’ll schedule an appointment with the teacher to get the ball rolling Take care!

My 7 year old (2nd grader) daughter’s teacher changed her grade from “needs improvement” to “not meeting expectations” insofar as focusing/completing task-assignments in timely manner and wants her to be evaluated. Although we’re 1st time parents, we’ve solicited feedback from 2 nieces (1st grade teacher and a child speech therapist) as well as from our daughter’s Home daycare provider who has known her for years, and no one feels she has any ADD or ADHD characteristics, that she’s as easily distractible as any 7 year old – and moreover, that she’s actually sorta nosey: even in a house full of kids doing all sorts of things/having conversations, etc, my daughter can tell you at any given moment exactly which kid took out which toy, and the details of all the conversations going on…like she tunes-in on everyone/everything. She’s always been like that, even as a toddler during “clean-up time” she’d toddle over to whichever kid with the toy THEY took out of the toybox for that kid to put the toy away that they took out – jokingly called her the toy-police! So, now that she’s in school and has been sorta enjoying “sprints” (self-exams, primarily math exams, where the kids time themselves to see how many math problems they can complete in 10 minutes), so in an effort to help her stay “focused” and complete her class tasks/assignments, I’ve told her she needs to think of every task/every assignment as a “sprint”…and believe it or not, THAT has seemed to help her, as-if it brings out the competitive edge in her, so for what it’s worth, I figured I’d share it. So, that’s one tip, and the other has been that we’ve employed a task/TO DO list that seems to help her “see” what she needs to accomplish… but consider, she’s only in 2nd grade, so “reading” a task list is challenging – and “time management” insofar as time needed to accomplish those tasks is still “nebulous” so off to the pediatrician we go. She’s already had the complete school assessment and they’ve ruled-out processing issues and determined that she’s “average” across the board, so I don’t know what’s left – other than to let her mature a bit more! I’m sure the teacher has concerns too, as we do, because our daughter’s biological parents both have developmental delays and mild mental retardation and some cognitive deficits, but from what all the evaluators have said at Early Intervention and those who evaluated her during the comprehensive school assessment, if she had any of those issues, they would have been evident by now…and they all agreed & assured us that we can stop worrying about those issues. Thank God! We’d appreciate any/all feedback! Regards, Anne Marie

Hi Anne Marie,

I work with Cult of Pedagogy and as a former 1st Grade teacher, I wanted to jump in here for a bit. Not knowing your daughter or having had the chance to observe her, it’s really hard to know what kinds of interventions might benefit her, but it sounds like you’ve got a strong support team and have already taken some important steps, including meeting with the pediatrician. If you haven’t already, I also suggest checking out Seth Perler ‘s site – you may find some relevant information and tips there. In the meantime, if your daughter is having difficulty “reading” a task list, consider using pictures instead. A timer might also help with time management. Observe any distractions that might get in the way and if possible, remove them. I hope this helps…maybe someone else will see this and jump in to share their insights as well.

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you so much for this article. I am a freshman at Syracuse University and I have always been the slowest student in class (largely due in part to my perfectionism), and while I don’t nitpick at my handwriting anymore (rarely to be quite honest), it has made my first semester hell. I am studying architecture and while it is a demanding major, 20 all nighters was not the norm, and I could have avoided 17 of those (probably not the 3 before the 3 exercise finals) if my mindset of producing the perfect model or drawing did not carry over from childhood. I really wish my teachers in elementary school could have used these strategies when I was younger so I could have built a lasting foundation of not giving into the urge of producing something “perfect.” Nearly all of my teachers in elementary school would tell me to write faster or tell my parents in parent teacher conferences or report cards that I had to work on my speed and not care about my penmanship as much. The only teacher that gave me good advice on speeding up was professor Rosa, my architecture professor with whom I took my architecture pre-college course with. He opened my eyes to the impact of architectural design and the impact that well designed spaces can have. He also gave me the saying “think, say, do” to “do” instead of “think” or “say” because if you spend your time thinking you just have your thoughts/ideas and nothing to show for it, and if you just say something you’re all talk. I don’t discredit thinking or saying, but having a physical model/drawing translates better to our professors who are visual and give us better critiques on what is in front of them.

I have recently started talking to a counselor, and I plan on using these strategies along with the Pomodoro technique she has suggested. I also plan on visiting all of my former teachers to catch up with them and introduce this article with them because students quite frankly will not take the initiative to take actions that would be beneficial for them in the future.

Thank you again for the article, Naomi

Hi, I would like to thank you for this wonderful advice, I’m a student having trouble with speed, but these methods don’t seem to work for me. Do you have any other suggestions?

Although this post does have a ton of suggestions, they certainly may not work for everyone. My first thought is to consider in what exact areas does that “speed” thing specifically seem to affect you; exactly how is it a problem and what might be getting in the way. Here’s another article you might want to check out: 7 Systems that Work for Out-of-the-Box Learners . See if anything there feels familiar; within the post is a link to Seth Perler’s site. Be sure to check that out as well — he’s got a lot of good stuff just for kids. The other thing I’d suggest, is to just make sure you continue to have communication with your teachers, family, counselor — the people who know you really well and see what kinds of suggestions they might have.

I’m so happy that you shared this information. It’s going to really help a student in my class.

No question, but I just wanted to say thanks for this article. My son has ADHD and a very low processing speed, despite scoring in the 95-99% in most other IQ rested other areas. 2e can be so hard for teachers (and teacher moms) to understand, and this article with the additional link to more 2e information is really helpful.

Thanks for letting us know you found this post to be helpful, Ashley! Might be a good one to share with teachers and admin!

I give a weekly syllabus chart to my 7th graders on Monday of the week, with columns for the name of the activity, the estimated time, the basic directions and where more specific info can be found, the places to find resources, and the due date – this is a Nancy Sulla strategy. One day with about 30 minutes left of class, there was a “disturbance” at one of the home groups. I went over to check and found Jack and Amanda trying to convince Megan (a very slow worker) that she HAD to make a plan for what she was going to accomplish in that 30 minutes. She kept insisting that there was “nothing on the syllabus that would only take me 30 minutes.” They patiently explained again and again that she could just start a longer task and put 30 minutes into it. As understanding finally dawned, she looked around the table and said “You mean I can just do a little part of something if I have some extra time, but I don’t have to do the whole thing? I swear, Ms. H., I did not know this!” We discussed this as a work strategy, and when she came in the next day, she reported that she had tried it while cleaning her room. “I wanted to clean my room, but I only had 15 minutes before my mom said we had to go, so I looked around and decided to just organize my stuffed animals! It worked!” I was never so proud! We try so hard to unpack things for kids, but sometimes we just don’t know exactly how much to unpack – you can be sure this strategy is now included in my lessons!

This article is awesome! Just what I needed, thank you!

Great to hear — thanks for letting us know!

I’m glad some teachers nowadays care enough to help kids try to get past hurdles that will totally destroy quality of life if not addressed early. I wish I had such help. I now face a bleak future cause I’m too slow in everything and disability is not enough to have a quality life.

Hi, My daughter is very smart girl, gate identified and is taking honor classes. She has always been a slow worker from the time she was in preschool. Now that she is in 8th grader I’m beginning to worry because she spends hours doing her homework. She claims she likes to take her time and do her work right, but I’m worried that she she’s up late working on homework that shouldn’t take her that long. She also takes long showers and moves at a slow pace in most of what she does. She also takes a long time getting ready for school or after school activities. I read the article and found a few strategies that I would like to try. But I was wondering if you can give me more specific advice on her. I find myself rushing her and frustrated when she doesn’t finish her work in a timely manner. Any suggestions?

Glad to hear there were a few ideas here that may be helpful. If you haven’t already, you may want to also check out 7 Systems That Work for Out-of-Box Learners . Also be sure to visit Seth Perler ‘s site. I’ve linked it here, but there’s also a link in the post.

Another article that I really like is Overwhelmed? Do Five Things . The suggestions here can be applied to anyone, whether school-related or not.

Other things to consider if you haven’t already: Scroll through the comments at the end of this post for possible ideas. Talk to your daughter’s teachers – are they seeing the same things you’re seeing at home? If so, ask if there are strategies they’ve implemented that they’ve found helpful or if they have suggestions you can try at home.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the advice to validate the student’s concerns. My husband and I will be moving soon and need to find a K-8 public charter school for our daughter. Keeping your advice in mind should help our daughter make the transition to her new school.

Eileen, We are glad that you found the advice useful as you prepare for your daughter’s transition to a new school. Best of luck to you and your family!

I need help teacher I have a 7 years old.. He is very slow And the teqcher is always complaining about his work… I really dont k ow how to help him Any advice please 😌

Not knowing the interventions that have already been put in place, my first suggestion is to try out some of the strategies from the post . Perhaps request a meeting with the teacher, admin, and counselor – share the article with them and find out what strategies, if any, have been implemented. Sometimes just making a few adjustments to something that’s already been tried can be helpful. For other ideas, take a look at 7 Systems That Work for Out-of-Box Learners and be sure to click on the link to Seth Perler’s site. Hope this helps!

Love the ideas, I would like more ideas for slow students and students that need more attention.

Hi Samantha! We’d recommend checking out 7 Systems that Work for Outside-the-Box Learners and our Differentiation and Personalized Learning Pinterest board. I hope this helps!

Hello, my son is a slightly above average student more so in mathematics so flies through it. He is a fifth grader in a sixth grade class. For the last three years he has been put up in the next class with four other students. (this is a whole different concern of mine for next year!:)) However in English/ writing, he is a lot slower. No trouble spelling and yes as mentioned above (on the website) he is one of the ‘wants to get it perfect’ 🙂 However my concern is the amount of work being expected of the children to complete within the school working week. E.g. Spelling work (which inadvertently turns into homework as there is alot but no timeframe supplied for any of the tasks except it is expected to be completed by Friday after being handed it on the Monday). Hopefully I haven’t taken too much advantage of your time and expertise but would be nice to run it by someone from ‘outside’ the small town we live in. And yes I am going to set up a meeting with the teacher and perhaps the principal. I just wanted to get a professional opinion on this beforehand, as if this is standard then we just have to deal with it. So I have included the list of just the spelling tasks below for your feedback, if you are able to find the time… these are from last term;

1. List your 20 spelling words for the week 2. Put four of your spelling words into sentences (make them interesting and minimum two lines long). 3. Create three adjective pyramids using three of your words. 4. Write as many rhyming words for three of your spelling words as you can. 5. Write the dictionary meaning for three of your words, get someone to write the word that fits the meaning. 6. Create your own word find using all of your 20 spelling words. 7. Write eight of your spelling words in code, have someone attempt to crack your code. 8. Put all your words in alphabetical order. 9. Break each of your spelling words into syllables 10. Word Jumble- choose two different spelling words and try to form as many new words from them as you can, list them. 11. (Fast finisher) Write a narrative using some of your words.

The above is not homework, he already has homework but it always gets brought home as he does not get enough time in the classroom to complete it.

The next lot of spelling we received for this week is; 1. List your 20 words 2. Scramble five of your words, have a classmate unscramble 3. Draw a picture and hide your words in it, get a classmate to find them. Circle the words with a red pen. 4. Write the first five of your words and get someone else to match them to the base word e.g. cheerfully——–cheer 5. Write one letter on each line until you have written words 6-10?? 6. Write five of your words with a vowel, take away the vowel/s and get a classmate to put them back in. 7. Syllable Sort: your word have syllables in them so count how many you have (this is copied exactly as it is on the work sheet, doesn’t make sense to me??) 8. Squiggle Words: write your words three squiggly (again copied as is). 9. ‘Write’ five of your words with magazine cut outs 10. Write all of your words that are verbs and draw an example, then sort out the adjectives, then nouns etc.

Given all the assignments they have been given, on top of ordinary class and home work just for this term, I feel this is overload.

Apologies for such an exhaustive letter, look forward to your feedback and opinion.

Kindest Regards concerned Mother Yvette

I think I am understanding two concerns in your comment. One – that the amount of work kids are being asked to do at school is spilling into homework, and two – is all that work even necessary? Is it making an impact on (your child’s) learning? Your child may need a different amount or different type of spelling practice than another child. What if students were to take a pre-test to determine which words they need to practice most and then choose a few activities from the list to practice just those words?

I think what we’re really thinking through here is the quantity versus the quality of the work. Are students engaged in genuine learning experiences that will help the concepts stick, or are they merely being compliant? Are things starting to feel like busy work?

I’m a member of the Cult of Pedagogy team, and I am happy to share a few resources that might be of interest to you. Feel free to use them as a springboard for discussion when you meet with your child’s teacher, which by the way, is a great way to build that partnership in the best interest of your child! Here you go:

Homework: How Much is Too Much? Beyond the Weekly Word List How To Deal with Student Grammar Errors

I hope this helps. Maybe others will see this and jump in, as well!

Hi there. I’m a consultant, author, and CoP contributor who has studied and written (a lot!) about vocabulary learning. The kind of work you’re describing surely keeps kids busy, but it doesn’t seem to provide the kind of application-level practice that would get words to “stick” — both the spelling, and, more importantly, the meaning. I highly recommend this succinct book by Camille Blachowicz, for your own learning — or perhaps as a gift for the school! https://www.heinemann.com/products/e04920.aspx Also, please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you’d like to talk further.

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The Worsening Homework Problem

My son does an average of five or six hours of homework every night. Is this normal?

Editor’s Note: Every Tuesday, Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer take questions from readers about their kids’ education. Have one? Email them at [email protected].

Dear Abby and Brian,

My son, who is in ninth grade, is a really good student, but I’m worried he’s working far too much. He does an average of five or six hours of homework every weeknight, and that’s on top of spending most of the weekend writing essays or studying for tests. His school says that each of his five main classes (English, history, math, language, and science) can assign no more than 30 minutes a night and that electives can assign no more than one hour a week. That should look like something around three hours a night, which is a lot but at least more manageable.

On some nights, a math problem set can take him more than two hours, and then, after 8 p.m. and sometimes after 9, he turns to his English reading, science textbook, Spanish paragraph, or history outline. He’s working until after midnight and then up at 6 a.m. to get ready for school, beyond exhausted. Is this normal?

How much homework should students be assigned?

Margaret Denver

Dear Margaret,

Homework—when assigned in appropriate amounts and with the right goals in mind—is an indispensable tool for educators. But students should never be put in the position of having to choose between their academic success and their overall well-being.

To understand what constitutes the right amount of homework, we should be clear on what it’s meant to accomplish. We believe it should perform four basic functions. First, homework should be assigned in order to make the most of class time. In an English class, for example, teachers need to ask students to read at home in order to do the important work of leading in-class discussions. Second, at-home assignments help students learn the material taught in class. Students require independent practice to internalize new concepts. Third, these assignments can provide valuable data for teachers about how well students understand the curriculum. Finally, homework helps students acquire the skills needed to plan, organize, and complete their work.

Unfortunately, many schools assign homework for its own sake, in amounts that are out of proportion to these basic functions—a problem that seems to have gotten worse over the past 20 years . This isn’t necessarily intentional. Some of your son’s teachers probably underestimate the time it takes their students to complete assignments. But your description makes clear that homework has taken over your son’s life. That’s why he should make sure to tell his teachers that he’s been working past the nightly limits prescribed by the school.

Additionally, he should use those limits for his own well-being: If he can’t get through a math worksheet in half an hour, he should stop, draw a line after the final problem he was able to complete, and talk with his teacher the following day. That way he will be able to spread his time more evenly among classes, and his teachers will get a better sense of how long their homework is taking. Sometimes teachers aren’t aware of how much other work our students have on their plate, not to mention their extracurricular responsibilities. Fill us in! Most teachers would prefer to recalibrate our students’ workload than find ourselves responsible for keeping them up so late.

But the goodwill of individual teachers may not be enough to solve the issue. Schools have any number of incentives to assign a lot of work, one of which is the pernicious assumption that “good” schools provide as much of it as their students can pack into a day. If your son’s workload doesn’t get lighter after he talks with his teachers, contact the administration and explain the situation. Hopefully this will prompt a larger conversation within the school about the reasons to assign homework in the first place—and the reasons not to.

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How One Simple Task Turned Into Hours of Stress

All i wanted was a recipe — but instead, i ended up spending hours in front of my computer, angry and hungry. here’s why adhd can make even the simplest task take forever, and what you can do to jumpstart your productivity..

Have you ever started to do a simple thing that should take a minute or so, only to have it take forever — or at the very least, several hours? If you have attention deficit disorder ( ADHD or ADD ), I bet you have.

All I wanted was a recipe for dinner. I had pinned it to Pinterest and just needed to print it out. That little recipe cost me over three hours and left my head spinning.

First, I needed to install an update to my printer, so it would stop sending me blank sheets of paper. But to do that, I had to log into the company’s website.

[ Free Handout: 10 Secrets to Greater Productivity ]

Did I have a password? No. I didn’t even have an account, so I had to create one. Then I had to find the update in my download folder. That took some doing because it had been sent as a PDF.

Then came the fun part: In order to install anything to my computer, I need a system password. That’s in addition to my iCloud password. And you can’t change your password — if you forgot it — without knowing what it is.

Several hours later, I realized that the password in question was the one I used to log in to my computer every day. Now I have my recipe printed out.

Why should you care about any of this? If you’re a woman with ADHD, here’s why:

• We have poor short-term memory.
• We tend to overthink things. It’s hard for us to see the forest for the trees, which is why nothing is simple for us.
• We often become immersed in something to the exclusion of everything else.

So my day turned out to be nothing like I had planned, but I’ll have a tasty dinner tonight.

[ Free Resource: Daily Routine Tricks for Adults with ADHD ]

—from anaddwoman.com

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Calculus students, how long does it take you on average to finish one hw on webassign?

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