Ideas for better concentration. Help!

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For those of you with concentration difficulties, what would you suggest I do to improve my concentration for essay writing.

My biggest problem is writing essays. I find that I cannot sit to write them for more than 15 minutes and almost always find it difficult during that time to actually write. However, people tend not to believe I'm struggling because when I do get to the end, I often produce very high level pieces of work.

Last semester got on top of me and I went from one of the highest students in the year to barely passing, for most coursework. In school, almost all my work was either As or Ds within the same subjects.


Problems I have:
- When I switch from one tab to another, I find it difficult to remember the words I wanted to copy (E.g., terminology/academic language - not plagiarism).
- When I am trying to write a sentence, particularly if they are words I am unfamiliar with, I find it extremely difficult to manipulate them into an unplagiarised sentence.
- I frequently forget the words I wanted to write, even though I know the concept in my head.
- I often have other thoughts about research or my interests (and since I am a fan of my degree, these often overlap) and although I try to write them down (otherwise I can't move on) I end up with tons of half sentences that I also can't work out how finish.
- It's really hard to stim and write and I keep finding that I need to get up and move.
-My tutors are really unclear on how well I need to write. They say how well to pass, but not how well to get high marks and say there isn't a tangible difference between first year and second year quality, although they expect more. When I do well, I still can't tell what it is that I've done well.

This is a hard one.

The only thing I could say is that you should narrow your focus to what's pertinent to the essay question. Leave the peripheral thoughts alone.

Unless you get "pop" quizzes, I would study for the test the night before, and only focus upon that subject for that night. Forget everything else. I would also formulate my thoughts about the subject the night before. Read and reread the essay question.

I know how you feel, I tend to have intrusive peripheral thoughts when I write essays as well. It's a matter of "editing" your thoughts, really.

You also have to find a way to sit and concentrate for more than 15 minutes.

I think you have to shut everything out but the composition you finish up with after you have written the essay. Shut out your tutors. Shut out the people who will be assessing your work. Shut out of your mind the score your essay receives because it doesn't matter. You say that people tell you that you often produce very high level pieces of work. Well that's the key to me that suggests that when you do concentrate you produce good work. So think only what you intend to write and beware that those thoughts which are coalescing in your head will be lost forever if they aren't collected and put to paper. And the only way committing your thoughts to paper requires the discipline of sitting at a desk for more than 15 minutes at a time to commit those words to paper.

If you know someone who can help you, having someone sit with you (even if they're doing their own thing on a laptop or something) while you do work can help. It doesn't help with everything, but it helps with some things. For me I still had issues with my mind going off to other places and focusing on the words I need to read and getting through them and other things but at least I had a constant reminder to continue doing work so my lapses were only minutes long not hours long.