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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.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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13 Simple and Effective Ways to Gain Motivation For Art

• Last updated on November 6, 2022

If you’re looking for motivation for art, this is the perfect article for you.

Motivation for drawing comes from discipline and a good set of habits. Knowing how to break down your practice into small chunks, sticking through commitments, and developing a good mindset are critical. Things like comparing yourself to others and practicing too much can lower your motivation.

As an artist, I’ve personally faced burnout and a period of low motivation where I did not draw for months. It can be tough to even pick up a pencil when you have no motivation to draw.

When I stumbled upon some of these concepts in this article, I learned exactly how to get motivated to draw again. 

Here are the lessons I have learned over the years:

Table of Contents

1. Rely on discipline, not motivation

One of the reasons why you might not be making art consistently is that you rely too much on motivation. Motivation can fluctuate wildly depending on a lot of factors like emotions, mood, personal issues, and even the weather! 

Instead, I found it very helpful to rely on discipline. Rather than waiting to become motivated to draw, start taking action even if you don’t feel like drawing.

When you do that, you’ll often find that the process becomes enjoyable, and you’ll naturally become motivated to continue. This mindset shift allowed me to make art consistently and become much happier as a result.

Do expect some resistance when you start to draw. When you lack motivation, your mind will come up with all sorts of excuses and reasons as to why you shouldn’t draw. Don’t listen to that voice. Shut out your thinking and just start drawing. Again, don’t expect to be motivated, be disciplined instead.

2. Just draw for 3 minutes

Here’s a simple trick to get your drawing motivation back if you have no motivation to draw. Instead of planning out an hour or more of time to draw, start with just 3 minutes.

Almost everyone can draw for 3 minutes, even brushing your teeth takes longer than that. This breaks down the huge task of creating art into just a tiny step that seems very easy to do. Your brain recognizes that this is a simple task, and the resistance disappears.

You’ll often find that when you start drawing for a few minutes, you would want to continue with it. I often use this trick when I feel very unmotivated, and I end up drawing for more than 3 minutes every time. If you still don’t feel like drawing after that, it’s fine to stop and try again tomorrow.

3. Make art fun again

A lot of artists lose motivation and stop making art because they lost the feeling of fun. You can feel this very quickly if you are spending too much time on commissions or practicing. This is because what we need to draw for work is often not what we want to draw. Studying can also be demotivating because it can be challenging and repetitive. 

Instead of studying art or working all the time, carve out a time to simply draw what you love. Drawing what you love can reignite your passion for art. I find that a good balance between studying art and making art you love is by spending 50% of the time on each of them.

Another good way to make art fun is to listen to music you love or podcasts in the background. I personally love to have YouTube playing in the background which helps stimulate my mind as I draw.

4. Have your art already set up

I find it so much easier to start doing art when I have all of my materials already set up. Keep your sketchbook open along with the pencil/pen on the table. If you’re painting, have the canvas ready and supplies right beside it. I like to keep my Photoshop open at all times even when I’m working or writing.

Doing this reduces the resistance it takes for you to get started. The less resistance you have, the easier it is to feel motivated to do the art.

Imagine for a moment: you have your sketchbook tucked away in a box in your basement that is underneath a huge pile of books. Are you likely to draw then? Probably not. So do yourself a favor and make it as easy as possible to get started. This can be a very powerful trick if you combine it with the 3-minute method.

5. Start with warmup exercises

A great way to start a drawing session is to start with warmup exercises. The purpose is to just get something onto your sketchbook without having to think too much about it. Again, this reduces friction and can take the dreaded empty sketchbook feeling away. This also serves as a form of practice that will help improve your art.

Here are three exercises that I do at the beginning of almost every session:

• Connect the lines – make dots all around your paper, then connect them with a single smooth stroke. You can rotate your paper to make it easier. This helps you control your lines better.
• Connected circles – draw a circle on the paper, then draw another circle that touches the original circle. Keep going and fill in the gaps. Try to draw two laps per circle so you get used to the motion. This helps you make better circles (which is a very common shape when drawing).
• Ellipses – simply draw a bunch of ellipses. I like to stack them on top of one another. You can vary the sizes or try practicing one size. An ellipse is probably one of the hardest shapes to draw so it’s important to practice this one.

Check out my drawing practice article if you’d like to get the most out of your practice.

6. Spend less time on entertainment

You may or may not have heard of dopamine detox, a lifestyle change that eliminates or reduces dopamine spikes. Dopamine is a pleasure chemical and is often released when we do things like watching Netflix, playing video games, or browsing social media. The problem is when we do too much of those, we begin to lose motivation for doing harder tasks or tasks that we previously find enjoyable.

In my experience, my motivation for drawing drops sharply if I play video games for too long. A good solution is to cut down the high dopamine activities to one hour a day. This forces you to fill your other time with things that will benefit you like making art or exercising.

I found that as I draw more, my motivation for playing video games actually drops! So try to condition your body so that the dopamine you get from making art is motivating you rather than dopamine from “junk” sources.

7. Don’t compare yourself to artists on social media

Many beginner artists make the mistake of comparing themselves to the art they see on Instagram or other platforms. Realize that we are all at different stages in our art journeys. When you see great artwork, most of the time the artist has been doing art for several years. We also don’t know how much work they put in to get to that point.

The artwork we see on social media is often the best work that those artists put out. We often don’t see experimental pieces or their failures. So, don’t beat yourself up and judge yourself based on the quality of art you currently can make. If you keep comparing yourself to other artists, you might find that your motivation to make art slowly drops.

If you do decide to browse the artwork on social media, try to shift the mindset of becoming inspired instead of comparing your artwork with theirs. Ask yourself what you can learn from their art and appreciate their art without comparison. 

8. Allow yourself to suck

In my experience, low motivation can come from low self-esteem and fear of making bad art. Don’t judge yourself too harshly and allow yourself to suck. It’s ok to suck, especially if you just started or you’re not a professional. When you set the bar too high, you will find a lot of resistance to getting started because you want everything to be perfect.

A mindset I like to use is to assume that I am going to suck at whatever new thing I am learning for the next 3 months. I would then proceed to draw and practice that subject for a few months. This will allow you to tackle intimidating subjects without thinking too much about them. Failure is necessary for success, and the faster you fail, the closer you get to success.

9. Look back and see how far you’ve come

Seeing improvements from art I made months or years ago almost never fails to motivate me. If you look back at your previous artwork, you can often see that you have come a long way since then. Knowing that you are making progress is a great way to keep yourself motivated.

However, if you haven’t improved much, you most likely simply haven’t been consistent with art or practicing art correctly. Sticking to the tips outlined in this guide will put you on the right track. You can also check out my article on beginner drawing techniques to make immediate improvements to your art.

10. Set aside the same time every day to draw

A good way to build a drawing habit and increase your discipline is to set the same schedule for drawing every day. I like to set my drawing time at 8 pm after dinner. You can also set it in the morning right after you wake up if you’re a morning person. Try to keep it at the same time each day (for example, 7 am every morning rather than 7 am on one day and 8 pm on the next). This will train your brain to associate that time with drawing which makes it much easier to start.

Actually block out the time and set it in the calendar scheduling app you use. Commit to that time regardless of any resistance you might feel. It can be a short 5-minute session or an hour-long session, but the important part is that you are doing it every day. This builds up discipline and the habit of drawing. Before you know it, you will be drawing every day and making massive improvements.

11. Actively find inspiration

Rather than waiting for inspiration to hit you, I find it much more helpful to seek out inspiration for my drawing. While you definitely don’t need inspiration to draw, it can definitely help motivate you if you feel inspired.

Here are a few tactics you can use to find inspiration:

• Look at other artists’ work – one simple way to find inspiration is to browse artworks online. I often feel inspired after seeing a beautiful painting or an interesting character design. Avoid the trap of comparing yourself to the artist as mentioned earlier.
• Go outside into nature – nature is one of the best sources of inspiration. You can go on hikes, to the zoo, or to any place in nature like a waterfall. Staying indoors all the time can stifle your imagination and creativity. In nature, you will often find interesting objects and animals to sketch.
• Take a walk – if you’re out of inspiration, take a break and go outside for a walk. Walking is a great way to refresh your mind and help you generate ideas.
• Go to a coffee shop – I like to bring my sketchbook to the coffee shop, and I find that a change in environment can help you generate new ideas. It is also fun to do some urban sketching in and around the coffee shop.
• Search online for ideas – if you’re looking for ideas for things to draw, searching online is probably one of the easiest ways. Here’s my own article on drawing ideas for beginners .

12. Get an art buddy

Getting an accountability partner can definitely help your art motivation. This allows you to motivate and push each other when you or your art buddy lack motivation. An easy way to make art friends is to join Discord groups or Facebook groups for artists. Here’s a good discord server you can join: Koteriink ’s Starving Artist Discord .

Participating in an art community will also help with motivation. You will be able to see the progress of other artists which can motivate you to make more art. I also find that I feel more motivated to do art when I help other members of the community. Being around artists in general, whether online or offline, will help you stay motivated in art.

13. Try different mediums and subjects

If you’ve been doing one thing for a long time, it can demotivate you as the tasks and processes become repetitive. I find it helpful to change up the mediums I use to make art. I tend to lean towards digital art most of the time, but I also spend time drawing with pens, pencils, and watercolor. A change in the medium will force you to do different things and learn new things which can be fun and exciting.

Other than that, you can also change the subject you are studying. Instead of studying the same topic for weeks or months, study two or three topics at a time. You can also study multiple topics within the same session. For example, I recently have been practicing hands and figure drawing in most of my sessions. The variety keeps things interesting and helps you stay motivated.

What to do next

I hope this article gave you some new ideas about how to stay motivated to draw or paint. Let us know your thoughts! Check out our article on character design tips .

Richard Hsu

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The best way to do your art homework: a guide for students.

Just so much work is done in the classroom. An art student should expect to have homework, which is an opportunity to practice and exercise creative skills. That last point is perhaps the most important reason to do homework. You have to be able to put your creativity to work. There are a couple of ways that will help you in getting those images in your mind down on paper or canvas.

• Stop Procrastinating. You should never wait to the last minute to do an art assignment. You risk having a creative block occur whenever you wait too long. Set aside time after school when you feel your imaginative juices are flowing the best. It is during those minutes you ought to be working on that art project.
• Organize Your Working Space. You are well aware of the degree of concentration necessary to do well in art. Anything that may disturb your thoughts should not be in the area where you will be working. Go ahead and turn off your smart phone; you don’t need to talk to anybody while you are working. Music is all right in the background but it should not be overly distracting.
• Pace Yourself. Creativity can be very draining and after hours of concentration you will need a break. Take the opportunity to refresh yourself and then get back to work.
• Outline the Steps. Michelangelo didn’t just splash paint on the Sistine Chapel. He worked from sketches he had done earlier and a process was followed whereby ideas were transferred to the wall. Prepare for yourself an outline of what you are going to do on the project and then go to work on it. It may be possible for you to do a section of the outline out of sequence. It isn’t really a problem if the creative forces are there. The other part can be worked on a bit later perhaps.
• Making Inventory of Your Supplies. Do you have what you need to get the job done properly? If you do not be sure to get all the needed supplies before you get started. This will allow you to work without the interruption of going to purchase paper or paint. Contact DoMyHomeworkNow , a professional service that will help you with any kind of assignment.

Homework does not have to be a night in the salt mines. You do have to organize both your time and your efforts. An idea you may consider is to jot down the amount of time required to finish a given project. This is a time audit which will allow you to have an idea of how much time you need for a given type of assignment. It will help you do even better job on future homework.

Miranda Balogh

Dream • Create • Inspire

11 Quick Ways to Improve Your Art (Fast Results)

November 30, 2021

What if I told you there’s a way to quickly improve your art skills?

It’s true! You can learn how to develop your painting and drawing skills more easily than you think.

That’s why, in today’s article, I’m sharing 11 effective strategies that will help you:

• Learn how to improve your art skills more quickly and effortlessly by making simple changes to your daily art routine
• Improve your art style fast so that it becomes more unique and recognizable
• Identify your weakest art skills so that you understand which skills you need to work on

By the time you’re done reading, you’ll be ready to level up your skills by using these awesome art tips!

Table of Contents

1. Practice Your Art Skills Every Day

I’m going to drop a truth bomb on you:

If you want to succeed as a self-artist and improve your art, you must practice your skills every day

Or at least as often as you can.

The truth is that no one is born with advanced skills and techniques. Even the professionals started off with zero artistic ability.

Want to know how they succeeded?

They practiced as often as they could to master their craft. Essentially, to be the best, you need to learn from the best.

One of the best ways to practice is to schedule time to create art . Even if it’s just for 10 minutes a day, every bit of time counts.

Whenever you practice, make sure you diversify your learning time by focusing on:

• Light and shadow
• Colour theory
• Composition
• Perspective
• Anatomy / figure studies

If you take the time to invest in your art skills, you’ll definitely see your artwork improve.

All it takes is consistent dedication and a personal commitment to improve.

2. Study Colour Theory

If you want to become a successful artist, you must learn about colour theory .

Colour plays a huge role in the way that we, as humans, observe and interpret art.

In this way, the colours you use in your artwork can make or break the final outcome of that piece.

So, if you feel that your colour theory knowledge is lacking, consider working on any of the following sub-topics:

• Colour harmony
• Colour temperature (temperature bias)
• Colour mixing ( how to avoid muddy colours )
• Colour combinations (colour palettes)
• Colour psychology

No matter how beautiful or balanced your artwork is, you won’t be able to captivate the viewer if the colours are muddy or disharmonious.

So, do yourself a favour and spend some time improving your colour theory skills.

3. Study Value Scales

Value represents the lightness or darkness of a hue.

Each and every colour has a large variety ranging from the lightest values to the darkest values.

In this way, value plays a huge part in your artwork because using different values can create contrast, which is something that many people find visually appealing.

For example, light values can bring attention to highlighted areas of interest whereas dark values can create shadows and greater depth.

In my opinion, one of the best ways to learn about colour value is to experiment with creating monochromatic artwork.

By using a single colour to create art, you’re forced to learn how to use a range of light to dark values to make the subject stand out.

Luckily, I’ve created an easy monochromatic watercolour tutorial to help you develop this important skill.

4. Learn New Skills from Tutorials, Videos, or Books

One of the most fun and engaging ways to improve your art skills is to learn from various forms of media.

For instance, you can browse through Google search to find blog tutorials or videos tutorials that suit your learning style.

If you prefer a more traditional method of learning, you can take out books from your local library or buy a few art books to help you learn new art skills.

And when you’re ready to make an investment in your art education, feel free to buy art books, e-books, online art courses, or any other learning material that will expedite your learning process faster.

If you like following along to free step-by-step lessons with free reference images, check out these painting and drawing tutorials:

• Easy Watercolour Tutorials for Beginners (Step-by-Step)
• How to Do Easy Sketching for Beginners (4 Tutorials)

But if you prefer reading about tips and tricks, I highly recommend that you check out this article that shares strategies to improve a bad watercolour painting .

The tips that are shared in the aforementioned article also work very well for artists who paint with gouache since both mediums are water-based.

5. Develop Your Art Style by Studying Your Favourite Artists

If you’re an artist who’s learning how to find your art style , then you should define what you want it to look like.

And one of the best ways to improve your art style is by studying your favourite artists.

These influential people don’t have to be fine artists. They can also be your favourite authors, animators, photographers, filmmakers, interior designers, etc.

Create a list of the people who inspire you and explore their work. This is one of the best ways to find inspiration for your artwork .

Think about the elements of their work that inspire you the most. What do you find so aesthetically pleasing about their creations?

Now, I’m not encouraging you to copy your favourite artists’ styles. Instead, I want you to recognize the elements that resonate the most with you.

By completing this exercise, you’ll have better understanding of the stylistic elements that you can incorporate into your art style.

Then you’ll have a good understanding of how to improve your art style fast.

6. Learn from Reference Photos

How can you create art about a certain type of subject matter if you have no idea what it looks like?

For example, if I asked you to draw a tetradactyl, could you reproduce it without a reference photo?

I’m guessing you can’t. (Don’t worry, I can’t either).

Therefore, you need to find good reference photos to help you learn how to paint or draw new things.

There are a couple of ways that you can get reference photos:

• Go outside and use your smartphone to take pictures of buildings, people, and scenery in your neighbourhood
• Stay inside and use your smartphone to take pictures of people or objects inside your house
• Buy a book full of beautiful reference images. You can often find good books that focus on landscapes, portraits, or any other kind of subject matter that interests you
• You can go to Pinterest and create a Pinterest board. Then, browse through the visual search engine and save a bunch of reference photos to your board

Don’t want to go through all that effort? Then follow my Pinterest account to explore tons of art boards that are specifically curated with free references and resources to benefit artists.

7. Break Complex Forms Down into Simple Shapes

Have you ever tried to draw something complex—let’s say, a complicated figure drawing—only to drive yourself crazy because the proportions were completely off?

In this case, the best thing to do is to simplify what you’re drawing by breaking down the complex forms into simple shapes.

For example, if you’re drawing a person who is posing, you can break the head down into an oval. The torso becomes a rectangle. The legs and arms become cylinders, and so on.

When you map out the shapes beforehand, you can render the painting or drawing with greater accuracy.

Then, all you have to do is chisel away at each shape until you have successfully rendered it.

As well, keep in mind that geometric shapes convey emotions, so think carefully about the shapes you’re using and how the softness, hardness, roundness, and sharpness influence your artwork.

The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material – Michelangelo

8. Warm Up Before You Create New Art

It’s tempting to jump into a new painting or drawing when you have a great artistic vision in your mind.

However, much like an athlete or a musician, you need to warm up in order to reach you maximum potential.

For example, if you don’t warm up, your hand won’t move as fluidly because the muscles haven’t been primed yet.

So, the solution is to take at least 10 to 15 minutes to warm up before you starting creating. If you do this, you’ll be much more prepared to work on your art.

In addition, taking a bit of time to warm up and doodle is a great way to help you get out of a creative rut since you’ll be coming up with new ideas before you start creating art.

So give this strategy a try!

9. Focus on Improving Your Weakest Skill

I know you probably don’t want to spend time on improving a skill that you’re not very good at.

But if you’re completely honest with yourself, you already know that you need to develop your weakest skills in order to become a well-rounded artist.

So, think about your current skillset and consider the following:

• What art skills do I excel at?
• What art skills are my weakest?
• Which art skills will do I need to develop to become an even better artist?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you need to actually spend time developing your weakest skills.

For example, if you struggle with light and shadow, go back to basics by drawing 3D objects with light sources, as shown below.

10. Draw Thumbnails to Plan the Composition

Have you ever created an artwork and felt dismayed by the fact that the perspective was skewed?

Or perhaps the values were all wrong. Even worse, maybe the composition ended up looking weird and not visually pleasing.

To avoid this problem, you should sketch a dozen different thumbnails to experiment with the idea you have in mind.

Sketching a bunch of thumbnails is basically the artistic equivalent of performing a brain dump.

When you draw thumbnails, you’re able to test different compositions and values. There’s no commitment or pressure to make the thumbnail pretty, so they can be loose and messy.

Once you’ve sketched a bunch of thumbnails, you can observe them and decide which ones are winners and losers.

Ultimately, you’ll end up with your favourite thumbnail which you can then use as the main reference for your artwork.

11. Paint and Draw Loosely for Optimal Results

Nothing is worse than looking at artwork that is stiff, inorganic, and lifeless.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to fix this problem.

Instead of drawing from the wrist, which is more limited in its movement, you should draw from the shoulder.

You see, drawing from the wrist means you’re likelier to choke up on the pencil and squeeze too tightly, which creates rigid, stiff lines.

On the other hand, drawing from the shoulder allows your arm and hand to cover a wider surface area.

Since you’re forced to draw in a way that is less tight and controlled, you’re able to create brushstrokes and lines that are fluid and loose because you have a looser grip.

Give this method a try and I’m confident you’ll notice a difference!

There you have it!

In this article, you’ve learned about 11 ways to improve your art skills that will help you develop your art at a faster pace.

The best part?

None of these art tips are difficult to implement. In fact, all you have to do is incorporate them into your art routine by making tweaks to the way you work.

But the greatest takeaway you can get from this article is that progress and improvement come to those who take the time to invest in themselves .

That means as long as you make an effort to improve and you stay committed to this goal, you’re going to succeed.

Just give these tips a try and you’ll soon realize how easily and quickly you can improve your art!

What strategies have you used to improve your artwork or art style? Share your tips in the comments below!

MIRANDA BALOGH is a self-taught artist who loves teaching her students how to paint with watercolours. To do this, she inspires her audience to step into their power as artists so they can create beautiful artwork with confidence. Subscribe to her art channel on YouTube to enjoy more art content!

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December 1, 2021 at 5:36 pm

Great tips! Very helpful for the artist who is just starting out! I like how you started out by saying that the professionals didn’t begin by being being talented they worked at it! That can be applied in many different areas of life.. no one starts out killing it! Thanks for sharing!

December 1, 2021 at 7:51 pm

Thank you! That is a key message that I wanted to share with my readers. I’m glad it resonated with you!

December 5, 2021 at 3:39 pm

I’ve never really felt like much of an artist, but I’d love to give it a shot!

December 8, 2021 at 6:02 pm

Definitely give art a try! You might be pleasantly surprised by how much you enjoy it.

December 7, 2021 at 10:33 am

I’m not an artist, but this is so interesting. I’ve never thought about drawing from the shoulder instead of the wrist. Great tips!

December 8, 2021 at 6:03 pm

Thank you! I’m glad you found these art tips helpful.

December 8, 2021 at 11:19 am

Thanks for the tips! I used to be really bad about planning my art ahead of time but I have learned how important it is.

December 8, 2021 at 6:04 pm

I can relate! I’ve found that taking a bit of extra time to plan out the composition or thumbnail beforehand often leads to much better artwork once it’s finished.

December 8, 2021 at 2:20 pm

great tips, learning about colors should be one of the first things to learn as an artist.

Agreed! Colours can completely change the overall aesthetic of an artwork, so it should be understood and applied well!

December 8, 2021 at 7:14 pm

These are great tips. I remember little bit of the scale when I was in art class. Its great how many art books and tutorials their are to help every day people do great with art.

December 9, 2021 at 6:50 pm

Thanks! Art books and tutorials are abundant, so it’s very easy for artists to find great learning material.

December 9, 2021 at 12:26 am

Thanks for sharing. My daughter and Mom are artists. I’ll share this with them. ~Michelle

December 9, 2021 at 6:51 pm

Thanks for sharing!

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Art Homework That Doesn’t Need Marking!

Even the best, most dedicated, Art Teacher can sometimes feel the marking and assessment burden. Homework and classwork mount up and it all needs marking. Here I have 15 excellent suggestions for homework tasks that still move our students forward, but don’t need marking. Many of them also lead to you having an excellent starter for your next lesson.

• Research what the letters & numbers on pencils mean.  E.g. the H and the B.
• Make a list of the items in their home that are made of ceramic.
• Collect an item to contribute towards a still life.
• Photograph or bring in an object that they will then draw in class.
• Set a homework to watch a YouTube clip that is relevant to the unit of work.
• Bring in an example picture of an artwork by an artist or movement you are studying to add to a class collage/display.

• Bring in a keyword to add to the display mentioned in number 6.  Hand drawn or word-processed in an appropriate and creative way.
• Research what drawing from a primary or secondary source is, ready to discuss.
• Research facts about an artist or movement.  All students stand at the start of class and get to sit down when they share a fact.  Each student nominates which student gives the next fact.
• Introduce ‘creative drawing’ homework where the student chooses what do draw and in what media to embrace freedom of choice and creativity.  These could be in a separate mini sketchbook or the back of their sketchbook.  These are unmarked homework tasks that encourage students to take risks and experiment without the fear of a poor grade.
• Research the difference between a line and tone drawing ready to discuss at the start of the next lesson.
• All collect a colourful disposable object (eg milk bottle top) to make a giant colour wheel in class.
• Create a Pinterest board on an artist or theme.
• Older Students 16+ go to Arty Students and look at the exemplary projects here .  Ask students to find a piece of work within a project that they like ready to discuss at the start of the following lesson.

Click on the image below to download this super-useful list as a document.

Enjoy this article, Drop it a like

Or share it.

The Arty Teacher

Sarah Crowther is The Arty Teacher. She is a high school art teacher in the North West of England. She strives to share her enthusiasm for art by providing art teachers around the globe with high-quality resources and by sharing her expertise through this blog.

4 responses to “Art Homework That Doesn’t Need Marking!”

A pleasure 🙂

This is great! Thanks. I like to get my classes to write me a short article on spiritual art for homework too and also have a honest discussion about their opinions of artwork in a gallery or museum. Another activity is to go to a park and sketch the trees. Alternatively you could have them go to a duckpond and draw ducks. Other activities include a presentation on their favourite medium to use. You could even teach a powerful moving lesson on how emotion can be actively expressed through artwork as well. Or you can ask them to decoupage a shoebox etc for homework. Examples of cool original art homework projects are animal drawing, life drawing, flower tracing, toy design, bookmaking and so on. What about writing art essays and art competitions? Paired activities are good as well for fostering a sense of teamwork in class.

There are some great ideas here. If my students do a drawing I would have to mark it. Wouldn’t you?

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7 Hacks For How To Do Homework Fast

Updated: July 11, 2022

Published: June 8, 2021

Esteemed late and great Coach John Wooden used to say, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” The phrase that was directed towards his team of basketball players can be applied to virtually every aspect of life, including for students approaching their homework. Learning how to do homework fast is both an art and a skill.

While it’s not a race to the finish, applying the following tips and tricks can help you better manage your time. As a student, time management becomes one of the most important skills you can possess. This then transfers to your work at any job, and even the ability to balance your personal life with professional activities.

But, before we go further down this rabbit hole, let’s focus on the task at hand, which is to adopt techniques to finish your homework quickly.

Student’s workspace for homework with graph paper and supplies / https://unsplash.com/photos/TB3CxSMHqmY

How to do your homework faster.

These homework hacks can be utilized for more than just homework. For anything that you have to get done with immense focus and accuracy, consider applying the following:

1. Create a to-do list

One of the upsides of homework is that it’s black-and-white. You know exactly what you have to get done and by when. This makes it easier to create a prioritized to-do list. While making a to-do list may not seem like a big hack, it ends up being one of the most important and useful things to do along your homework journey.

Instead of opening your notebook and jumping right into the first homework assignment that comes to mind, take a few moments to review what you have to get done. To make this easier, use a homework agenda or planner, so you don’t forget your tasks. Once you have everything written out, consider due dates and the length of time it should take to cross them off the list.

Creating a to-do list that is in order of priority helps you to stay on track and also provides you with a burst of endorphins and a sense of accomplishment each time you put a check in the box of completion.

2. Remove distractions

Distractions come in many different shapes and sizes. From cell phone chimes and notifications to a sibling throwing jelly beans at you, distractions can be of any type. While you cannot control how others affect you while you work, you can take control of your own study space and habits.

Turn off your phone and electronic devices, leave them in a different room, or at least put them on silent. It’s become a habit that as soon as the screen lights up, most people stop what they are doing and take a peek. Whether you act on the notification or not, you’ve lost valuable time with the distraction. Then, you need to refocus your brain on your homework all over again. These small bouts of broken concentration add up to a lot of wasted time.

3. Estimate time

Getting your homework done quickly means that you have to first be aware of the time it takes. You can time yourself on different tasks to start gaining an understanding and general idea of what takes the most time. This way, you can work to sharpen specific skills to move faster. For example, if you’re a slow reader, then you can try to learn more about speed reading so that you can shave off time on this task.

Timing yourself is also a good idea because if all your due dates are the same for tasks, then you can at least order your to-do list based on time. If a certain homework assignment takes less time than another, it may be best to start off with that task. This not only helps you to reserve your energy for time-consuming tasks, but it also means that you get started off on a positive note by completing something quickly. You can use that momentum to continue pushing through your list.

4. Find your study location

Find the type of environment that best suits you to get work done. This could mean a coffee shop with some ambient background noise, or it could be a library so quiet that you can hear a pin drop. Every person has their own preferences when it comes to where they work the best. As long as you minimize your distractions, you can get your work done quickly given you’re in an optimal workspace.

5. Gather supplies

Say you sit down to do some math homework. Then, you realize you need a graphing calculator. So, you go to get one. You sit back down and get into the groove. But now, you have forgotten the graphing paper you need to draw the equation. It may not seem like a big deal to get back up and run to the next room for your supplies, but again, you’re losing time.

In the endeavor of minimizing wasted time, you should gather all your supplies in advance and take them with you to your workspace. In order to do this successfully, review your to-do list once again and make a mental note of everything you’ll need to get each line item done.

6. Take breaks

Breaks are not bad. Breaks are actually beneficial. However, not all breaks are made equally.

By taking breaks, you can recharge your energy and focus. This could actually translate into being able to focus for longer stretches of time. Approach your homework like you would a high-intensity interval training exercise regimen. This means that you’ll go hard for a certain amount of time (say 45-60 minutes), and then you’ll take a quick, but meaningful break (say for 15-20 minutes).

If you focus for longer amounts of time, then take a slightly longer break. This helps to avoid burnout. Your body and mind will thank you for taking healthy breaks (i.e., a short walk, stretching, or any other activity that doesn’t require too much mental capacity).

7. Reward yourself

You’re the master of your own fate (and homework). So, if you thought that it would take you 45 minutes to finish your coding exercise, but you finished it in 30 minutes, you can apply those saved 15 minutes to a reward.

By celebrating small wins, you will continue to motivate yourself to get your work done in a timely manner. Alternatively, if you don’t want to take long breaks between your tasks, you can accrue your time and spend it all doing whatever brings you joy once you finish your homework to-do list.

Woman writing in a daily planner / https://unsplash.com/photos/N9uOrBICcjY

Wrapping up.

The desire to finish homework quickly is a universal feeling. When you look at the big picture, the ability to complete homework without wasting too much time turns out to be a lesson in time management. Having strong time management skills is paramount in education, especially if you choose to do so in a self-paced and online learning environment.

Try some or all of these homework hacks so that you can know how to do homework fast. Have fun while finding out which ones prove to be most beneficial for you.

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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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17 Digital Drawing Exercises To Boost Your Artistic Skills!

Whether a beginner artist or a veteran, the best way to improve your digital drawing skills is by doing good digital drawing exercises!

From drawing with a limited color palette to creating mixed media and sculptures, there’s a suitable drawing exercise for you in this list.

Here you can find a healthy mix of beginner, intermediate, and advanced digital drawing exercises to match every skill level.

These digital drawing exercises are ordered from easiest to hardest , so if you want more of a challenge, keep scrolling!

Table Of Contents

• 1 Draw Using A Limited Color Palette
• 2 Practice Drawing Basic Shapes Of A Simple Subject
• 3 Fill A Sheet With Simple Lines
• 4 Draw From (Easy) Reference Material
• 5 Experiment Drawing With New Tools Or Brushes
• 6 Draw An Old Art Piece Again
• 7 Practice Drawing In A Different Art Style
• 8 Practice With Different Brush Thickness And Settings
• 9 Draw The Same Scene In Different Perspectives
• 10 Practice Drawing A Difficult Animal
• 11 Draw Something Out Of Blobs
• 12 Try Digital Sculpture And 3D Modeling
• 13 Master Drawing A Specific Body Part
• 14 Do A Drawing Exercise With A Time Constraint
• 15 Expand Your Color Palette
• 16 Draw Dynamic Poses For A Character
• 17 Digitally Paint A Complex Environment Or Landscape
• 18.1 What Are The Benefits Of Using Digital Tools In Art?
• 18.2 How Can I Stay Motivated With Consistent Drawing Practice?
• 18.3 What Digital Tools Or Software Should I Use?
• 18.4 Can I Do These Digital Art Exercises On My Phone?

Draw Using A Limited Color Palette

One of the best way to boost your artistic skills AND improve at color theory is by using a limited color palette.

With this digital drawing exercise you can not only work on composition and value, but also creating better artwork by blending and mixing colors correctly.

So here are the steps for this digital painting exercise:

• Choose a subject to draw. Try choosing something simple at first, such as a mug or a ball. You can check this list for other simple drawing ideas.
• Select 3-5 colors that work together. Don’t go overboard with colors ! 3 to 5 colors are more than enough. I recommend you to use a website such as coolors.co to help you find a good palette.
• Use ONLY these colors in your drawing. Use the colors you’ve picked. Don’t try to add more colors or switch them up, use your palette. A tip: don’t try to use the colors equally. Make 1 or 2 predominant colors and then use the others for small details.

And you’re done! This is a especially useful digital drawing exercise if you want to improve at using colors in your artwork.

Practice Drawing Basic Shapes Of A Simple Subject

Drawing basic shapes is a fundamental aspect of being a good artist.

In fact, this is a great drawing exercise if you plan on doing some figure drawing. The entire human body can be split into basic shapes and then refined and detailed later.

Many digital artists warm up by drawing shapes first, and then move on to other exercises, before starting to work on their main projects.

To do this exercise:

• Get a reference of a simple subject.
• Draw simple shapes. Circles, Rectangles, Squares, Triangles, draw shapes that are in their essence very simple. Either on top of the reference photo or to the side, it doesn’t matter!
• Pay attention to the relation between each shape. Your entire digital drawing of the subject should be easily identifiable with these shapes.
• (Optional) Refine the shapes and add details. The base exercise is meant to draw only the basic shapes, but you can go a step further and add details and refine it if you want an extra challenge!

This is one of many great digital painting exercises where you can keep ramping up the difficulty with more complex subjects. Have fun!

Fill A Sheet With Simple Lines

One of the best ways to improve your line quality and control of your digital drawing tools is by drawing lines on a canvas, sheet, or file.

This simple exercise can feel almost dull, but it’s actually pretty satisfying to see all those lines drawn together!

For this exercise:

• Choose your drawing tool. You can use the same brush you use normally, or try other digital brushes.
• Fill a layer with lines. You can draw straight lines, parallel lines, or some curved lines. Totally up to you! This is a great time to draw some patterns and just doodle around. What matters is that you keep your lines confident and flowing.

Do keep an eye out on the pressure that you’re applying to your tool, and vary it to see the effects on your software! Just have fun and play around with it.

Draw From (Easy) Reference Material

If your weakness in drawing (either digital or traditional drawing) is accuracy to the details of what you’re drawing, you most likely are lacking good reference!

Either that, or you’re not using any reference at all! (don’t do this please)

To make this an easy digital drawing exercise, I recommend you grab a reference photo of still life . Then you just focus on the proportions between each element of the photo!

You can even draw directly on the original photo so you can improve your muscle memory of the subject. Notice the light source, how the shading looks, and pay a lot of attention to the details!

Tip: If you’re taking the photo, take it from different angles so you can practice different perspectives.

Experiment Drawing With New Tools Or Brushes

This is the exercise for you if you’re looking to try new techniques or want to expand your artistic skills!

And it’s very simple. Choose a tool that you’re NOT used to.

This can be anything. For example, the procreate default brushes are amazing, but maybe you can download some new different brushes from the web and use those!

You can also try using the Pen tool to draw and the smudge tool to tweak and distort your drawing around.

Another fun technique is blind contour drawing , for example. It can lead to some quite interesting results.

Draw An Old Art Piece Again

Drawing challenges are always a great and fun way to practice drawing! And the “Draw This Again” trend is a wonderful exercise for digital artists.

Many artists have taken this challenge , and it’s a great way to see how much you’ve improved your drawing skills.

• Choose an old art piece.

It’s quite simple, but effective.

You should try and recreate it as closely as possible. But if your art style has changed or if you’ve learned new techniques, feel free to incorporate those in your new drawing!

It will show your improvement over time, so it’s a great drawing exercise to do every couple of months.

Practice Drawing In A Different Art Style

Want to try something new? How about a cartoon art style !

This is easier if you turn your digital artwork into a different style than your usual one. (Instead of just trying a new art style and drawing something new at the same time)

So choose an art style, a subject or previous work, and try your hand at it!

When you find a new art style you like, I recommend you save a painting in that style for future reference. Better yet, save a bunch of different digital paintings, so you have multiple sources of inspiration!

This is a great challenge for any digital artist , and it will help you stay inspired.

And if you’re unsure on what style to try, here are a few very simple art styles for you!

Practice With Different Brush Thickness And Settings

Being an artist in the digital world has its perks! And one of those perks is the number of settings you can tweak and the versatility of your digital tools.

This is one of those digital drawing exercises that seems pretty common. But most artists, when they find their favorite settings in a tool, they stop experimenting.

Take some time exploring your brush tool, play around with the line thickness of the brushes, and test out different pressure sensitivity options!

And don’t just doodle. Really go at it and draw an entire subject or artwork using different settings than usual.

This will make you more comfortable with your digital work and you might even find some new favorite settings to use!

Draw The Same Scene In Different Perspectives

Perspective drawing can be pretty scary. But once you master it, your drawing skills will improve tenfold!

• First, get a subject or picture of real life with an interesting perspective.
• Then, make a drawing based on that picture! Keep it as close as possible to the original perspective.
• Finally, draw it again, in a different perspective!

This final step can warp your mind a bit, since you need a good imagination to draw in different perspectives. But if you know the basics of perspective, you should be able to do it!

Consider it a big challenge. This is more of those advanced digital drawing exercises.

For example, you can try a simple two-point perspective (a great way to draw architecture) with two vanishing points .

Or you can try one-point perspective if you’re looking for an easier challenge.

If you’re rusty on perspective drawing or just want a quick reminder, here’s a complete guide on the types of perspective drawing.

Practice Drawing A Difficult Animal

Drawing anatomy , in general, is pretty difficult! And creating a digital drawing of animal anatomy is the same.

Go outside of your comfort zone and draw a difficult animal. Be sure to use reference photos and videos to help you get the overall shapes right!

Don’t worry too much about perfection. Do several quick sketches first to capture the overall essence of the animal you’re drawing, then add details later.

Here are some difficult animals for you to draw:

And if you’re still looking for some more ideas other than animals, here are 7 other hard things to draw.

Draw Something Out Of Blobs

One of the most fun drawing exercises (in my opinion) that you can do is draw something out of blobs!

This will help you improve your imagination and give you a new (or several new) pieces of art.

To do this digital drawing exercise:

• Draw blobs of color on a sheet. You can do this digitally or traditionally. If you do this traditionally, take photos so you can work on them digitally after.
• Focus on the shapes and draw what comes to mind! This is pretty self-explanatory. Just draw whatever comes to mind when looking at those forms!

This is like looking at the sky and imagining the clouds look like a pig or cat!

You can also take this a step further and turn your blobs into full original characters. I did this in a video some time ago, check it out below!

If you’re not happy with your original blobs of color, just redo them in a new sheet or layer. The most important part on this exercise is to have fun and keep on experimenting.

Try Digital Sculpture And 3D Modeling

On the subject of trying new tools, there’s always a possibility to try some digital sculpturing!

Doing 3D modeling or digital sculpturing is a good way to experiment with new mediums, and it can spark some inspiration for your projects.

To practice this exercise, here’s what you can do.

• Choose a 3D Modeling/Sculpturing software. Some popular options for this are ZBrush (paid) and Blender (free).
• Pick a subject. If you’re just starting out I recommend you to pick a simple subject such as a vase or a mug.
• (Optional) Look up tutorials. These are pretty complex pieces of software, so I recommend you to look up some helpful tutorials about 3D. Youtube is always a good place to do this!

And don’t stress out about it not being perfect at first. This is a new skill so it should take some time getting used to.

If you’re looking for an extra challenge, just choose a more complex subject or a whole big environment.

You can even try sculpting a real painting , like the mona lisa, and turning it into 3D!

Master Drawing A Specific Body Part

There are many difficult body parts to draw, such as drawing hands. So if you’ve been postponing drawing the anatomy of a part of the body, now’s the time. To practice drawing the body:

• Gather reference images
• Sketch the basic shapes
• Draw the details of the body part
• Clean up the lines

Fill your digital software with practice drawings of this specific body part, and you’ll improve MUCH faster. Trust me on this.

Do A Drawing Exercise With A Time Constraint

Time constraints (just like other constraints) tend to make you hyper-focus on what you’re doing, and make you get creative with your work.

So doing a drawing exercise (such as the ones we mentioned before) with a time constraint will help you improve your drawing skills much faster.

With that said, some people don’t react well being “on the clock”. So if this drawing exercise is stressful for you, feel free to skip it.

If not, then I recommend you to do some gesture drawing ! These are quick gesture sketches that will improve your dynamic posing of figures.

You can use a website such as line-of-action.com and choose a time interval setting from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. According to your preference!

I recommend you start with a longer time interval and then push yourself for the shorter intervals. Have fun!

Expand Your Color Palette

This is the opposite of another digital drawing exercise we mentioned before, where you limit your color palette. Here you make it a challenge to increase your color range and add more elements to your artwork.

For example, you’ve done a grassland painting. But you want to add some red to it. So what can you add? To increase your color palette , you could add:

• A Red Bird, such as the Northern Cardinal
• Some Red Flowers, like roses

The options go on and on, but this is a great exercise and challenge to practice painting with a bigger color palette.

Draw Dynamic Poses For A Character

When digital drawing characters and figures, you might feel that your drawings look too stiff.

The usual problem here is that the poses aren’t dynamic enough.

This can be because of many things. From lack of confidence in your skills, a reference photo that isn’t very good or anything else.

I recommend you to really try to understand the reason your pose looks “boring” and what you can do about it! Try exaggerating the pose or start again with a stronger gesture and line of action!

This is something that you can easily get better at with some practice, and I’ve created specific videos on my Figure Drawing Course to help with this step-by-step.

Digitally Paint A Complex Environment Or Landscape

If you’re too used to drawing the same subjects (such as characters or objects) over and over again, it can become quite boring.

You can even find yourself losing motivation and inspiration! So why not try a different subject , such as doing a digital drawing of a complex environment?

When creating a digital painting of a Landscape or other environment, you should pay close attention to ALL the elements you want to include.

Whether you’re doing this digital painting with a reference photo or solely using your imagination, the distance and proportion between elements matter a lot.

Learning to draw an environment on a digital canvas deserves a whole blog post dedicated to it.

But for now, here’s what you can do:

• Choose GOOD reference images of an environment. Save several references with different elements and points of view. This will help you take elements you like from each reference image.
• Sketch the composition and perspective. Focus just on where the main elements are and add them to your composition.
• Add details and shading. Once you’re done with the sketch, take time to add details, do some shading on your canvas and figure out the light source.
• Refine, refine, refine. Now it’s time to refine! Clean your lines, see if you need to erase some elements or create new ones. Keep going until you’re happy with your digital painting!

The most important thing is to have fun with this process. Digital painting is hard and, just like in real life “traditional painting”, it takes time to get better at.

Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect yet, and concentrate on improving your painting techniques.

Related Questions

With all these digital art exercises ready for you, let’s review some quick related questions that you might find helpful.

What Are The Benefits Of Using Digital Tools In Art?

With so many benefits to drawing digitally, you can even argue that digital art is easier than traditional painting. Some of the benefits of using digital tools in art are:

• Better Portability. You can create art at any time, in any place! Simply carry your tablet (or even phone!) with you, and you’re ready to start drawing.
• More Sustainable Than Traditional Tools. Not only can you generally use the same digital tool for longer (I have used the same drawing tablet for over 10 years!), but they also have a smaller ecological footprint.
• Easy To Share And Collaborate. Want to share your artwork on different platforms? It’s easy! Save your file in a size appropriate for the platform you’re uploading, and it’s done. Want to get your traditional painting in a larger size and frame? Well… that’s a bit harder. You can also send you file to a partner to edit across the world to collaborate. Super handy!
• Thousands of Tools At Your Fingertips. Using digital tools is very versatile, since you can simply change from one tool to another with a click of a button. Want to go from a digital oil brush to charcoal? One click and you’re done! No need to wait for paint to dry or prepare surfaces.

There are many other benefits to using digital art tools, but I just wanted to cover a few here!

How Can I Stay Motivated With Consistent Drawing Practice?

Consistency is key when drawing, so if you lack motivation, you won’t be able to keep on doing these digital art exercises to improve. Worse yet, you might even burn out!

I recommend you to take consistent breaks and make a schedule, so you can make drawing a habit. I’ve gone over getting the motivation to draw in more detail in this article here.

What Digital Tools Or Software Should I Use?

I recommend you to use drawing software that you like and are used to. Some good options are Clip Studio Paint , Krita, Adobe Photoshop, and GIMP.

For more specific recommendations, check out my list of the Best Free Drawing Software here.

Can I Do These Digital Art Exercises On My Phone?

While I do recommend using a drawing tablet or a regular tablet (like an iPad with Procreate and an Apple Pencil), you can also use your phone to improve your digital art.

This will take some time to get used to, but it’s possible! Sit in a comfortable area and just use your finger or a stylus for touch screens like this one and start painting!

I hope these exercises to improve your artistic skills are helpful to you! And if you’re looking for a more guided approach to drawing, grab my Complete Figure Drawing Course , filled with helpful step-by-step video lessons!

Patricia Caldeira is the main writer here at Don Corgi. She's an art teacher with over 20.000 happy students across many platforms and courses!

Enjoy your stay and as always: Keep on drawing!

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Homework Hacks: 8 Tips to Get It Done Faster

Homework is no fun, especially if you’ve got a full schedule. You only have a little bit of time and a little bit of energy. And it takes so long to get through it.

Not anymore. We’ve got some helpful homework hacks for you that will make doing your homework faster and less painful.

1. Plan Your Homework and Make a List

When you start your homework, you’ll probably jump right into the first thing on your mind or the first thing you pull out of your backpack, then work your way through the rest of your assignments. There’s a better way.

Figure out how much time you have to do homework, then list out all the different tasks that you have to do. Estimate how long it will take to complete each assignment to see if you need to allow yourself more time. Be realistic. Once your list is complete you can work straight through instead of stopping frequently to figure out what to do next. It will also be extremely gratifying to cross things off after each assignment you finish!

2. Get Out All the Books and Supplies You Need

While you’re working, you discover you need a calculator, you need a certain book, you need a new pencil, you ran out of paper… the list can go on.

Since you’ve now identified all your assignments, figure out everything you need to get each item done and bring it to your workspace so it’s there when you need it.

3. Find a Quiet Place to Work Without Distractions

Speaking of workspace, you probably prefer doing your homework in front of the TV, but that can actually be the biggest distraction of all. Sitting in front of the TV is probably slowing you down, making homework time seem much longer that it actually is.

Find a place that’s quiet, with as few distractions and clutter possible. Remember, the faster you get it done, the faster you can get back to fully enjoying Netflix.

4. Turn Off Your Phone

We know this is probably the last thing you want to hear. How can you live without your phone? But for a couple hours, its totally worth it. Every time you get a notification and check your phone, it breaks your focus. It then takes more brain power to get back on track to what you were working on.

5. Listen to Classical Music While Working

We know what you’re thinking… Classical music? Seriously?

However, classical music is great for background audio. There aren’t any lyrics or beats to distract your focus. And research has shown that students who listen to classical music score higher on tests than students who listen to other genres of music. So find some good classical playlist on Spotify, then celebrate with Queen Bey when you’re done.

6. Eat Snacks and Drink Water

At the end of a long day, you may be mentally and physically tired. If you go straight into homework it may take you a long time to finish and it won’t be your best work.

Having some light healthy snacks and drinking plenty of water helps revitalize your brain and body. Avoid soda, energy drinks, or sugary snacks that will only make you crash before you’re done.

7. Take Short Breaks in Between Homework Tasks

If you have a lot to do, you may feel the pressure to just work straight through hours and hours of homework. But this will likely end up slowing you down, prolonging the entire session.

Do your work in short sprints. Go hard at a task, then take a quick break to stretch and walk around. It’ll re-energize your mind and body to keep going. For starters, try working for 25 minutes, then taking a 5-minute break.

8. Reward Yourself After You’re Finished

Homework isn’t always fun. But negativity can slow you down.

Our brains work off of reward systems. If you give yourself a reward when finishing your homework, it makes it a lot easier to start your homework the next time and you’ll get through it faster. Rewards could be being able to watch a show, eat ice cream, play a game, or going out and doing something fun.

Now that you’ve got all these tips, go get your homework done faster than ever before. It may be hard at first, but keep using these tips and it’ll get easier as you go.

Featured Image: Piotr Marcinski/Shutterstock

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Daniel Wong

8 Proven Hacks to Get Your Homework Done Fast

Updated on March 19, 2024 By Daniel Wong Leave a Comment

It reinforces your learning at school and enhances your knowledge. There’s no better way to master a concept than to practice solving problems related to it.

But as a student, there’s more to life than homework.

Figuring out how to balance school and work , leisure, social activities, volunteering, etc. is vital.

The good thing is that there are proven ways to be more efficient and finish your homework fast – without compromising on the quality of your work.

In this article, we’ll talk about 8 strategies you can use to maximize your efforts and get everything done in less time!

(Make sure to download your free quick action guide below.)

FREE  QUICK ACTION GUIDE:  

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When is the best time to do your homework?

Getting your homework done as soon as you can is always a good idea.

After your classes, the information you’ve learned is still fresh in your memory. So applying these concepts in your assignments will be easier.

It also helps to have a routine – for instance, getting started on your homework one hour before dinner every weekday.

Find out when the best time to study is for you and build your schedule around it.

Let’s say that you always feel motivated to complete your schoolwork as soon as possible. If so, you can leverage this motivation by diving into your assignments right when you get home.

But if you need a short break, you can set a timer for 30 minutes to an hour once you get home to remind you to get started after you’ve had some rest.

What to do when you have a lot of homework

When this happens, you might feel stressed or overwhelmed.

When your to-do list gets longer and longer, the best thing you can do is to stay calm and focused.

Set yourself up to enter a flow state where you focus solely on the task at hand.

Write down all your pending assignments, and take on just one task at a time. Set a goal and timeframe for each task, and minimize distractions in your study environment.

If the assignment is complex, break it down into smaller and less intimidating steps. Checking these smaller goals off your list as you go can keep you motivated and focused.

How to finish homework fast

It’s important to work hard, but it’s also important to work smart .

Here are some of the best time-saving productivity hacks for students to make it easier and faster to complete their homework.

1. Consistently keep track of your homework

One of the biggest mistakes I see students make is thinking they’ll remember all of their assigned tasks.

I don’t doubt that you have a good memory. But keeping track of your homework by writing things down is much more efficient.

Keep a physical or digital list of all your pending assignments and their deadlines. You can consistently track your tasks using this list. A notebook or note-taking app would work well.

When it’s time to work on your assignments, pull out this list and start with the most urgent task that has the closest deadline. Continue working your way through the list based on how urgent each task is.

The list clarifies which assignments require immediate attention and which can be done another day.

This allows you to dive right into doing your homework and saves precious time.

Making lists can lighten your brain’s workload . It also helps to reduce anxiety and boost productivity.

2. Spruce things up with a study buddy

One of the best ways to boost motivation and get the ball rolling is by doing homework with a study buddy.

Having someone with you can help you to stay engaged and on task.

You’ll keep each other accountable and ensure that all assignments are completed on time.

During these study sessions, you can work together to solve challenging questions and understand difficult concepts.

3. Remove distractions (especially electronic ones)

Procrastination and distractions can kill your productivity.

Here are some study strategies to help you combat procrastination and make the most of your time:

• Find an ideal study environment at your school or at the library, or create an optimal work environment at home.
• Use earplugs or noise-canceling earphones to reduce external distractions.
• Keep only the materials and stationery you need at your desk. You can also have a water bottle and a few snacks prepared, so you won’t have to get up midway through your study session.
• Turn off your phone. In fact, it’s best to keep all your devices in a different room or at least out of arm’s reach.
• If a thought or idea pops into your head, instead of acting on it, write it down. Maybe it’s an errand you need to run or a friend you promised to call. Acknowledge these thoughts by writing them down, then take care of them after you’ve completed your homework.

4. Create a reward system

A reward system nurtures motivation – at least in the short term – by giving you something to look forward to.

It trains your brain to understand that hard work results in an enjoyable outcome. Plus, it builds a positive association with homework.

So identify some reasonable rewards that you’d enjoy. List out items or activities you value that are consistent with your goals.

What works best is building multiple practical rewards into your homework routine.

For example, you could reward yourself by listening to your favorite music after every 45-minute work session. Or you could have a quick, healthy snack after completing each set of practice questions.

Of course, you can occasionally use big rewards too. After finishing a complex assignment or a long practice exam, treat yourself to something special, like watching a show with your friends.

5. Gamify your study session

Why are video games so much fun?

Games are designed to keep you hooked on leveling up your character, exploring new worlds, and unlocking rewards.

But what if I told you that you could apply specific video game principles to your homework sessions to keep you motivated?

Research suggests that gamification could address motivational problems related to work and learning. So applying this concept will make homework and studying more fun !

One of the simplest ways to do this is by downloading gamification apps.

Some examples include Forest , Do It Now , and Habitica . These apps have features that allow you to unlock new game elements, rank up, or collect points.

This enables you to track your progress and stay on task.

6. Create a dedicated workspace

Having a suitable place at home to study will help you complete your homework faster.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so it’s important to personalize your workspace based on what enables you to focus best.

For example, one person might enjoy having a bunch of stationery, Post-it notes, and colorful highlighters on his or her desk. But these might only serve as distractions for others.

Some people might work best with white noise or a little background chatter. On the other hand, some people might only be able to concentrate in a quiet environment.

So feel free to experiment to find what works best for you. Here are some general tips to get you started:

• Ensure that there’s adequate lighting and keep your space at a comfortable temperature.
• Reduce stress with the right scents, e.g. use a pleasant-smelling room fragrance or diffuse an essential oil.
• Personalize your work desk with items like a memo board, calendar, clock, or artwork.
• Keep your desk well-organized and clean.
• Invest in a good office chair.

7. Make a study plan

It also takes the guesswork out of the equation when allocating time.

Here’s how you can create an effective study plan:

• Cater to your specific learning preferences. Are you more productive in the morning or evening? How long can you focus without a break? Whenever possible, plan your schedule based on the times of the day that suit you best.
• Create deadlines that fall a few days before the actual ones. This gives you a cushion in case your assignments or projects take longer than expected.
• Space out your homework into blocks with rest intervals. For example, you could divide your work into 40-minute work blocks with 10-minute breaks in between.
• Limit social media usage during breaks. Scrolling through social media can take a toll on your mental capacity and eat up more time than you intended. Instead, engage in less mentally-taxing activities, like taking a stroll, performing simple stretches, or having a light snack.

8. Break up your homework into manageable chunks

It’s natural to sometimes feel overwhelmed by your assignments – especially the long, complicated, and tedious ones.

Getting started on a large or complex task might seem like you’re biting off more than you can chew. In turn, this can lead to procrastination.

One tried-and-tested study tip for handling challenging tasks is to break them down into smaller chunks.

List out each smaller task and work through the project bit by bit. You can even use programs and apps like Trello, Asana, or Notion to create daily to-do lists and keep tabs on your progress.

When you do this, the tasks become much more doable, so you’ll be able to submit your assignments on time.

How to finish homework at the last minute

But if you find yourself in this situation, the most important thing to do is to prioritize well.

Which assignments are due the soonest? And which tasks account for what percentage of your overall grade?

Write down all your pending tasks. Then, prioritize those with the closest deadlines.

You should give your best effort for every assignment, project, quiz, etc. But if you’re running out of time, it may not be possible to give your 100% effort. So do just what’s required and move on.

But make a firm commitment that you won’t do your homework at the last minute again in the future!

While homework is part and parcel of student life (and an important one at that), it shouldn’t have to be something you dread.

Try these 8 proven strategies to help you do your homework faster while making it more enjoyable!

(And if you haven’t already done so, make sure to download your free quick action guide below.)

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How to Cut Homework Time in Half

The amount of time spent agonizing over assignments bears no direct correlation to the quantity of knowledge and learning attained. in other words, homework that takes forever is pointless. so learn how to blast through school work with these tips for parents and teachers of children with adhd..

Homework problems lead to many kids with ADHD failing in school. Almost every parent of a student with ADHD has been on the front lines of homework battles, but homework doesn’t have to be exhaustive to be effective. The National Education Association and the Parent Teacher Association recommend 10 minutes per grade level per day. In other words, a sixth grader should spend roughly 60 minutes on homework, while a first grader should have no more than 10 minutes each evening. If teachers are piling it on, have a friendly discussion with them. The following strategies for how to get homework done fast can shorten completion time and reduce stress at home.

Tools for Teachers

One size doesn’t fit all. Data from assessments (formal and informal), daily observations, and anecdotal notes from the previous week should be used to determine homework assignments. Before assigning the entire class the same math practice page or reading passage, classroom teachers should consider, “What does each child need some extra practice with?” Individualizing homework increases the odds that a child will complete it.

Factor in students’ learning styles . Be creative and give students a “menu of options” for homework. Options for learning weekly vocabulary words might be to write a rap song or create a PowerPoint using the words. Students will be more enthusiastic about the homework process if they are given choices.

Have a study buddy (or two). Assign willing students to be the go-to person to answer questions from a student with ADHD who doesn’t understand the homework assignment.

Be responsive to parents who report frustration over homework. Be willing to adjust homework assignments , so that students with ADHD and LD spend a reasonable, not an excessive, amount of time doing them each evening. Does completing 50 subtraction problems really help a child learn? Wouldn’t 10 or 15 math problems provide enough practice and give you enough feedback? Try to shorten and reduce the workload — particularly the amount of writing required.

[ Free Download: The Teacher’s Guide to ADHD Learning Styles ]

Post assignments on the board. Write the homework assignment in the same place on the board each day.

Have students use an assignment calendar or agenda — then guide and monitor the recording of assignments.

Collect homework and give some feedback. It is frustrating to students and parents to spend a lot of time on assignments that the teacher never looks at.

Don’t assign homework as a punishment or a consequence for misbehavior at school. Don’t send home unfinished classwork to do as homework. Instead, provide the necessary modifications and supports, so that in-school work is in-school work, and homework is homework.

[ Turning It In Should Be the Easy Part of Homework, Right? ]  

Provide a variety of ways for a student to get homework assignments. Record assignments on a classroom answering machine or school voicemail, as well as on the teacher’s Web page. Another option: Post homework assignments on an outside window of the classroom, so students can return to check it after school.

Provide incentives for turning in homework. Let your students play Homeworkopoly (download the game board and “Chance” cards at teachnet.com ). Every day, students who have turned in their completed homework get to roll a die and move their individual marker that number of spaces along the game board, which looks like a Monopoly board. Along the way, they may land on special squares, earning small prizes or privileges.

Have students chart their progress. Ask students to graph their own homework completion and return rates.

Check assignment calendars and planners, since students with ADHD often make careless recording errors, entering assignments on the wrong date. Routinely ask table partners or groups seated together to check each other’s assignment pads.

Are the parents in the know? Invite parents to observe lessons in your classroom, so they will have a better understanding of how to work with their child. Don’t assume that parents will know what to do or how to help their child complete the assigned tasks. Demonstrate ways for the parent to help her child. Parents are a key factor in student success, and teachers must take the initiative to educate them.

Pointers for Parents

Be there. Sit with your child and talk through what needs to be done. Once she starts to work, you may fold laundry, knit, or read in the same room. At some point, she may ask you to leave. If so, go.

Get him moving. Physical activity — walking on a treadmill or fiddling with pipe cleaners — increases alertness for mental activity. Encourage your student to walk around the house reading aloud from a book. Chances are, she will soon settle down and be able to focus on her work.

Use medication. By the time they get home from school, most kids with ADHD are tired and their medication is wearing off — a double whammy for doing homework. Talk with your doctor about prescribing a short-acting medication. When medication is working, students stay focused and complete homework more quickly. They also tend to remember the material they studied.

Set the stage. It’s the end of the day and everyone in the household is tired, but you still have to do homework. Make your child feel comfortable as he starts his homework. Have him wear comfortable clothes and make the sure the environment doesn’t distract him. Some kids need a quiet room with no distractions, while others may need a little background noise.

Make it fun. Writing definitions for 25 vocabulary words is boring. Turn it into a game! Post words and definitions around the house for them to match. Have them jump on the trampoline while learning multiplication facts. Talk with their teacher about ways to make homework active.

Avoid interruptions. Once the student begins homework, hold his telephone calls until break time or until homework is completed. You may have to take a cell phone away to keep him from texting.

Spice things up. If a homework assignment is boring, play music or TV at low volume. When reading, break assignments into segments marked by colored paper clips. When the student reads as far as the clip, he can take a break.

Skip missing information. Students with ADHD often look for excuses to stop doing their homework. So if he needs information to answer a question, have him work around it, leaving a blank that can be filled in later that night or the next day.

Take a break when no homework has been assigned. Don’t require your child to study on those days. Use the time to have fun with your child. You will deepen family relationships and build his self-esteem.

Find a tutor. If you find it hard to help your child with schoolwork, find someone who can. A junior or senior high school student may be ideal — and the right price — depending on the need and age of your child.

Put completed homework into the appropriate folder. See that completed work is placed in the designated folder and is put into the backpack the night before. To keep him from losing it before class, set up a system with the teacher to collect the work upon arriving at school.

[ The ADHD Homework System We Swear By ]

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Adhd newsletter, success @ school, strategies for homework, accommodations, ieps, working with school & more..

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How to Finish Your Homework

Last Updated: March 2, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Emily Listmann, MA . Emily Listmann is a private tutor in San Carlos, California. She has worked as a Social Studies Teacher, Curriculum Coordinator, and an SAT Prep Teacher. She received her MA in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 2014. There are 17 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 280,401 times.

While studying can differ for different age groups, many of the things that get in the way are the same. Whether it's your environment or time management skills, it easy for things to discourage you from finishing your homework. With a little organization and help, your homework can become approachable.

Managing Your Time

• For instance, try setting aside a time you know you can work well such as an hour or 2 before dinner, or if you're a night owl, after dinner.

• Work in hour blocks, with 50 minutes spent studying and 10 minutes spent taking a break.
• It can also be helpful to move around when you are taking your break, especially if you are working at a screen. Go for a walk outside to get your blood circulating and enjoy some fresh air.
• You might also want to eat a healthy snack on your break to improve your focus. Avoid junk food and choose something like a handful of nuts, a piece of fruit, veggies, or a small portion of cottage cheese.

• Identify which assignments are worth the most points for each class. Most likely these will take the longest to complete. [5] X Research source
• Consider how long you have to do each project, and if possible, see when the assignment is introduced. Oftentimes, primary and secondary school classes do not have syllabi, so it might be harder to plan out an entire term, but if you are in college, you will most likely have a syllabus with at least a partial course schedule. Knowing how long you have to complete an assignment will help you prioritize which assignments to do first. You can also ask the teacher how long you have to complete an assignment. [6] X Research source

• Use highlighters or stickers to mark which assignments are most important.
• If you're using an online or mobile schedule, create alerts or notifications for the projects and any time-sensitive steps for those projects.

• Don't let a big project overshadow the smaller assignments you need to complete!

• Assignment outlines can help you visualize the necessary tasks to get the assignment done.

Creating a Productive Work Environment

• A desk or table would be a better location than a couch or a bed.

• Turn your phone off or on silent (not vibrate). It might be best to put the phone out of sight, or in another room while you work, as the temptation to text or get on social media can be as much of a distraction as actually using social media.
• Use an app that blocks social media. There are plenty of applications out there that can help block social media and other distracting sites (such as shopping or gaming sites). [10] X Trustworthy Source Pew Research Center Nonpartisan thinktank conducting research and providing information on public opinion, demographic trends, and social trends Go to source

• Use a white noise app to block out noise.
• Use earplugs or noise-blocking earmuffs. [12] X Research source
• Work in a quiet place, such as a library or a home office, if you have one.
• Avoid listening to music while studying. Studies have shown that although listening to music while studying lowers overall performance, this does not affect everyone equally. [13] X Research source However listening to music before studying has been shown to improve performance on cognitive tasks. [14] X Research source

Using Your Resources

• If you're too afraid to ask a teacher during class, see if you can stay behind to ask your questions.

• First, contact your school to see if there are any after-school tutoring programs. While not all primary and secondary schools offer tutoring, a vast majority of universities do. If your school does not offer tutoring, they may know of other resources for you to contact.
• Then, contact your library to see if they offer any tutoring. [18] X Research source
• In some areas, there may also be free community tutoring programs. Contact your local community center for more information.
• There are plenty of private tutors out there as well, but they can be costly (ranging from $20 to $100 an hour). [19] X Research source You can find tutors online through a number of websites, such as Craigslist or Angie's list.

• If you need to work at a library after school, ask your parents or search the web to find your local library.

Supercharge Your Studying with this Expert Series

Community Q&A

Reader Videos

Share a quick video tip and help bring articles to life with your friendly advice. Your insights could make a real difference and help millions of people!

• Don't feel too stressed or you'll be doing less work than you actually can. Thanks Helpful 7 Not Helpful 2
• Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 2
• Maintain a healthy diet. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 3

• Recommended time doing homework varies by age. The National PTA recommends about 10 minutes per grade level per night (30 minutes a night for the third grade). Thanks Helpful 9 Not Helpful 0
• Some people may need additional help in order to focus on their homework and finish it. If you are struggling in school, ask your parents or teachers about what resources may be available, and seek out professional help or ask your parents to do so, if necessary. Thanks Helpful 29 Not Helpful 9
• If you are under the age of thirteen, you may need to obtain your parents’ permission before downloading any computer applications. Thanks Helpful 30 Not Helpful 13

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html
• ↑ https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/power-habit-charles-duhigg
• ↑ https://www.edutopia.org/article/research-tested-benefits-breaks/
• ↑ https://www.wma.us/about/titan-blog/post/~board/titan-blog/post/how-to-prioritize-school-assignments-and-homework
• ↑ https://jhsap.org/self_help_resources/school-life_balance//
• ↑ https://lsc.cornell.edu/how-to-study/studying-for-and-taking-exams/guidelines-for-creating-a-study-schedule/
• ↑ https://success.oregonstate.edu/learning/concentration
• ↑ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/07/28/parenting-children-in-the-age-of-screens/
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html/
• ↑ https://absn.northeastern.edu/blog/8-things-to-keep-in-your-at-home-study-space/
• ↑ https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/171/
• ↑ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/acp.1731
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/talk-to-parents.html
• ↑ https://rdw.rowan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2412&context=etd
• ↑ https://blogs.chapman.edu/scst/2016/02/09/what-tutoring-is-and-what-tutoring-is-not/
• ↑ https://undergrad.stanford.edu/tutoring-support
• ↑ https://www.ideaedu.org/idea-notes-on-instruction/encouraged-students-to-use-multiple-resources-e-g-internet-library-holdings-outside-experts-to-improve-understanding/

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A.I.’s Original Sin

A times investigation found that tech giants altered their own rules to train their newest artificial intelligence systems..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, a “Times” investigation shows how as the country’s biggest technology companies race to build powerful new artificial intelligence systems, they bent and broke the rules from the start.

My colleague Cade Metz on what he uncovered.

It’s Tuesday, April 16th.

Cade, when we think about all the artificial intelligence products released over the past couple of years, including, of course, these chatbots we’ve talked a lot about on the show, we so frequently talk about their future their future capabilities, their influence on society, jobs, our lives. But you recently decided to go back in time to AI’s past, to its origins to understand the decisions that were made, basically, at the birth of this technology. So why did you decide to do that?

Because if you’re thinking about the future of these chatbots, that is defined by their past. The thing you have to realize is that these chatbots learn their skills by analyzing enormous amounts of digital data.

So what my colleagues and I wanted to do with our investigation was really focus on that effort to gather more data. We wanted to look at the type of data these companies were collecting, how they were gathering it, and how they were feeding it into their systems.

And when you all undertake this line of reporting, what do you end up finding?

We found that three major players in this race OpenAI, Google, and Meta as they were locked into this competition to develop better and better artificial intelligence, they were willing to do almost anything to get their hands on this data, including ignoring, and in some cases, violating corporate rules and wading into a legal gray area as they gathered this data.

Basically, cutting corners.

Cutting corners left and right.

OK, let’s start with OpenAI, the flashiest player of all.

The most interesting thing we’ve found, is that in late 2021, as OpenAI, the startup in San Francisco that built ChatGPT, as they were pulling together the fundamental technology that would power that chatbot, they ran out of data, essentially.

They had used just about all the respectable English language text on the internet to build this system. And just let that sink in for a bit.

I mean, I’m trying to let that sink in. They basically, like a Pac-Man on a old game, just consumed almost all the English words on the internet, which is kind of unfathomable.

Wikipedia articles by the thousands, news articles, Reddit threads, digital books by the millions. We’re talking about hundreds of billions, even trillions of words.

So by the end of 2021, OpenAI had no more English language texts that they could feed into these systems, but their ambitions are such that they wanted even more.

So here, we should remember that if you’re gathering up all the English language text on the internet, a large portion of that is going to be copyrighted.

So if you’re one of these companies gathering data at that scale, you are absolutely gathering copyrighted data, as well.

Which suggests that, from the very beginning, these companies, a company like OpenAI with ChatGPT, is starting to break, bend the rules.

Yes, they are determined to build this technology thus they are willing to venture into what is a legal gray area.

So given that, what does OpenAI do once it, as you had said, runs out of English language words to mop up and feed into this system?

So they get together, and they say, all right, so what are other options here? And they say, well, what about all the audio and video on the internet? We could transcribe all the audio and video, turn it into text, and feed that into their systems.

Interesting.

So a small team at OpenAI, which included its president and co-founder Greg Brockman, built a speech-recognition technology called Whisper, which could transcribe audio files into text with high accuracy.

And then they gathered up all sorts of audio files, from across the internet, including audio books, podcasts —

— and most importantly, YouTube videos.

Hmm, of which there’s a seemingly endless supply, right? Fair to say maybe tens of millions of videos.

According to my reporting, we’re talking about at least 1,000,000 hours of YouTube videos were scraped off of that video sharing site, fed into this speech recognition system in order to produce new text for training OpenAI’s chatbot. And YouTube’s terms of service do not allow a company like OpenAI to do this. YouTube, which is owned by Google, explicitly says you are not allowed to, in internet parlance, scrape videos en masse from across YouTube and use those videos to build a new application.

That is exactly what OpenAI did. According to my reporting, employees at the company knew that it broke YouTube terms of service, but they resolved to do it anyway.

So, Cade, this makes me want to understand what’s going on over at Google, which as we have talked about in the past on the show, is itself, thinking about and developing its own artificial intelligence model and product.

Well, as OpenAI scrapes up all these YouTube videos and starts to use them to build their chatbot, according to my reporting, some employees at Google, at the very least, are aware that this is happening.

Yes, now when we went to the company about this, a Google spokesman said it did not know that OpenAI was scraping YouTube content and said the company takes legal action over this kind of thing when there’s a clear reason to do so. But according to my reporting, at least some Google employees turned a blind eye to OpenAI’s activities because Google was also using YouTube content to train its AI.

So if they raise a stink about what OpenAI is doing, they end up shining a spotlight on themselves. And they don’t want to do that.

I guess I want to understand what Google’s relationship is to YouTube. Because of course, Google owns YouTube. So what is it allowed or not allowed to do when it comes to feeding YouTube data into Google’s AI models?

It’s an important distinction. Because Google owns YouTube, it defines what can be done with that data. And Google argues that it has a right to that data, that its terms of service allow it to use that data. However, because of that copyright issue, because the copyright to those videos belong to you and I, lawyers who I’ve spoken to say, people could take Google to court and try to determine whether or not those terms of service really allow Google to do this. There’s another legal gray area here where, although Google argues that it’s OK, others may argue it’s not.

Of course, what makes this all so interesting is, you essentially have one tech company Google, keeping another tech company OpenAI’s dirty little secret about basically stealing from YouTube because it doesn’t want people to know that it too is taking from YouTube. And so these companies are essentially enabling each other as they simultaneously seem to be bending or breaking the rules.

What this shows is that there is this belief, and it has been there for years within these companies, among their researchers, that they have a right to this data because they’re on a larger mission to build a technology that they believe will transform the world.

And if you really want to understand this attitude, you can look at our reporting from inside Meta.

And so what does Meta end up doing, according to your reporting?

Well, like Google and other companies, Meta had to scramble to build artificial intelligence that could compete with OpenAI. Mark Zuckerberg is calling engineers and executives at all hours pushing them to acquire this data that is needed to improve the chatbot.

And at one point, my colleagues and I got hold of recordings of these Meta executives and engineers discussing this problem. How they could get their hands on more data where they should try to find it? And they explored all sorts of options.

They talked about licensing books, one by one, at $10 a pop and feeding those into the model.

They even discussed acquiring the book publisher Simon & Schuster and feeding its entire library into their AI model. But ultimately, they decided all that was just too cumbersome, too time consuming, and on the recordings of these meetings, you can hear executives talk about how they were willing to run roughshod over copyright law and ignore the legal concerns and go ahead and scrape the internet and feed this stuff into their models.

They acknowledged that they might be sued over this. But they talked about how OpenAI had done this before them. That they, Meta were just following what they saw as a market precedent.

Interesting, so they go from having conversations like, should we buy a publisher that has tons of copyrighted material suggesting that they’re very conscious of the kind of legal terrain and what’s right and what’s wrong. And instead say, nah, let’s just follow the OpenAI model, that blueprint and just do what we want to do, do what we think we have a right to do, which is to kind of just gobble up all this material across the internet.

It’s a snapshot of that Silicon Valley attitude that we talked about. Because they believe they are building this transformative technology, because they are in this intensely competitive situation where money and power is at stake, they are willing to go there.

But what that means is that there is, at the birth of this technology, a kind of original sin that can’t really be erased.

It can’t be erased, and people are beginning to notice. And they are beginning to sue these companies over it. These companies have to have this copyrighted data to build their systems. It is fundamental to their creation. If a lawsuit bars them from using that copyrighted data, that could bring down this technology.

We’ll be right back.

So Cade, walk us through these lawsuits that are being filed against these AI companies based on the decisions they made early on to use technology as they did and the chances that it could result in these companies not being able to get the data they so desperately say they need.

These suits are coming from a wide range of places. They’re coming from computer programmers who are concerned that their computer programs have been fed into these systems. They’re coming from book authors who have seen their books being used. They’re coming from publishing companies. They’re coming from news corporations like, “The New York Times,” incidentally, which has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.

News organizations that are concerned over their news articles being used to build these systems.

And here, I think it’s important to say as a matter of transparency, Cade, that your reporting is separate from that lawsuit. That lawsuit was filed by the business side of “The New York Times” by people who are not involved in your reporting or in this “Daily” episode, just to get that out of the way.

I’m assuming that you have spoken to many lawyers about this, and I wonder if there’s some insight that you can shed on the basic legal terrain? I mean, do the companies seem to have a strong case that they have a right to this information, or do companies like the “Times,” who are suing them, seem to have a pretty strong case that, no, that decision violates their copyrighted materials.

Like so many legal questions, this is incredibly complicated. It comes down to what’s called fair use, which is a part of copyright law that determines whether companies can use copyrighted data to build new things. And there are many factors that go into this. There are good arguments on the OpenAI side. There are good arguments on “The New York Times” side.

Copyright law says that can’t take my work and reproduce it and sell it to someone. That’s not allowed. But what’s called fair use does allow companies and individuals to use copyrighted works in part. They can take snippets of it. They can take the copyrighted works and transform it into something new. That is what OpenAI and others are arguing they’re doing.

But there are other things to consider. Does that transformative work compete with the individuals and companies that supplied the data that owned the copyrights?

And here, the suit between “The New York Times” company and OpenAI is illustrative. If “The New York Times” creates articles that are then used to build a chatbot, does that chatbot end up competing with “The New York Times?” Do people end up going to that chatbot for their information, rather than going to the “Times” website and actually reading the article? That is one of the questions that will end up deciding this case and cases like it.

So what would it mean for these AI companies for some, or even all of these lawsuits to succeed?

Well, if these tech companies are required to license the copyrighted data that goes into their systems, if they’re required to pay for it, that becomes a problem for these companies. We’re talking about digital data the size of the entire internet.

Licensing all that copyrighted data is not necessarily feasible. We quote the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in our story where one of their lawyers says that it does not work for these companies to license that data. It’s too expensive. It’s on too large a scale.

Hmm, it would essentially make this technology economically impractical.

Exactly, so a jury or a judge or a law ruling against OpenAI, could fundamentally change the way this technology is built. The extreme case is these companies are no longer allowed to use copyrighted material in building these chatbots. And that means they have to start from scratch. They have to rebuild everything they’ve built. So this is something that, not only imperils what they have today, it imperils what they want to build in the future.

And conversely, what happens if the courts rule in favor of these companies and say, you know what, this is fair use. You were fine to have scraped this material and to keep borrowing this material into the future free of charge?

Well, one significant roadblock drops for these companies. And they can continue to gather up all that extra data, including images and sounds and videos and build increasingly powerful systems. But the thing is, even if they can access as much copyrighted material as they want, these companies may still run into a problem.

Pretty soon they’re going to run out of digital data on the internet.

That human-created data they rely on is going to dry up. They’re using up this data faster than humans create it. One research organization estimates that by 2026, these companies will run out of viable data on the internet.

Wow. Well, in that case, what would these tech companies do? I mean, where are they going to go if they’ve already scraped YouTube, if they’ve already scraped podcasts, if they’ve already gobbled up the internet and that altogether is not sufficient?

What many people inside these companies will tell you, including Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, they’ll tell you that what they will turn to is what’s called synthetic data.

And what is that?

That Is data generated by an AI model that is then used to build a better AI model. It’s AI helping to build better AI. That is the vision, ultimately, they have for the future that they won’t need all this human generated text. They’ll just have the AI build the text that will feed future versions of AI.

So they will feed the AI systems the material that the AI systems themselves create. But is that really a workable solid plan? Is that considered high-quality data? Is that good enough?

If you do this on a large scale, you quickly run into problems. As we all know, as we’ve discussed on this podcast, these systems make mistakes. They hallucinate . They make stuff up. They show biases that they’ve learned from internet data. And if you start using the data generated by the AI to build new AI, those mistakes start to reinforce themselves.

The systems start to get trapped in these cul-de-sacs where they end up not getting better but getting worse.

What you’re really saying is, these AI machines need the unique perfection of the human creative mind.

Well, as it stands today, that is absolutely the case. But these companies have grand visions for where this will go. And they feel, and they’re already starting to experiment with this, that if you have an AI system that is sufficiently powerful, if you make a copy of it, if you have two of these AI models, one can produce new data, and the other one can judge that data.

It can curate that data as a human would. It can provide the human judgment, So. To speak. So as one model produces the data, the other one can judge it, discard the bad data, and keep the good data. And that’s how they ultimately see these systems creating viable synthetic data. But that has not happened yet, and it’s unclear whether it will work.

It feels like the real lesson of your investigation is that if you have to allegedly steal data to feed your AI model and make it economically feasible, then maybe you have a pretty broken model. And that if you need to create fake data, as a result, which as you just said, kind of undermines AI’s goal of mimicking human thinking and language, then maybe you really have a broken model.

And so that makes me wonder if the folks you talk to, the companies that we’re focused on here, ever ask themselves the question, could we do this differently? Could we create an AI model that just needs a lot less data?

They have thought about other models for decades. The thing to realize here, is that is much easier said than done. We’re talking about creating systems that can mimic the human brain. That is an incredibly ambitious task. And after struggling with that for decades, these companies have finally stumbled on something that they feel works that is a path to that incredibly ambitious goal.

And they’re going to continue to push in that direction. Yes, they’re exploring other options, but those other options aren’t working.

What works is more data and more data and more data. And because they see a path there, they’re going to continue down that path. And if there are roadblocks there, and they think they can knock them down, they’re going to knock them down.

But what if the tech companies never get enough or make enough data to get where they think they want to go, even as they’re knocking down walls along the way? That does seem like a real possibility.

If these companies can’t get their hands on more data, then these technologies, as they’re built today, stop improving.

We will see their limitations. We will see how difficult it really is to build a system that can match, let alone surpass the human brain.

These companies will be forced to look for other options, technically. And we will see the limitations of these grandiose visions that they have for the future of artificial intelligence.

OK, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Glad to be here.

Here’s what else you need to know today. Israeli leaders spent Monday debating whether and how to retaliate against Iran’s missile and drone attack over the weekend. Herzi Halevi, Israel’s Military Chief of Staff, declared that the attack will be responded to.

In Washington, a spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller reiterated American calls for restraint —

^MATTHEW MILLER^ Of course, we continue to make clear to everyone that we talked to that we want to see de-escalation that we don’t want to see a wider regional war. That’s something that’s been —

— but emphasized that a final call about retaliation was up to Israel. ^MATTHEW MILLER^ Israel is a sovereign country. They have to make their own decisions about how best to defend themselves. What we always try to do —

And the first criminal trial of a former US President officially got underway on Monday in a Manhattan courtroom. Donald Trump, on trial for allegedly falsifying documents to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star, watched as jury selection began.

The initial pool of 96 jurors quickly dwindled. More than half of them were dismissed after indicating that they did not believe that they could be impartial. The day ended without a single juror being chosen.

Today’s episode was produced by Stella Tan, Michael Simon Johnson, Muge Zaidi, and Rikki Novetsky. It was edited by Marc Georges and Liz O. Baylen, contains original music by Diane Wong, Dan Powell, and Pat McCusker, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
• April 16, 2024   •   29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
• April 15, 2024   •   24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
• April 14, 2024   •   46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma
• April 9, 2024   •   30:48 How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall
• April 8, 2024   •   30:28 The Eclipse Chaser
• April 7, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’
• April 5, 2024   •   29:11 An Engineering Experiment to Cool the Earth

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Cade Metz

Produced by Stella Tan ,  Michael Simon Johnson ,  Mooj Zadie and Rikki Novetsky

Edited by Marc Georges and Liz O. Baylen

Original music by Diane Wong ,  Dan Powell and Pat McCusker

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

A Times investigation shows how the country’s biggest technology companies, as they raced to build powerful new artificial intelligence systems, bent and broke the rules from the start.

Cade Metz, a technology reporter for The Times, explains what he uncovered.

On today’s episode

Cade Metz , a technology reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

How tech giants cut corners to harvest data for A.I.

What to know about tech companies using A.I. to teach their own A.I.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz

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