How I marked 40 essays I kept putting off, twenty at a time
A NoCrast comic story: Hana, an evening language teacher and freelance translator, and the stack of essays she kept walking past.
Forty essays to mark by Friday. I'd marked none.
It was midnight. The printed essays from my evening class sat in a tall stack next to my closed laptop and the big dictionary. My red pen still had its cap on. I leaned back in my chair, too tired to start and too guilty to stop thinking about it.
So I picked up my phone. I'll start after this one. I lay on my bed in the dark, scrolling, and an hour went somewhere. The stack was still on the desk behind me when I put the phone down.
The next time, I sat up and did something different. I typed the job into NoCrast: mark my students' 40 essays. It broke the forty essays into small, doable steps. The pile stopped being one huge thing. It became a list of pieces I could actually start.
The next evening I closed my translation files for the day and pushed my reading glasses up. I did the steps one by one, and each one I finished earned me screen time on the apps I'd put on hold. The first batch of marked essays sat neatly at my side. My phone was right there, and for once it was waiting for me.
Two batches of twenty later, the stack was gone. That's all forty. I marked the last one in the afternoon light, two thick marked piles on one side of the desk and nothing on the other. A friend leaned in the doorway with a mug and asked if I was finally done. I was.
The next morning I walked to class with the essays under my arm and my phone in my pocket.
How to mark a big stack of essays you keep putting off
Get the phone out of the way before you sit down. The hour usually disappears in the first five minutes. Put the phone in another room, or put your distracting apps on hold. NoCrast keeps them held until your tasks are done, and every step you finish earns screen time back.
Split the stack into batches you can see. Forty is a wall. Twenty is a long evening. Five is something you can start right now. Physically split the pile so the next batch is the only thing on your desk.
Decide what "marked" means before you start. Write a short list of what you'll comment on in every essay. Then each essay is the same small job, not a new decision. This is where most of the dread hides.
Start with one essay, not the stack. Uncap the pen and mark the first one. Don't plan the whole week first. Once one is done, the second is much easier to begin.
Fit batches around your other work. If you also have client deadlines or a day job, don't wait for a free day that won't come. Pick one batch for this evening and one for tomorrow, and stop when the batch is done.
Take your break after a batch, not before it. Scrolling feels different when you've earned it. In NoCrast, finishing a step earns guilt-free screen time on the apps you held, so the reward comes after the work instead of in place of it.
The stack doesn't need a better version of you. It needs a smaller first step and a phone that waits.
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