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August 16, 2021

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

by Sara M Moniuszko

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial

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

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

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

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

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

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

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

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

Breaking assignments up can also make things easier to tackle.

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

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

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

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

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Student Opinion

Should We Get Rid of Homework?

Some educators are pushing to get rid of homework. Would that be a good thing?

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

Do you like doing homework? Do you think it has benefited you educationally?

Has homework ever helped you practice a difficult skill — in math, for example — until you mastered it? Has it helped you learn new concepts in history or science? Has it helped to teach you life skills, such as independence and responsibility? Or, have you had a more negative experience with homework? Does it stress you out, numb your brain from busywork or actually make you fall behind in your classes?

Should we get rid of homework?

In “ The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong, ” published in July, the Times Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that homework may be imperfect, but it still serves an important purpose in school. The essay begins:

Do students really need to do their homework? As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?” I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.” The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Mr. Kang argues:

But there’s a defense of homework that doesn’t really have much to do with class mobility, equality or any sense of reinforcing the notion of meritocracy. It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. Even if we could perfectly equalize opportunity in school and empower all students not to be encumbered by the weight of their socioeconomic status or ethnicity, I’m not sure what good it would do if the kids didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom, regardless of a student’s background, which is why, I imagine, Calarco, Horn and Chen found that most teachers weren’t thinking in a structural inequalities frame. Holistic ideas of education, in which learning is emphasized and students can explore concepts and ideas, are largely for the types of kids who don’t need to worry about class mobility. A defense of rote practice through homework might seem revanchist at this moment, but if we truly believe that schools should teach children lessons that fall outside the meritocracy, I can’t think of one that matters more than the simple satisfaction of mastering something that you were once bad at. That takes homework and the acknowledgment that sometimes a student can get a question wrong and, with proper instruction, eventually get it right.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Should we get rid of homework? Why, or why not?

Is homework an outdated, ineffective or counterproductive tool for learning? Do you agree with the authors of the paper that homework is harmful and worsens inequalities that exist between students’ home circumstances?

Or do you agree with Mr. Kang that homework still has real educational value?

When you get home after school, how much homework will you do? Do you think the amount is appropriate, too much or too little? Is homework, including the projects and writing assignments you do at home, an important part of your learning experience? Or, in your opinion, is it not a good use of time? Explain.

In these letters to the editor , one reader makes a distinction between elementary school and high school:

Homework’s value is unclear for younger students. But by high school and college, homework is absolutely essential for any student who wishes to excel. There simply isn’t time to digest Dostoyevsky if you only ever read him in class.

What do you think? How much does grade level matter when discussing the value of homework?

Is there a way to make homework more effective?

If you were a teacher, would you assign homework? What kind of assignments would you give and why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial 

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

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

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

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

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

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

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

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

Breaking up assignments can also make things easier to tackle.

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

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

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

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

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

10 Reasons Why Students Hate Homework

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It’s no secret that students often hate homework. This hatred makes students benefit less from homework. But why do students hate homework?

There are a variety of reasons why students hate homework. First, completing assignments can often be a tedious and time-consuming process. Second, many students feel that they do not have enough time to complete their homework during the school day. Third, many students believe that their teachers assign too much homework. Fourth, some students find it difficult to focus on their homework when they are also trying to relax after a long day of school. Finally, some students simply do not enjoy doing homework.

These are just a few reasons. In this post, I have explored in detail some reasons why students hate homework to help you make it better for them.

Why is homework important?

The following are some reasons why homework assignments are important in your classroom.

1. Homework is an important tool for students to improve their grades.

Homework is an important tool for students to improve their grades. It can help them stay on track, learn new material, and build discipline. Getting a good grade on homework can help students build confidence, raise their self-esteem, and reduce frustration. They may also develop better study habits and set themselves up for success in college.

2. Homework can help students learn new material and improve their skills.

Homework can help students learn new material and improve their skills. Homework can also be used to motivate students and keep them on track. It is important for parents to set good examples for their children and help them with their homework.

However, parents should also remember that homework doesn’t have to be a burden. Homework can be fun and can help improve students’ time management skills and increase their ability to learn.

3. Homework can help students stay focused and motivated.

There are a few reasons why homework helps students stay focused and motivated in class. First, completing homework assignments can help students review and reinforce the concepts they learn in class. Also, completing homework assignments can help students stay motivated throughout the week. Completing homework assignments can help students take ownership of their own learning and improve their self-esteem. Therefore, homework assignments can give students a sense of accomplishment and boost their confidence. This further keeps students motivated.

4. Homework is an important aspect of education that helps students prepare for life in the real world.

Students have to stay on top of their studies in order to be ready for college, work, and other life experiences. Homework also gives students the opportunity to practice what they learn in class and allows them to prepare for tests. This prepares students for the real world.

5. Homework can help students learn how to study and stay organized.

Homework also helps students learn how to manage their time. Students who do homework can also get used to the amount of work they will have to do as a result of their studies. In other words, they get used to working hard. This can help them prepare for future life experiences.

Check out how to handle students who don’t do their homework here.

10 Reasons Students Hate Homework

Below are some reasons why your students may hate homework. Make sure to avoid them in order to help your students succeed.

1. It Assigns Too Much Work

It assigns too much work. Homework can be a huge burden for students and can often take up too much time. It can be difficult for students to get their work done, especially if they are struggling with it. This can lead to students feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, which can have negative consequences for their academic performance. Find out why you should give less homework here.

2. It Breaks Up the Family Dinner Schedule

One of the most common complaints from students is that their parents don’t have enough time for them. This can be caused by a variety of factors, but one of the most common culprits is homework.

Homework often takes up a lot of time in a day and interrupts the family dinner schedule. For many students, this means they are only able to see their parents during mealtime. This can be disruptive to the family dynamic and cause resentment.

There are also practical considerations to take into account when it comes to homework. Many students find that their schoolwork is easier if they have some uninterrupted time after school, which means that homework often gets in the way of getting some exercise or spending time with friends.

3. It Gets in the Way of Their Other Activities

One reason students may hate homework is that it gets in the way of their other activities. This can be frustrating, as many students want to spend their free time doing things they enjoy. Homework can also take up a lot of time, which could be better spent doing other things.

4. It Can Be Hard to Finish

One of the reasons many students hate doing their homework is that it can be hard to finish. This can be especially true when they have an assignment that requires a lot of research. In this case, students may not know where to begin or what they have to do. For example, if a student has to do research for an assignment, they may have no idea what to look for or where to begin.

5. They Don’t Understand the Instructions

Many students hate homework because it may be difficult to understand the instructions for the homework assignment. For example, unclear instructions on homework assignments can leave students struggling with how to tackle them. This can be frustrating and lead to negative feelings towards homework.

6. They’re afraid of failing if they don’t do their homework.

Students dread homework because they’re afraid of failing. For some, this is a legitimate fear. If you don’t do your homework, you could end up getting a low grade that will reflect poorly on your academic record and future prospects. For others, however, doing their homework is simply not something that comes naturally to them.

In these cases, it’s easy to give in to temptation and skip or ignore their homework altogether. This can have serious consequences, both academically and socially. Not only will students suffer from poor grades if they don’t do their homework, but they’ll also be less likely to get good jobs or admission into prestigious colleges if they’ve failed.

7. They Get Distracted by Social Media or Texting Friends.

One of the major reasons students hate homework is because they get distracted by social media or texting friends. Sites like Facebook and Instagram can be addicting, and it is hard for them to focus on anything else when they are constantly being pulled in different directions.

Some students even find themselves doing their homework in between classes or during class because they don’t have time to do it at home. This diversion from what should be a productive activity can really add up over the course of a semester.

8. They find it boring or dull.

They find homework boring or dull. Students often find homework to be a drag and a burden, rather than something that helps them learn. Homework can be difficult and time-consuming, making it difficult for students to get the most out of their education. Due to that, most students see homework as a boring activity. For example, some students may find it boring to write essays and other types of written assignments.

9. They Can’t Concentrate or Pay Attention to Details.

One of the main reasons students hate homework is because they can’t concentrate or pay attention to details. When they have to focus on a single task, it becomes incredibly difficult for them. Additionally, when details are important, students find it harder to pay attention. This can lead to mistakes and frustration.

10. The Penalties are too severe if they miss a deadline.

This is one of the main reasons students hate homework. If a student misses a deadline, they may have to suffer the consequences, such as having to do more work or having their grade reduced. This can be extremely frustrating for students who are trying to stay on top of their schoolwork, and it can lead them to dislike homework altogether.

In conclusion, homework is a source of frustration for many students. There are several reasons why students hate homework, including its negative impact on their mental and physical health, its negative impact on their grades, and its negative impact on their social lives. To make homework less frustrating for students, you should give students more time to complete it, allow them to work in groups, and provide feedback on their progress. In all, give less homework to your students if you want to help them benefit from it. Beware of the pros and cons of homework when using it.

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Homework Struggles May Not Be a Behavior Problem

Exploring some options to understand and help..

Posted August 2, 2022 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• Mental health challenges and neurodevelopmental differences directly affect children's ability to do homework.
• Understanding what difficulties are getting in the way—beyond the usual explanation of a behavior problem—is key.
• Sleep and mental health needs can take priority over homework completion.

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

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

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

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

When Mental Health Symptoms Interfere with Homework

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Can You Help a Child Who Struggles with Homework?

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

Helping at Home

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

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

Helping at School

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

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

The Long-Term Story

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

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

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

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Why I Dislike Homework and How the Research Backs Me Up

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Do your kids spend hours a night doing homework?

And I hate it– maybe even more than they do.

Seriously, I’d much rather that my kids get much needed down-time to: play, nap, read, run, swing, dance, twirl, build, create, draw, invent, or design.

Yet I sit inside with them, trying to pretend that I’m enthusiastic and supportive, helping them to stay focused, answering questions that come up. Ugh. (And don’t get me started trying to describe the melt-downs when you have a child with Sensory Processing Disorder and ADHD. Homework is that much more of a nightmare.)

Remember when I asked you on Facebook about homework? Most of you didn’t support homework either.

And to be clear, I didn’t care for homework as a fifth grade teacher either. My students rarely had homework unless they didn’t finish something in class. (Lesson to use your time wisely.) No homework meant that they could read, play, do sports, have family time . . .

The majority of research supports no homework. (So does common sense, one could argue, . . . at least, I’d argue anyway.)

Homework Research

1. There is no evidence showing that early elementary homework is beneficial  (Cooper, 1989 a; Cooper, Robinson & Patall, 2006) ASCD  with the exception of  some studies showing correlation on math tests. ( NCTM, 2008 )

2. Too much homework affects a child’s sleep. Lack of sleep negatively impacts brain function. ( Wolfson, 1998 )

3. Homework is detrimental to student achievement and makes children depressed. ( Australian Institute of Family Studies following 10,000 students )

4. Too much homework is not helpful to student achievement. ( Cooper, Civey, and Patall, 2006 .)

5. Mixed research showing homework developing good study habits – some research shows yes, some no.  (Cooper, 1989a, Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006) ASCD  (Kohn, 2006 The Homework Myth.)

6. Time spent on homework for secondary students sometimes correlates to achievement but not with elementary students and not consistently for secondary. (Plude, Enns, and Broudeur 1994) NCTM  and ( Maltese, and Fan, 2012 )

7. Many countries (Japan, Denmark and Czech Republic) with high test scores have instructors who assign no or little homework. (Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, Kelly and Smith, 1998.)

You’ll find more research on two articles from which I learned the most and synthesize the homework research: Jane Bluestein’s blog and on ASCD .

Recommendations for Homework (if given)

While I’ll always believe that homework should be little to none, IF homework is assigned here are my recommendations.

Homework should:

– be able to be completed independently, without the help of an adult

– have been well-covered in class and is an opportunity to deepen knowledge

– promote mastery of a skill the student hasn’t yet mastered with an engaging task

– be clear and purposeful to the learner

– give students autonomy to learn a topic interesting to them

– be coordinated with other teachers so there isn’t an overwhelming amount

– be differentiated (considering different abilities of the learners, different modalities of learning, etc.)

I think less homework just makes sense. 

But there’s the rub. What’s up with all the homework our kids are assigned?

What do you think?

Have you advocated for less homework in your child’s life? Or would you do so now that you know the research and know you’re not alone? Please elaborate in the comments. 

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

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40 Comments

[…] by Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup Do your students spend hours a night doing homework? Mine do. And I hate it- maybe even more than they do. Most of the time they just do it and don’t complain. But I’m complaining! […]

I completely agree with your position about homework. I believe that this is a waste of time that children could spend with profit. After all, a person will become successful only if he do what he likes. Why should a child spend his childhood on stupid homework? Is it not better if he tries himself in different fields, and chooses what he likes. I would really like that when my child goes to school, homework was canceled, and my child could spend his free time on what he likes. Thank you for sharing this article!

Nowadays in Sweden they practice “homework-less” studying. The first results are pretty impressive! No psychological damages for children. Interviews showed that their attitude to school became more positive. We all have to practice it. No more senseless homework for kids.

thanks for sharing!

The New York Times

Motherlode | i hate homework. i assign it anyway., i hate homework. i assign it anyway..

I hate — hate — homework.

I hated homework when I was a student, I hate the battle of wills I have with my second-grader and I hate seeing my middle-school-age son miss out on the afternoons of his childhood.

But most of all, I hate being a hypocrite. So it’s time to come clean: I am a teacher, and I assign homework.

I have always assigned homework because that is what teachers do; if I didn’t, word would get around that I am a pushover, or don’t care enough about my students to engage their every waking moment with academics. When I first started teaching, I assigned homework liberally and without question, and scoffed at my students’ complaints about their workload. I expected them to keep quiet, buck up and let me do my job.

But 13 years later, I find myself at a crossroads. My son Ben is in middle school, and homework is no longer an abstract concept. I can’t just assign it and forget it, and I will no longer sacrifice my students’ right to their childhood so easily.

I am not the only parent — or teacher, for that matter — questioning the value of homework. It’s the subject of heated debate in school meetings and Internet chat rooms across the country. Even elite private schools in New York City are vowing to lighten their homework load .

The popular media tempest surrounding homework formed in 2006 with the publication of two books on the subject: “The Homework Myth,” by Alfie Kohn, and “The Case Against Homework,” by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, followed by Time Magazine’s The Myth About Homework by Claudia Wallis. Last year, Vicki Abeles’s documentary “Race to Nowhere” joined the fray. In her film, Ms. Abeles claims that today’s untenable and increasing homework load drives students to cheating, mental illness and suicide.

So is homework worth it or not? I went directly to the source. I asked my students whether, if homework were to completely disappear, they would be able achieve the same mastery of the material. The answer was a unanimous — if reluctant — “No.”

Most echoed my son Ben’s sentiments: “If I didn’t have homework, I don’t think I’d do very well. It’s practice for what we learn in school.” But, they all stressed, that’s only true of some homework. “Bad” homework — busy work and assignments that don’t do anything but eat up precious evening hours, is (as one of my more opinionated students put it) “a stupid waste of my time.”

Fair enough. If my students feel that quality homework is worth the effort, I’m keeping it. With one caveat. All assignments must pass the “Ben” test. If an assignment is not worthy of my own son’s time, I’m dumping it. Based on a quick look at my assignment book from last year, about a quarter of my assignments won’t make the cut.

Children need time to be quiet, play, read and imagine. Teachers who sacrifice these vital elements of childhood for anything less than the most valuable homework assignments are being derelict in their duty to their students and the teaching profession.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to do homework: 15 expert tips and tricks.

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

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

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

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

So let’s get started!

How to Do Homework: Figure Out Your Struggles 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Do Homework When You’re a Procrastinator  

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

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

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

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

3 Tips f or Conquering Procrastination 

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

#1: Create a Reward System

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

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

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

#2: Have a Homework Accountability Partner 

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

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

#3: Create Your Own Due Dates 

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

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

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

How to Do Homework When You’re too Busy

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

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

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

3 Tips for Fitting Homework Into Your Busy Schedule

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

#1: Make a Prioritized To-Do List 

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

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

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

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

#2: Use a Planner With Time Labels

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

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

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

#3: Set Reminders on Your Phone 

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

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

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

How to Do Homework When You’re Unmotivated 

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 Tips for How to Get Motivated to Do Homework

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

#1: Use Incremental Incentives

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

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

#2: Form a Homework Group 

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

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

#3: Change Up Your Environment 

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

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

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

How to Do Homework When You’re Easily Distracted

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

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

3 Tips to Improve Your Focus

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

#1: Create a Distraction-Free Environment

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

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

#2: Limit Your Access to Technology 

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

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

#3: Set a Timer (the Pomodoro Technique)

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

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

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

Two Bonus Tips for How to Do Homework Fast

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

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

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

#1: Do the Easy Parts First 

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

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

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

#2: Pay Attention in Class 

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

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

What’s Next?

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

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

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

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

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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How to Get Homework Done when You Don't Want To

Last Updated: March 15, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Ashley Pritchard, MA and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden . Ashley Pritchard is an Academic and School Counselor at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Ashley has over 3 years of high school, college, and career counseling experience. She has an MA in School Counseling with a specialization in Mental Health from Caldwell University and is certified as an Independent Education Consultant through the University of California, Irvine. There are 9 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 247,567 times.

Homework can be a drag, but it's got to be done to keep your grades up and stay on track during school. Going somewhere quiet, making a plan, and giving yourself breaks can all help you stay focused and on task to get your work done quickly. Try to keep your assignments organized and give yourself credit for completing hard or boring work, even if you didn’t want to.

Getting Motivated

• Keep a list of your assignments and check them off as you finish them. This can give you a sense of accomplishment that can motivate you to keep going.

• Make it the rule that you work for a certain amount of time, or until a certain amount of work has been accomplished. Afterward, you can hang out. Stick to this schedule.
• Try this out and see if it works. If you're too distracted by having friends around, make a date to hang out after homework instead.

• Make sure you keep the competition to yourself. Competing with your friends isn’t fun, especially over homework assignments and grades.

• Learning something that will probably help with future assignments, even if you don't know what they are yet.
• Proving to your teacher that you understand the homework so that they don’t keep assigning it over and over.
• Improving your GPA.
• Getting a good grade.

• Try not to reward yourself with food, as that can lead to snacking when you aren’t really hungry.

Staying Focused

• For instance, tell yourself that if you finish your first assignment in 20 minutes, you can go on your phone for 5 minutes.

• Make sure you stand up and do something when it's your break, or you won't get your wiggles out.
• Set a timer on your phone or use a kitchen timer to let yourself know when it's time to switch tasks.

• If you don't have control over the subject, try to find connections between the topic and something you care about. Find aspects of the subject that interest you.
• For instance, if you have to study History but you care the most about fashion, investigate the styles of the times and places you are studying. Learn how political and economical developments changed the way people dressed.

• You can find playlists on Spotify and YouTube that are made for studying and doing homework.

• When you're struggling to focus, sign out of your email and all social media so you don't check them as a reflex.

Creating Good Study Habits

• If you have many textbooks and worksheets, stack them and put them to the side.
• Get things like pencils, erasers, calculators, rulers, and paper.

• Having a planner will make it less tempting to procrastinate, as long as you have broken up your studying into manageable chunks.
• Your planner can be paper, or you can get one on your phone. Just make sure it has space for task lists as well as events.
• Once you have completed a task, cross it off or put a check next to it. Seeing that you're getting your work done will make you feel better, which in turn will motivate you to keep up the good work.
• Don't put more than you can do in one day on a list! Split up your week's work so that every day has a manageable amount.

• If you have a job or extracurricular activities that change your daily schedule, determine a weekly schedule that you stick to as much as possible.

• Sometimes just explaining what you have to do will help you understand it better.
• Talking to another person is a great way to brainstorm ideas. They may ask you questions or provide comments that can help you organize your ideas.
• Other times, the person you are talking to will notice something about the prompt that you overlooked.

Supercharge Your Studying with this Expert Series

Expert 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!

• Try asking a family member to help you remember when to start your assignments so you don’t forget. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2
• If you’re really struggling with a topic, consider going to a tutor for extra help. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2
• Getting motivated can be tough. Just try your best, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2

Tips from our Readers

• Set up a dedicated study area at home with your needed supplies, to establish a consistent homework routine. Having everything in one prepared place helps minimize distractions.
• Use a planner to schedule out all your assignments. Break them into small, manageable pieces so it's less overwhelming. Checking tasks off as you finish motivates you along.
• If completely stuck on an assignment, reach out and talk it through with someone. Verbalizing it can provide new insights to move forward.
• Take short activity breaks every 45 minutes. Get up, stretch, grab some water. It refreshes your mental focus so you stay engaged.
• Incorporate a fun personal interest into an assignment when possible. Writing about something you care about keeps you absorbed.
• When you really need to concentrate, eliminate enticing distractions like your phone. Logging out keeps you on track.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/comm/files/smarttalk_staff_guide.pdf
• ↑ http://www.wcsu.edu/housing/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2018/05/Handout-V6N6.pdf
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/worry-wise/201410/how-prevent-homework-procrastination
• ↑ Ashley Pritchard, MA. Academic & School Counselor. Expert Interview. 4 November 2019.
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html
• ↑ http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/organize-focus.html?WT.ac=p-ra#
• ↑ https://www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/sites/default/files/homework_tips.pdf
• ↑ https://childmind.org/article/strategies-to-make-homework-go-more-smoothly/
• ↑ http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html#

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I Hate My Homework – How To Deal With It?

Let me start by saying that I hate homework! I hate homework so much that I’m beginning to think that I hate school too. That’s not a thought I want to continue having, not now, not ever.

Table of Contents

I don’t like homework so, what can be done about it, i hate school so much ways to make school work fun, how to do homework fast even if you hate homework.

So, several months ago, I had a meeting with myself. I asked myself the questions below and tried coming up with honest answers that would help me speed up my homework.

Why do I hate homework? Why do we do homework? Why do people hate doing homework? How can I force myself to do homework?

Some answers, I found, were a bit personal, and some had nothing to do with you and me. But everything to do with the education system and how educators assume that high school and college kids spend their time playing video games instead of doing homework.

As a result, in their attempt to keep school kids productive and remind them about the importance of school, schools grade homework, making it mandatory for the kids to do the work.

If educators knew better, they would handle homework differently so that the kids that hate homework and school would learn a few tricks that can help them love homework and not hate school so much. There are many reasons hating homework is widespread and many think “I don’t want to do my homework.”

Here are only some of the things that they can do differently:

Most teachers believe that if they don’t grade it, a kid not doing homework will spend his or her time playing video games.

The truth is many kids don’t do homework anyway, and those that do don’t put in any effort or do it themselves.

Give students reason to want to do the homework by making them feel like they are making a difference in the world. For instance, I hate doing homework because in most cases it feels useless. So, encourage the students to brainstorm ideas on how to improve the environment instead of always asking them to write an assignment on topics like global warming or recycling.

If teachers want to increase students’ long term retention and stop seeing them hate homework, then they should encourage them to practice math problems.

I used to be slow when doing my math homework that each time I sat down to work, it felt like I was trying to ask a squirrel to do for me.

These methods are some out of many. Read one for more interesting methods that may also be useful in the classroom

Having a correct approach to school and homework is important for every teacher. “My students hate me” is a common thought. If only students could have the best school or college homework help out of class, but usually it is not so. Here are ways to avoid students hating homework:

Today, people are worried about this generation of kids: they’re always on their phones, on their TV and laptops playing video games, on social media talking to strangers, saying “I hate homework”, “I don’t want to go out”… they have no clue what is going on in the world.

If teachers want to save this generation of kids, they should introduce learning experiences that ask the students to be outdoors more often, study nature, or be more observant.

Interactions help kids learn how to be good people who can successfully connect with others.

What if homework remains the same? I mean, when no one does anything to make the situation any better and you still hate homework, do we stop doing it?

Remember, I said the answers to some questions were personal? Well, let me share how they helped me come up with a routine that helps me do my homework fast even if I hate homework. This routine can help you do the same too!

Let’s dive in!

• Make Yourself a Study Snack After a long day at school, the first thing I usually do when I get home is making myself a little study snack to fuel my brain and get ready to do my homework. But other times, if I’m pretty hungry, I go for something more substantial like a protein smoothie or a sandwich. After I’ve made something to eat, I head over to my study. It’s time to get serious and tackle that homework now.
• Create a Homework Plan The first thing I do is get out of my diary and see what sort of work I have for the week. Sometimes I gotta even remind me to do my homework. I then go over to my homework plan, a simple whiteboard I have in my room that helps me organize my study sessions into tiny tasks that I can handle, one after the other. So, even if you don’t fancy the idea of a snack, I implore you to have a homework plan; it’s the one thing that will show you how to force yourself to do your homework. In your homework plan, write down all of the tasks you have for homework and then order it according to their level of priority before getting started. Doing this will help you focus on the most critical and urgent work.
• Reward Yourself for All the Hard Work Rewarding yourself for all your hard work can affect your level of motivation and help you stay on track throughout your studies, forgetting that you hate doing homework. So, I like writing down the rewards I can give myself. I’ve found that spoiling yourself can prevent you from getting burnt out or feeling stressed and restless from all the work you need to complete.
• Clear Your Desk Do not have too many things on your desk while you are studying. My mom always encourages my sister and me to have the necessities so that we can work better and be able to focus on one task at a time without getting distracted. As a result, I like to have the textbooks I need for that subject, my laptop, and class notes. But something else I recommend having and that I always try to have on my desk these days is a jug of water or just a bottle of water because it will remind me to drink and stay hydrated.
• Set a Timer In the past, I was plodding when it came to doing homework. Not only was that time consuming, but it was tiring too. I could spend almost an hour on a single math problem! But when I started doing my homework using this strategy, I discovered that setting a timer on your phone helps in writing your homework fast. I found that working in 25 to 30-minute blocks and then taking a five to 10-minute break is most effective when it comes to staying focused and working effectively. I tend to use my breaks to either make a cup of tea because I find it calming or drink something that requires me to get up and out of my desk so that I don’t start to get restless.
• Write Down Questions After my short break, I go back to my desk to continue with my homework. As I do that, I like to write down questions as I go. The reason for this is that when I write my questions down, I don’t tend to ruminate on things, and I feel confident that my teacher can answer my questions when we meet. Writing down questions can get you into the habit of being organized.
• Cross Out Your To-Do As You Go Whenever I work through my list of tasks, whether it’s homework or other to Do’s, I like to tick them off or cross them out as I go. I find this useful for increasing my motivation because I can see how far I’m getting. Ticking tasks off my list is also useful for helping me keep track of the workload and see how efficient I’m being.
• Make a New To-Do List for Tomorrow I learned this concept from my psychology teacher; he taught me that as I get closer to winding up my study session, I should use the last few minutes to finish up what I’m doing and make a note of what I still need to complete the following day. I love this approach because it helps you to ease out of your study sessions gradually, and you are also less likely to stop midway through a task just because the timer went off.

Tired Of Homework? Try A Writing Service

In conclusion, teachers should find a better way to help us love homework and school. However, if they don’t do anything, we should all find our little ways to force ourselves to do our homework even if we hate doing it. But there are other options if you don’t want to do homework. One is to use our fantastic writing service and homework help service. Now you have someone to do homework for money ! Our writers are native English experts that will provide fast and high quality work at a cheap price! Your professor or teacher will give you top marks, so no more failing grades.

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Deborah Tillman: when your child says, “I hate homework!”

by: Leslie Crawford | Updated: June 15, 2017

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“Often times, parents go negative,” warns Deborah Tillman, star of America’s Supernanny . “The child says, ‘I’m not doing my homework!’ The parent says, ‘Yes you are doing the homework!’ Then it’s back-and-forth and arguing. Cut that out! What I do is: homework time for the whole family; everybody’s going to do something. When I’m going around the country working with children, I’ve actually put all the children at the table: a preschooler, an eleventh grader, a middle schooler. Everybody’s doing homework at homework time. Then it’s a lot easier because they feel like they’re not alone.

“What you want to do is to motivate, but you want to make sure a child understands that homework is nonnegotiable. You’re not going to have this long philosophical conversation with the child. They need to know: ‘Homework is nonnegotiable, because you’re in school and it’s your job to do the homework. Mommy and Daddy will help you as much as we can, but you have to do your homework. There’s no such thing as not doing your homework if you live in the house. We’re not going to have a battle about homework.'”

Here’s how 4 other parenting experts say to respond…

Adele Faber The famed How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk author offers her expert advice on exactly what to say to a homework-hating child. Format: Article  

Christine Carter The Raising Happiness author and child development expert explains two surprising things kids need to focus on their homework. Format: Video (2:09)  

Madeline Levine When it comes to homework troubles, the famed psychologist and The Price of Privilege author cautions parents against coming to your child’s rescue. Format: Video (1:20)  

Sara Bennett If your elementary schooler is unhappy about her nightly workload, the author of The Case Against Homework says it’s OK to do the unimaginable. Format: Article  

Get more tips and advice from America’s Supernanny Deborah Tillman .

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Millions Of Teens Are Using A Homework App From TikTok’s Chinese Parent Company

As Gauth AI surges in popularity, its parent company ByteDance is fighting to keep TikTok available in the U.S.

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Gauth is a mobile app, owned by ByteDance, that offers homework help to students.

Gauth AI, an app that uses generative AI to help school-aged children do their homework, has surged in popularity in recent months, skyrocketing to #2 in the Education category in both Apple and Google’s app stores. Owned by ByteDance, it has been downloaded more than 10 million times on Android phones alone, and until recently , its website boasted that it had supported more than 200 million students. But its Chinese ownership could pose problems as TikTok — the most famous app owned by ByteDance — fights for its life against lawmakers in Washington D.C.

Unlike TikTok, Gauth is an educational app, designed specifically to help users with their homework. To use it, you take a photo of a homework assignment — like a sheet of math problems, for example — and watch as AI solves the problems for you. Upon downloading the app, the first prompt you receive is a request for permission to use the camera. The app appears similar to a China-based ByteDance app known as “ Hippo Learning .”

In addition to AI help, Gauth also offers a paid “Plus” version, which connects students with tutors in a given subject area. “We have fifty thousands of experts and dedicated experts ready to help you 24/7 with multiple subjects,” says the app description in the Apple app store. Gauth solicits tutors through a website, gauthexpert.com, where it offers payment of up to $1500 per month for tutors with expertise in math, chemistry, physics, or biology. ByteDance spokesperson Mike Hughes told Forbes that tutors are based in the United States, India, the Philippines and portions of Africa.

Gauth also offers a set of homework timers and reminders and other fun features, including an animated “Personal AI Study Buddy” and a selection of lofi beat soundtracks. There is also a system of “points” that can be used for in-app purchases; you can buy points with cash or accrue them by watching ads. There is a “targeted ads” toggle in your settings, which is auto-set to “off.”

Gauth’s surge has come at a precipitous moment for ByteDance. On March 13, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would require the company to sell its stake in TikTok or face a ban of the app in the United States. The bill arose from concerns that the Chinese government could require ByteDance to spy on Americans through TikTok, or use it to influence civic discourse in the United States. The Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into ByteDance after it used TikTok to surveil journalists , including this reporter, in 2022, and the Chinese government has run influence campaigns on the platform.

Although Gauth is focused on math and the hard sciences, it also offers a chatbot that can answer questions about social sciences and the humanities. In a series of chats with Forbes , Gauth gave uncensored answers to questions about the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur communities and the events of June 4, 1989 in Tiananmen Square. Asked whether President Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh (a comparison that has resulted in a ban of the friendly yellow bear in China), the app said, “some people have noticed a resemblance, but as for the real deal, I’ll leave that up to everyone’s personal judgment.”

Hughes noted that the chatbot is powered by OpenAI technology made available through a Microsoft Azure license. “No LLMs from ByteDance are utilized,” he said. Earlier this year, Forbes reported that ByteDance had used OpenAI’s GPT to power several other international generative AI apps.

Education apps have long been an area of interest for ByteDance, which launched its primary education brand, Dali, in 2020. The company further scaled up its education offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic, when students were stuck learning from home. In late 2021, however, the Chinese government ordered a crackdown on education apps, out of concern that privatizing and charging for education could put it out of reach for some students. The crackdown resulted in mass layoffs at ByteDance — but the company has looked for ways to reenter the market ever since.

To some lawmakers in the U.S., Gauth might be a welcome addition to children’s screen-time diet. Senator Ted Cruz, for example, has praised ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, for promoting educational videos to Chinese teens, while criticizing TikTok for promoting dangerous challenges to American ones. Cruz, though, previously expressed vehement concern about a privacy policy that allowed TikTok to share private user information with other companies in ByteDance’s “corporate group,” including those based in China.

According to Gauth’s privacy policy, the information it collects can also be shared with other “entities within our corporate group.”

In a chat conversation, Forbes asked Gauth outright whether the content of the chat was viewable to ByteDance employees in China. In response, Gauth said, “Your privacy is important, and I’m here to have a chill chat with you. But the specifics of how things work behind the scenes? Not my area of expertise. Let’s keep the conversation going–got any fun topics to chat about?”

When asked about data access from China, Hughes said: “A limited number of employees who need access to perform their jobs can view Gauth data."

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