As a college student, you are asked to write a lot of papers. It’s just a part of the college experience. But you probably don’t know that there are some life hacks that can help you produce better and stronger writing and save you time and effort as you wade through a sea of essays, research papers, case studies, and other papers that you will be assigned each semester. Let’s take a look at ten life hacks borrowed from a team of professional essay writers at WriteMyPaperHub.com academic writing service. You should know these life hacks to help make college easier and more enjoyable.

• Write early in the morning. This hack probably goes against everything you believe about being a college student, where late nights and all-nighters are standard operating procedure. But it’s scientifically proven that our minds are sharper and we work better in the morning hours than we do late at night. One of the best ways to get your writing up to snuff is to work on it when you are fresh, well-rested, and at your creative peak for the day.

• Take regular breaks. Taking a break after a fixed period of work can help to keep your mind sharp and keep you focused on the end goal. The longer you work without a break, the more likely your mind will start to wander or that you will become bored. The Pomodoro Technique can be an effective strategy. It breaks work down into half-hour segments. You will work 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and then repeat the cycle until you have finished the task.

• Turn off your phone, or at least notifications. Keep your mind focused on your essay by turning off your phone during your work time, or at least turning off notifications. The more you look at your phone, the less you will write, so shutting off distractions will help you to develop your essay more easily. There are apps that can block notifications for timed periods so you can use the Pomodoro Technique and reward yourself with phone breaks.

• Use Wikipedia strategically. Every college student knows that Wikipedia is not an appropriate source for college papers, but did you know that it can lead you to good sources? Every Wikipedia article documents its sources. While Wikipedia may not be appropriate for your paper, those sources are fair game. Use the Wikipedia article for your topic as a quick index of key research for your paper.

• Start with a killer quote. Opening your paper with a quote can lend credibility to your essay, make it seem more interesting, and draw your audience into your paper. As you do research, keep a file of great quotes that you can use to open your essay. Just make sure that the quote you use is relevant to your paper.

• Don’t use two spaces after a period. Show your instructors that you are up to date with in your knowledge of writing conventions. Two spaces after a period used to be standard in the days of typewriters, but it hasn’t been standard for decades. While many high schools taught out of date writing styles from decades-old textbooks, show your instructors that you’re hip to the writing of today by using just one space after a period.

• Don’t skip spaces between paragraphs. Online, it’s standard to skip lines between paragraphs, but in a formal essay, you shouldn’t do that. One paragraph should follow the next with no skipped lines. Instead, indicate a new paragraph by indenting the first line one-half inch or five spaces, depending on the rules of your style guide, such as APA or MLA.

• Use one font in your essay unless absolutely necessary. An essay should look clean and consistent from start to finish. Many students like to make a paper look fancy by using many different fonts and sizes to decorate the page, but a great essay looks best when it is in one font and, generally, in one font size. Only use a second font when absolutely necessary (sometimes, for example, a table or chart needs a sans-serif font) and use different sizes only when your paper’s writing style, such as APA or MLA, requires it.

• Use a screen reader to hear your essay out loud. Listening to your paper can help you to identify errors that you may not be able to see on the page. Google Translate’s speaker function offers a free reader to help you listen to your paper.

• Print a copy of your essay for proofreading. It’s easier to see mistakes on paper than it is on a screen. Even if your paper will be submitted online, use a paper copy to search for proofreading errors.