Writing an essay can be tough, mentally emotionally and even physically. It is very draining to have to be creative for a long period, and this will wear on your brain and your body. There are ways that are known to make writing an essay a good experience. After all, the hardest draft of the essay is the first, so when writing a rough draft you can expect to have this very stressful effect. If you want to have this experience be relaxing and positive, some things that you can try have been proven effective.
The first thing you should be doing is note editing in your first draft. If you spell a word wrong, do not go back and fix it, keep writing. The same goes for capitalization, grammar, and awkward phrasing. The reason for this is that perfectionism is never good here in the first draft. It is of course not going to be perfect, you edit for that, so relax and focus on getting your ideas together and articulating on the paper. Otherwise, you will not be able to think about what you are trying to write next and instead you will be bogged down in all these useless details.
The next thing that is going to help you is to make sure that you have the right writing environment. It is strange to think but it is actually good if you switch up your surroundings every once in a while, experts say this increases creativity and your ability to perform well. Make sure that you do not have music, television, or other distractions. See to it that your chair and desk are comfortable, and that you have a nice keyboard or pen with which to type or write. Do not try to write around friends, or anyone else who is going to talk or otherwise disturb you.
Finally, when writing be sure to be outcome independent. Do not worry about your grade when writing the first draft; again, there are edits for that. Instead, realize that if you keep worrying about the outcome of the writing, your audience, what your professor or reader is going to think about you, you will begin to self-censor yourself. You will stop your writing from being honest, which is the worst sin among writers. Instead, clear all of those worries from you mind, and write what you feel, what you think, and what you believe is true based on the information you are using. As long as you do the best you can, you will find yourself with a rough draft that you will be able to forge into a great essay.