The 7 minute "color map" that finally stopped my essays from rambling

I know this sub is pretty tiny and not very active, but that actually made me brave enough to post, so maybe this helps at least one person. I used to write essays where each paragraph kinda wandered around the topic, my feedback was always "good ideas, but unclear structure". What finally helped was a stupidly simple 7 minute check I now do before I edit anything. Step 1, I print or copy paste my draft on one page and grab 3 highlighters or 3 colors in my editor. Step 2, I decide what every paragraph is supposed to do: a) move the main argument, b) give evidence, c) connect things or explain why it matters. Then I go through and mark each sentence with one color for each role. No thinking about style, just tagging. If a paragraph is all one color, it means it is doing only one job and probably needs a short bridge or "so what" sentence. If the colors jump like crazy inside one paragraph, I split it and move half somewhere else. The magic part is that I do this in strict 7 minutes with a timer, so I do not fall into perfectionism. After that, editing is way easier becouse I can see the skeleton of the essay instead of fighting random sentences. If anyone wants to try this, maybe we can share before and after examples here in the sub.