What are your repeated behaviours or habits? The way you brush your teeth; how you tie your shoelaces; when, where and how frequently you check your mobile phone, or even how you write.

A habit is defined as ‘a settled or regular tendency to practice a behaviour that has become nearly or completely involuntary’.

Put simply, a habit includes any of the things we do repeatedly that bypass our need for conscious willpower.

Habits are not only linked to better outcomes but they also act as futureproofing for students because they make transitions much easier, for example, from Junior to Senior cycles, from second-level education to college or university, and into employment and training. 

Let’s take a brief tour through the connection between habits and goals, and how to change habits. Because, as teachers and parents/carers, we have to help students to break the habits that are less productive and to build and foster more beneficial ones. And, in the context of education, keep the focus on those habits that are proven to lead to better academic outcomes. These are study, technology use and sleep. 

How are habits formed?

Habits form through the repetition of behaviours within a given context, such as the location of the study area, time of day/week for various study tasks, preferred notetaking pens and the use of other important study materials like a timer. According to scientists, it takes an average of 66 days to develop a new habit. For some, this can be quicker.

What happens during this process?

After repetition, the association strengthens between the context and the behaviour: first being very conscious and, slowly over time, becoming more automatic. The scientific explanation is that repetition reduces what are termed ‘want conflicts’ (feelings of wanting to do something else).

So, how are habits connected to our goals?

Goals – such as a student’s target grades in the Junior or Leaving Cert – initiate habit formation and the potential for active management of the context to achieve this goal, let’s say, by turning off social media before study periods or putting away a personal communication device one hour before bedtime. These goals can modify whether or not an existing habit or behaviour is performed. But even though we suppose that these habits are driven by a student’s intentions, context cues have an important role too. 

This is good news for all of us involved in education because it means that a student can disrupt a less productive habit by changing their environment. And, by making more beneficial or productive habits their default, over time students will need to use less self-control because the situation or context will begin to more automatically activate the habitual response. Our role then is to help students understand how to develop & maintain productive study habits and, in doing so, to become aware of and change those habits that are less productive.

Changing Habits

Lasting behaviour change is connected with three things: Context, Repetition and Reward. Let’s say a student’s initial goal is to disrupt a ‘bad’ habit, such as keeping their phone active beside them when studying.

This habit is detrimental because of the limits of working memory, as was discussed in a previous blog.

Nonetheless, the habit persists: not because the student doesn’t have good intentions. No doubt most have good intentions. Rather, it persists because the behaviour has already become more or less automatic, and it is also cued every time the student sees or hears phone notifications. 

The student’s focus has to be on changing this context, to repeat this behaviour and to reward themselves. Their first habit-forming task is to find the initial motivation to switch off the phone and, crucially, to also remove it from the study space. Change the cue (phone nearby) & disrupt the context. 

Repeated daily, this habit will become easier and more automatic. The student should reward themselves too: this might be a place where they enjoy studying, for example, a favourite room in the house, a quiet area in the school library or elsewhere, or a supportive peer group that uses weekly mini-quizzes and a reward scheme of nutritious or tasty treats. 

When forming a new habit, it is important that students don’t make things unnecessarily difficult for themselves. If a new behaviour is not easy or convenient to repeat daily, it is less likely to become habitual.

As a new habit is cultivated, the importance of intention and motivation fade

Focus on the triumvirate of habit change: context, repetition and reward. These are likely to be more effective than intention or motivation alone. 

No one can make a student apply good study habits. Obviously, a student’s own (intrinsic) motivation will, at least initially, drive them to use the strategies recommended here. The good news is that the more this behaviour becomes automatic, the less they have to rely on intention and motivation.

Practical Ideas for Developing Good Study Habits

Think about specific locations and times for study and revision. If a bedroom is not a conducive study space, maybe because the student’s ‘want conflict’ is oriented to the games console located there, then take studying elsewhere. Alternatively, take the console to another room.

Remember that we can help students to disrupt negative habits and we can reward them, and they can reward themselves, for avoiding temptations. Not surprisingly, students who spend more time surfing the Internet during class and study time perform worse than those who don’t. Students may be expected to take notes online or to engage with learning material, such as a YouTube instructional video, via the school’s online platform. Unknowingly, these students may have strong media multi-tasking habits (see our previous blog on multitasking) and therefore, when they access this video, their focus is more likely to wander to other things unrelated to the specific learning material. In addition, technology developers often build in cues to make products more appealing and addictive, such as notifications or ads. In order to avoid unhelpful technological distractions, teachers might think about structuring the ways in which they recommend their students use online sources, like YouTube. 

The amount and quality of sleep before exams are also positively associated with good exam performance. Sleep inconsistency is one consequence of uncontrolled technology use. 

Good sleep habits are structured, distraction-free and rewarding. 

So, focus on Context, Repetition and Reward when it comes to forming and fostering good study habits. Because we first make our habits, and then our habits make us.We hope you’re enjoying our series of fortnightly blogs. Tune in next time for some Myth Busters about studying.

Stay tuned as we explore these elements in the coming weeks.

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