What are habits?
Habits are the behaviors that you repeat time and time again. There are certain habits that are deliberately formed, such as doing your skincare in the morning or brushing your teeth at night. But some habits are done in your subconscious brain. An example of those habits is the specific way you brush your hair every day or the way you pick up your backpack from the ground. Habits can act as cues, something that your brain loves. A cue is an action, phrase, or anything of the sort that signals something to begin. When there is a cue (e.g picking up the hairbrush or reaching for the bag), your brain either gives a response through the conscious or subconscious mind. Certain habits can work as a cue because when you do the same activity repeatedly and follow it up with another constant activity, your brain can pair the two together and make the connection.
Habits paired with studying?
When you begin to pair habits with studying, they can begin to act as cues for you to begin your work. If every day when you get home from school, you just plop down in front of your desk without doing anything beforehand as a constant habit and open a textbook, that isn’t going to be effective because your brain isn’t making a connection or seeing a cue to move into work-mode. The only thing it’s understanding is that you are coming home, doing whatever, and trying to force it to work.
However, pairing a habit that you can form with your studying will start to teach your brain a pattern. First, you do whatever activity and then work. Looking back at my previous example, let’s say instead of just sitting down to study, you first light a candle and make yourself a drink (like coffee) every time you want to work. When you begin to repeat this behavior over and over, your brain picks up on it. After a while, whenever you sit down with your drink and light the candle, your brain is going to respond with “Oh okay, so next we do the study part, I get it.”
Your brain has been founded on learning behaviors and patterns. When you teach it a new pattern and give it a direct cue (your habit) for it to use with the pattern, it responds well. The next time you open your textbook, you will be more awake than before and absorb the material because your brain is prepared for the task upon the cue.
My personal habits and experience!
When I began to implement habits into my studying routine, I became much more productive and actually got my work done. My habits are to light a candle and start playing a Study With Me style video off YouTube.
Before I implemented these patterns into my brain, I used to struggle with studying too. I would sit down, stare at my notes, and just give up. I would spend hours in bed scrolling instead. When I first started to try and teach my brain to follow the cue by implementing a new habit into my routine, it was difficult honestly. My brain didn’t want to understand or try to memorize another routine. But I kept working with it and didn’t give up. After all, they do say it takes 21 days to build a habit. And eventually, my mind learned that when the candle is lit and the video is playing, it’s time to study.
Thank you to Jasmine G. for editing this article!
