How to Build a Routine
Well, hello there!
Summer routines are in full swing by now, whether it’s waking up to the alarm to get to work on time, or attending camp overnight or for the day, or whether it’s making time for friends and outdoor fun (yay, ‘90s summer!). Regardless of the activity, there is some type of routine in place.
A casual routine for summer is fitting, and provides a good foundation upon which to build a strong habit for the coming school year.
We often think of habits as behaviours that are based on a set of consequences, like good or bad grades. This is actually what’s called goal-based behaviour (Yamada et al., 2023). Goal-based behaviour is what leads to habitual behaviour, which Yamada et. al. (2023), Solis-Moreira (2024), Palmer (2020), and van der Weiden et. al. (2020) all agree is an effortless behaviour that is created when it is consistently and regularly repeated within the same context.
In other words, habits are behaviours that we don’t have to think about, and they are made when we do them repeatedly in the same environment or following the same cues/triggers.
Effects of Routine on Mental Wellbeing
Setting routines – habit-building – has a positive effect on mental well-being because it provides stability through its predictability. This consistency ultimately leads to a sense of empowerment and control (Inks, 2023). Since habits require less energy to perform than unfamiliar or unplanned behaviours, a good habit can easily become an end-of-day default action (Palmer, 2020). Sounds ideal for all of our learners, doesn’t it?
Given that research consistently suggests that building a good habit takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days, getting started this month will provide ample time to establish the routine by the depths of autumn.
How, though, do we build these habits + routines?
We know that developing strong habits relies on repetition and more importantly, consistency. We also know that habit-building needs context (Palmer, 2020; van der Weiden et.al., 2020), yet there doesn’t seem to be much context between summertime and the school year.
Actually, there IS context between these two seemingly disparate times of the year.
Habit-building works best with small steps rather than a cold-turkey jump into the depths (a creative mixed metaphor), and it’s most successful when we piggy-back the habit we are trying to develop onto an already established one.
For example, let’s say I want to start taking a multivitamin every day, but I keep forgetting. If I mentally attach that action of vitamin-taking to having my breakfast smoothie, it will be easy to establish the routine – the effortless habit – of taking my vitamin at breakfast. Breakfast is an old routine that is locked in, so I don’t need to expend a lot of energy remembering to do that. I can use a bit of extra energy to make that mental connection of the multivitamin to the habit of breakfast, and over a relatively short period of time, taking the vitamin becomes part of breakfast.
Now, let’s apply that to our learners
In the summer, there isn’t a school schedule. But there is still a daily routine of letting out the dog in the afternoon, or having an afternoon snack. Let’s gently shift that timing so it matches with an appropriate homework time, say 4:30pm, and have learners of every age spend 10 minutes reading (anything of choice for now).
Use the rest of this month and August to build that habit for your learner. They will have it established by the time September arrives, and by mid-month, they will be able to, gradually, mentally connect sitting down to work on school stuff to having their snack or to letting out the dog.
Is it reliable? Yes. Especially if we ensure that the environmental context is also consistent. Not only is the consistency of repetition important, but so is the consistency of the environment.
We’ve all heard teachers say, “Don’t do your homework in front of the TV / in bed / on the couch!”
There is a research-backed rationale for this. Our brains are context machines; we inherently make links and connections to categorise practically everything. Let’s take advantage of that and ensure that the environment for the habit we want to establish (a regular homework / study routine) is conducive to both building and maintaining that habit. This means reducing distractions, working in the same location all the time, and having all items at the ready. The easier we make it for our learners’ brains to get into work mode, the more smoothly they will build the good habit.
So, this summer:
→ piggyback the new habit of a 10-minute read onto the established routine of letting the dog out / having a snack in the afternoon
→ ensure the new habit is taking place in the same location every weekday (ideally, where homework will be completed come September)
There is much more to be said about this, so stay tuned for other tips in August!
Until then, have a fabulous, consistent, habit-building summer. 🌞
Yours in learning,
L
References
Inks, L. (2023, March 15). 12 Tips for Making a Routine You’ll Actually Stick To. WonderMind. Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://www.wondermind.com/article/daily-routine/
Larkin, E. (2024, May 21). How to Build a Daily Routine That Works for You. The Spruce. Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-create-a-daily-routine-2648007
McRae, L. (2019, September 25). How to Start a New Routine and Stick To It. NorthShore. Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://www.northshore.org/healthy-you/how-to-start-a-new-routine-and-stick-to-it/
Palmer, C. (2020, November 01). Harnessing the power of habits. American Psychological Association. Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/11/career-lab-habits
Solis-Moreira, J. (2024, January 24). How Long Does It Really Take to Form a Habit? Scientific American. Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-does-it-really-take-to-form-a-habit/
Strauss Cohen, I. (2024, July 11). Embracing the Slow Journey of Real Change. Psychology Today. Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/your-emotional-meter/202407/embracing-the-slow-journey-of-real-change
van der Weiden, A., Benjamins, J., Gillebaart, M., Ybema, J. F., & de Ridder, D. (2020, March 26). How to Form Good Habits? A Longitudinal Field Study on the Role of Self-Control in Habit Formation. Frontiers In Psychology, 11(0), 0. /10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00560
Yamada, K., & Toda, K. (2023, April 04). Habit formation viewed as structural change in the behavioral network. Communications Biology, 6(303), 0. 10.1038/s42003-023-04500-2