SMART
STUDY ORGANIZATIONAL
HABITS FOR THE
NEW YEAR
I t’s a new year, which
means we are all
trying to develop
habits that we can
sustain for the next
12 months or longer. As you
know, this is often easier said
than done, especially when
it comes to helping our kids
develop habits to help them
succeed in school.

MAKING HABITS STICK
The key to making habits
stick is that you have to
tie them to something you
already do; otherwise,
you’re relying on willpower.

And let’s face it: Willpower
doesn’t always work as well
as we would like it to, and it
works even less with kids.

It’s unrealistic to expect
your kids to sit down and
study for extended periods of
time, especially if they have
poor attention. Yet when kids
don’t do something or don’t
study as much or as hard
as they need to, we often
attribute this to a character
deficit. This means that the
kids are often thought of as
lazy or unmotivated. But
actually, that’s not accurate.

10 January 2019 washingtonFAMILY.com
What’s really going
on is that they haven’t
incorporated what they need
to do into a habit. When
habits are automatic, you
don’t have to think about
them — it’s like being on
autopilot. Truly having
a habit means that the
willpower side of the story
gets kicked out the door
because you no longer have
to rely on willpower to
accomplish what you
need to.

Below are some strategies
you can implement in your
household to help make your
child’s organizational and
study habits more effective
and long-term.

USE SMALL CHUNKS
OF TIME
Many kids don’t know how
to take advantage of very
small chunks of time, which
is exactly when they have
the opportunity to develop a
good study habit. Research
shows that studying in small
chunks as opposed to long
stretches is more beneficial to
remembering. Here’s what this
study habit might look like:
Bottom: Getty Images/E+/damircudic; IStock/Getty Images Plus/Center: AntonioGuillem; Top: BrianAJackson
BY ANN DOLIN