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.

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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



Test: Getty Images/E+? bluestocking; Timer: IStock/Getty Images Plus/ alicjane
Your child’s schedule is
packed with school and
extra-curricular activities,
but she has 20 minutes
before practice or 15 minutes
on the bus or car ride home.

These small gaps of time
between school and activities
are precisely when she
should study. Bus rides
work best for high schoolers
who play a sport and are
in and out of the bus all
afternoon and evening
long. She may not be able
to complete her entire
study guide or review all
of her notes, but studying
in these small chunks of
time will be most eff ective
for her retention of
information. This is because
she will be repeating the
information every day
before practice and putt ing
it into long-term memory
by sleeping on it between
studying. Why will developing
this habit work? Because it’s
tied to something she already
does in her daily routine:
waiting for practice to start
or riding home on the bus or
in the car.

CONNECT STUDYING
WITH HOMEWORK
A lot of kids don’t like
to study for exams. They
will do homework, since
it’s a concrete assignment
with a due date and is
short enough to complete
in one sitt ing. However,
since studying isn’t a set
assignment, they will
often procrastinate.

What can they do to
stop the procrastination
cycle and develop an
eff ective study habit? Tie
studying to homework,
a task that they already
perform each night. Here’s
how it can work:
• Encourage your student
to set aside 10-20 minutes
for studying before
starting homework
each night.

• Encourage your child
to set a timer to hold
himself accountable.

After the timer buzzes,
the student should move
on to homework that is
due the next day. Soon
enough, a routine will
be set.

The key is to att ach the
new activity of studying to
something the child does
every night anyway, like
completing homework.

Surrounding yourself
with an environment
overfl owing with visual
cues and reminders of
whatever habit you want
to develop will help you
stick with something long
enough to incorporate it into
your routine.

What does all this mean
with regard to organization?
It means that you can
surround your child with
a home full of visual cues
Encourage your child to set a timer to hold
himself accountable. After the timer buzzes,
the student should move on to homework
that is due the next day. Soon enough, a
routine will be set.

ORGANIZATIONAL HABITS: GIVE
YOURSELF VISUAL CUES
Let’s be honest, if you have
cookies on the counter,
sooner or later, you’ll eat
them. This is why willpower
is not good enough to form
a habit! But if there is fruit on
the counter, you might not
eat it, but at least you won’t
eat cookies.

that prompt him to stay
organized. Here are
some examples:
• Place a calendar in a
public family space.

Making a calendar
of weekly homework
assignments and long-
term projects is a great
way to visually remind
your child of when
things are due and most
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