Page 19 - UMKC Parent and Family Insider

Finding habit stickiness — ideas to share.
• Ask for help. You don’t have to do it alone. There’s support on every campus and people who have even more suggestions for how to stick with those good study habits. Let them do their jobs and work with you.
• Don’t get derailed by a bad day.
We all slip up occasionally. If you forget, or are too tired, or just can’t be bothered on a given day, move on and try again the next day.
• Believe that change is possible and that you can make new habits stick. If you don’t believe it, you won’t be able to do it. With the belief that you can make a change, the motivation to put the skill into practice, and some hard work to stay with it, you can make study habits stick.
What
your college student may need isn’t so much a lesson about appropriate study skills but a conversation about actually using those skills and turning them into study habits.
U READY?
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Be realistic. Check to make sure your new habits are something you can actually accomplish and maintain. Break them into smaller goals if needed.
Find ways to remind yourself of new habits until they become second nature. Set a timer, ask a friend to remind you, keep a planner (either hard copy or electronic).
Don’t try to do everything at once.
Pick one habit and work on it for
a week or two. As that becomes more routine, try another. You can’t change everything at once.
Pair a new habit with an already established habit. Do you stop
by the snack bar every afternoon for a cup of coffee? Plan to review ive vocabulary words each time. Check your planner for upcoming assignments just before you head to every class. Be creative in inding pairings that work.
Remind yourself of your goals.
Write them down and put them where you can see them often.
Track your progress. We all like to know that what we’re doing is working. Keep track of your new habits. It may be as simple as putting a check mark on a chart each time you remember.
Reward yourself for sticking to your habits. Better grades can be their own reward, but rewarding yourself with something meaningful in the short term will also help to keep you going.
Find a partner. It’s more fun with company, so try to ind someone else who’s also interested in instituting better study habits. Cheer each other on and hold each other accountable.
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