How to kick bad habits in 2017

Have you ever had a bad habit that you just can’t kick?

It’s the fourth time this week that you’ve ended up doing your homework at midnight when you had hours of free time to finish it beforehand. The teacher has just asked for last night’s homework and you can’t find it underneath the pile of crumpled sheets shoved in your backpack.

Why do we continue to do this to ourselves? Why do we waste time and energy on something that we know is not good for us?

“I think I can do everything last minute; it’s a bad habit, but it’s worked for me,” said junior Erin Choate. This is the mindset of many students. They do the bare minimum and believe that this will get them by for the rest of their school year. In reality, these bad habits that “work for them” are bad for them – both mentally and physically.

“It wouldn’t hurt to do homework when I get home from school,” Choate said, demonstrating that she understands an easy fix to her problem. But getting rid of a bad habit is not just planning to do your homework early or buying a planner, it is a mental approach too.

Many Milford High students said that they too were just planning to “do homework early and buy a planner,” but none of them talked of the changes they needed to make mentally. The first thing anyone should do is to list or at least think of the reasons they want to do this. They can use it as personal motivation.

After you’ve decided the why you have to figure out the how. Deciding how can always be difficult and many students who have that struggle go to their counselor.

Beverly Groth, a counselor at Milford High School said it’s very common for a student to come to her with a bad habit, lost on how to fix it.

According to Groth, a lot of students come with bad study habits. “They blow off little assignments, not doing one, which leads to not doing another and another.”

Groth had a few ideas for things these students could do. Groth asked the question, “what do you have at home?”

Most students have a phone and could use it to take a picture of a teacher’s board or to set a reminder. If a student doesn’t have a phone, he or she could take the visual route and create a sign to hang on their mirror or door. It’s important to remember that a bad habit takes time to kick, even when doing these things it will not go away in a day.

Going into the new school year, it is important to kick your bad habits before you get in too deep. For senior Mitchell Balaka, it is important to kick his bad habits now to prepare himself for a whole new level of stress that college entails.

A junior, Jenna Carlisle, highlighted how important it is for freshmen to kick bad habits.

“Start high school off by not putting off work and getting used to studying; it’s good to start a routine now because it will benefit you greatly in the long run.”

Groth agreed. She talked about how freshmen struggle, just as every student, with keeping their study habits in check and being able to fix that now will benefit them in the future.

It is important to remember that kicking a bad habit will not happen in a day, but will take multiple trial and errors but is important to persevere. Have you ever had a bad habit you just can’t kick? Well now you know how to kick it.