A1. Good habits are the foundation of a healthy and quality life. They can help you improve your physical health and mental well-being and achieve your goals.
Did you know that about 40% of the actions you take are not your conscious decisions, but the results of habits you have accumulated over the years? Good and bad, both forms of habits play a huge part in your life. As a student, good habits like organisational skills and time management can help you achieve your goals, whereas bad habits like procrastination and excessive use of smartphones can hinder your progress.
This proves that building good habits is key to leading a healthy lifestyle. They empower you to make informed decisions that have a positive impact on your overall well-being. However, building good habits and shedding bad ones is no easy task. That’s where our comprehensive guide comes in. We’ve got you covered with some of the best strategies and techniques to help you build good habits and make healthy practices a part of your daily life to achieve your goals. Let’s go!
Strategies for building good habits
Old habits die hard, while new habits take at least 21 days (that’s about 3 weeks) of regular practise to form and 66 days to ingrain themselves into our brains. This means you need some effective strategies that will keep you on track and help in forming good habits. Let's look at some of them.
1. Start small
When building new habits, Leo Babauta said, “Make it so easy you can’t say no.” Start so small that you don’t need motivation, extra energy, or dedicated time to do it. If your goal is to read more to improve your reading skills, start with reading for 10 minutes daily rather than trying to read for 30 minutes or one hour per day. You can read a chapter from a book or an article online about something you enjoy.
2. Practise habit stacking
Rather than starting from scratch, make your new habit a part of an already existing one. For example, if you are having trouble understanding others when they speak in English and want to enhance your English listening skills, watch a single episode of a TV show you enjoy in English with subtitles turned on. It’ll help you understand different accents and improve your listening and reading skills.
3. Break big habits into smaller ones
The key to building good habits is to keep momentum and stay on track by breaking down your big habits into smaller ones. For example, if you have to submit a 500-word essay about “a day in your life” in English in two weeks, start by keeping a daily journal where you practise writing just a few sentences describing your day. Experiment with different ways of telling a story about your day and writing a short dialogue to accompany it. You can also start by writing captions for your social media posts on Instagram or TikTok in English.
4. Get back on track after a slip
Remember that even experts make mistakes when starting something new. So, don't be discouraged if you miss a day or make a mistake. Use this as an opportunity to understand what made you slip, find out the trigger and discover what kept you from staying on track with your new habit. If you missed your 10-minute daily reading goal one day, don't think too much about it. Pick it up the next day like nothing happened. The goal isn't to be perfect but consistent.
5. Be patient and don’t overdo it
As we mentioned before, you cannot develop good habits overnight. They take time and consistency before you can see visible results. If you try to take on too much at once, you won't see as much progress. Take on only as much as you can handle and not more. For example, if you are learning new words to expand your vocabulary, start with one or two words per day. Be patient and avoid trying to do too much too quickly.
There is nothing you can't achieve by making good habits and healthy practices a part of your daily life. Whether it takes you 66 days or a year to develop good habits, they are worth the effort. These small, daily actions have a huge impact on your health and well-being. You won’t see results in one day but will reap the benefits in the years to come. As a student, whatever your goal is to study more, pass an exam or learn a new language, good habits can help you achieve it all.
Frequently asked questions about good habits for a healthy lifestyle
Q1. What are the benefits of good habits?
Q2. How do I develop good learning habits?
A2. Building good habits takes time and discipline. Start with small and manageable changes in your daily life that you won’t even notice and don’t need motivation to do. Gradually increase the difficulty of the task as you become more comfortable with each habit, but don’t overdo it. Be patient and consistent. Remember, it will take you at least 21 days to form a new habit.
Q3. How long does it take to form a good habit?
A3. According to many studies and research papers over the years, it can take anywhere from 21 to 66 days to form a new habit. It was Dr. Maxwell Maltz who first noticed that his patients took exactly 21 days to adjust to a new situation. But studies like the one published in the European Journal of Social Psychology by Phillippa Lally, a health psychology researcher at University College London, proved that on average, it takes more than 2 months before a behaviour becomes automatic, that is 66 days.
Q4. How do I break a bad habit?
A4. The best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. You must identify what triggers your bad habit and then develop a positive action to replace it. For example, studying for an English language test in the last few days before the exam won’t help you become fluent. Replace trying to learn everything at once with learning a little every day. Set aside 10-20 minutes daily to practise your English speaking, listening, reading or writing skills.
Q5. Can healthy practices help me improve my English skills?
A5. Absolutely! Healthy practices are part of learning a new language. Without them, you will not be in the right state of mind to perform various tasks, such as practising your reading and speaking skills. Get enough sleep, stay hydrated, and exercise regularly to improve your cognitive function and memory. It will help you stay fresh and focused on improving your English skills. You can also improve your English skills and add a professional dose of routine by enrolling in language courses at English Path. Formal training from qualified and experienced teachers will help you build the skills to use English with confidence. Explore our English language courses now!