TM4T - Basics: Habits 1

By the time we achieve QTS, our repulsive childhood habits are hopefully benind us: thumb-sucking, nose-picking and so on. However, a whole range of habits begin in childhood, which define our social patterns of behaviour, and restrict how efficiently we spend our time.

In general, we will all persist in the habits we develop: after all, if something works, why change it? Because of this - because we tend not to change our habits, teachers are frequently unaware of just how hard habits are to change … and, if we do identify some time-consuming, counter-productive thing that we do all the time - automatically - then it can be frustrating and stressful to realise that this isn't something that we can simply stop or change at will. In fact, it's pretty tough... but it can be done. Just follow the steps below:

1. Understand clearly what a habit is

A habit is automatic behaviour; an involuntary engagement in an activity. They are a necessary component of human behaviour. The alternative: conscious decision-making at every point of our lives, is neither feasible nor desirable. We therefore need to ensure that all our habits - all our automatic behaviours - engage us in positive activities that promote our well-being and help us to make progress towards our goals.

Easy peasy, huh? Just make sure that our habits are positive habits, and then we will do them automatically. Effortless success, OFSTED outstanding and congratulations from grateful parents. Err... well, maybe.

It will certainly require effort to form new and positive habits. With concerted, disciplined effort over a period of time, though, frequently repeated behaviors can become automatic. By using some of the willpower lurking within you, new positive behaviors can become habits.

2. Identify Bad Habits

You will almost certainly not be aware of your own current habits (that's what 'subconscious' means). The best way to find out is to ask those who know you and care about you. Not just your loved ones, but those who know you professionally as well. NOT your students. Habits are context-driven (what you do in an interview differs from what you do in the bath) so you need to ask people who know you in different situations. Except not the bath, obviously.

3. Understand how habits actually work.

Habits form over a period of time - anything from three weeks to three months, gradually becoming more and more automatic. They form in three parts, and understanding these three parts is key to being able to break bad habits and establish new, better ones. The pesky threesome are the cue, the behaviour, and the reward - these three represent the habit loop - the repeating aspect of your behaviour. The cue is the trigger that causes your habit to take place - anything that your mind has been taught to associate with, and initiate, that habit. The behaviour is the actual habit that you are exhibiting. The reward is whatever mentally positive outcome is stored in your brain's basal ganglia, assocated with the habitual behaviour. The reward, which may not seem particularly reward-like to our logical brains, is important in controlling the habit. In general, the behaviour can be observed, and the reward can be felt, but cues tend to be simple, but fiendishly well-concealed.

4. Identify and Understand Dead-time Habits

Identifying dead time habits is not simple. The most common method involves keeping a time-log: writing down what you do, and for how long, over a period of a week. You can then do some adding up and list how much time you spend over a week on different activities (sleeping, teaching, eating, ironing etc). Frequently, however the maths don't add up - you account for say 144 hours of your week, but find that you have 24 hours of 'dead time', during which you don't seem to be doing much at all, not relaxing, not working, not socialising; the time just seems to evaporate. Periods like this are frequently generated by habits, but not just any habits - these are frequently the deepest and most problematic habits of all.

The worst time-management mistake you can make is to arbitrarily decide to rid yourself of dead-time habits, and do 'productive' tasks instead. Before you do this, think about what rewards are involved. These may be relaxation, or social contact, or a sense of achievement - all of which may be positive or necessary to your mental health

6. Break Bad & Dead-time Habits by Replacing Them with Good Ones.

There is no guaranteed method, but this sequence is frequently successful:

a) identify the habit you want to break, and separate out the three components: cue-behaviour-reward.

b) identify a corresponding good habit with a positive reward.

c) use external prompts - for example post-it notes, alarms, reminders from a colleague, to trap all bad-habit-cues

d) substitute your good habit for the bad one.

Repeat, repeat repeat. If for some reason you don't receive any cues for your old bad habit, then create some yourself, and make sure that you repeat you good habit at least twice daily - early repetition helps to increase automaticity.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Continue trapping cues and substituting good habits for bad until this becomes automatic - this can take anything from three weeks to three months.

Change is rarely quick and easy, but with time, effort and insight, almost any habit can be reshaped.

A more detailed, worked example of breaking a teacher's dead-time habit, with discussion of cues, behaviours and rewards, is given on the following page.