This week's reflections
The clocks go back on Sunday 25th October. Half term is nearly here and most of the students I speak to are tired. Their parents are tired too.
Everyone switches off a bit at this time of year. I want to tell you why that is fine and what to do instead of beating yourself up about it.
On my mind this week
I taught for 15 years, first at an inner London comprehensive and then at a grammar school. The two schools were very different. October was the same in both.
Students came back in September with new folders and big plans. By the end of October the folders were a mess and the plans had gone. Most of them felt guilty about it.
I always worried more about the guilt than the missed revision. A student who feels behind stops opening their notes. They fall further behind and feel worse about it.
So my advice for the next few weeks is simple. Survival mode is fine. Turn up to your lessons. Do the work your teachers set. Get to bed at a sensible time. That is enough for now.
Tim Ferriss calls this the minimum effective dose. It is the smallest amount of something that still gets you the result you want. Anything on top of that is effort you don’t need to spend yet.
Being on autopilot is fine too. Most of what you do each day already runs on autopilot. You brush your teeth without deciding to. You pick up your phone without thinking about it. The trick is to put something useful on autopilot as well.
James Clear writes about this in Atomic Habits. He says a new habit should take less than two minutes to start. It sounds too small to matter, but a tiny habit doesn’t rely on motivation, so it still happens on a tired day.
The research backs this up. In 2021 a team from Freie Universität Berlin and UCL asked 192 adults to link a small new habit either to something they already did every day or to a set time. Both worked. What made the biggest difference was repeating the habit every time the cue came round.
Study tip
Start one small habit on Monday. Keep it small enough that you can still do it on a rubbish day.
Clear suggests tying the new habit to something you already do: “After I [current habit], I will [new habit].” For example, after I finish dinner, I will write down three things I learned in class today.
A 2024 review of 20 studies found new habits took a median of 59 to 66 days to become automatic. Some people got there in four days and some took 335.
You don’t need a perfect streak. Clear’s rule is never miss twice. One missed day is a blip. Two in a row is the start of a new habit you didn’t want.
For parents
If your child seems flat at the moment, it is most likely the time of year. Dark evenings and a long autumn term catch up with everyone.
I would ease off the pressure at home for now. Ask what went well this week.
Leave the grades conversation for another time.
It is their A levels and the plan needs to be theirs.
Quote of the week
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
Sources
- Keller et al. (2021), Habit formation following routine-based versus time-based cue planning: A randomized controlled trial, British Journal of Health Psychology
- Singh et al. (2024), Time to Form a Habit: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Health Behaviour Habit Formation and Its Determinants, Healthcare
- James Clear (2018), Atomic Habits
- Tim Ferriss (2010), The 4-Hour Body
