Everyone suffers from bad habits. From procrastination to skipping breakfast, bad habits surround us. But what about good habits? Fun fact: you have these too. Maybe you’ve just never realized it, like brushing your teeth or making your bed. But one good habit we could all stand to build is the habit of hard work.

         “But Piper,” you say. “How am I supposed to do that?”

         Valid question. You hear that “habits” are the best way to subconsciously change your lifestyle, from a nightly shower to reading your book every day. But how can you build habits? And why should you build habits?

         Building habits is harder than it is often made out to be. It’s best to take it slow: start with manageable tasks and work them into your everyday routine. For example, if you’re trying to have cleaner teeth, start with a simple idea, like flossing. To create the habit of flossing more regularly, make a point to do it every day right before you brush your teeth. But the caveat is that it’s important to remember every single time you brush your teeth: even one missed day can throw you out of the loop. The difficult part of making a habit is repetition. Studies show that you need to regularly repeat these actions for a minimum of 15 days (about 2 weeks) to make something a habit, but for more complicated tasks, the formation of habits can take months. The more you repeat your actions, the more acclimated these actions become to your routine. Without realizing it, you could find yourself after a month flossing regularly without a second thought.

         “But why build habits?” you ask. “They seem to be more trouble than they’re worth.”

         Astute observation. True, creating habits take effort and work. Habits are difficult to create. But once created, they take such little effort to maintain. Think about the little things you might do without even realizing it. Putting both shoes on before tying either of them. Making your bed in the morning. Putting clothes on “the Chair” until the pile becomes concerningly big. We all know “the Chair” – imagine trying to break the habit of throwing semi-worn clothes on a random chair in your room. I’m not sure I could break that habit – it’s subconscious. And this is precisely the point: once a habit is made, it takes effort to break it. But it takes such little effort to maintain. The Habit and You become one in the same.

         “Okay. So, habits are important, and now I know how to build them. Why did you just tell me all that?”

         Let’s apply our newfound knowledge to an entirely different aspect of our lives (one that we all share): school. I can practically hear the groans. “Not school!” Yes, school! As you get older, classes don’t get any easier. And if you stop trying freshman year, they definitely won’t get any easier. So together, let’s build the habit of hard work, step by step.

“But why work hard? It takes so much effort.”

Take it slow. We mentioned school. We’re already exhausted. Let’s take a moment with nature and turn our attention to bees. Look at the bees. Bees spend their lives tirelessly flying around to flowers, sucking up their nectar. They bring this nectar back to the hive and pack it into hexagonal shells, then dry out the nectar with their wings. And they do this over, and over, and over again. Each tiny hexagonal cell creates a hint of honey. But they’ve made a habit of inputting nectar and doing the work to get small doses of honey. They know that the more they work, the more honey they’ll have.

Now, let’s look back at school with this “busy bee” mentality in mind. Take it in small doses and make a habit of it. Take Geometry class. It’s difficult. You don’t understand what’s going on. Start with one concept – say, the midpoint formula – and just for today, work on problems with the midpoint formula until you can understand it. Ask questions, about the midpoint formula. Look up Khan Academy videos, about the midpoint formula. Focus on one thing until you feel you’ve turned the nectar your teacher has given you into honey for yourself. Then, when you see it on your unit test, there’s no anxiety – just sweet, sweet honey.

“But that’s not quite a habit if its only for one day, only for one class.”

No. You’re right. It’s not. So, you must repeat. Repeat the process for all your classes: for Global, for Language, for English, for Science, for Business, for Art, for Technology, for any class you’re involved in. Take the class slowly and at a manageable pace. Make sure you understand simple concepts early on, so you aren’t rushing to make your honey nearing the end of the quarter. Take your classes in small chunks, and make sure to work on every class, every day. You can’t make a habit if you skip a day, skip a class. These “small chunks” don’t have to be big and time-consuming every day! But to make habits, you must put in work every day. In Spanish, you could make it a goal to learn the imperfect regular conjugation endings. Get the basics down one day; the next day, you can review when and how to use those imperfect conjugations, when you have more free time to dedicate to Language.

However, be forewarned: overworking is not the same as hardworking. There is a difference between the two, and for many high school students, the line between them becomes incredibly blurry. Building the habit of hard work can be incredibly beneficial to your success in school; the habit of overworking yourself creates unnecessary stress, fatigue, and burnout.

But what is overworking? In its simplest form, it’s taking on more than you can handle. This can be seen easiest with midterms and finals: when you cram units of studying into hours, learning new concepts the day before an exam, you may be overworking yourself. It takes time to learn new information, and not all knowledge can be absorbed through osmosis. Hard work is different – learning concepts in class, reviewing them shortly after class, and practicing in small increments before a major exam will result in lower stress levels and more confidence. If we think of stress like a curve, overworking creates a spike in the curve in the long run, even though it may diminish your current stress. Hard work flattens the curve.

Hard work is... well, hard work! But over time, building a habit of regularly putting effort into each class can make this school year less demanding in the long run. Remember the “busy bees” – work hard every day to make honey. Every ounce counts, and consistency is key. By building good habits, you can stay one step ahead and avoid feeling overwhelmed.