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Effective Habits That Every Teen Should Develop
Everyone has habits of their own and each of them has their perception of these habits. Some habits come to us naturally and some are developed through consistent practice. It’s common knowledge that these habits aren’t all good, there are bad habits in the mix as well. Some find it difficult to build good habits and some find it hard to break bad ones. While some even successfully replace bad ones with good ones. These habits make up 40% of our behaviour, so it’s important to develop and incorporate them into your life at an earlier stage. This will help you grow into a better individual with good command over your life and behaviour.
What Makes a Habit?
Before we get into the best habits every teen should start developing, let’s talk about what a habit is and what makes a habit? The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a habit as “a settled or regular tendency or practise, especially ones that are hard to give up” and also as “an automatic reaction to a specific situation”. It includes a wide range of things like social skills, manners, food choices, physical activities and even customs and traditions. The path you walk on currently and the path you will walk towards are all the sum of your habits. Consequently, if you transform your habits you can very well transform your life. As Aristotle once said, ”We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”.
Habits among students is a good indicator in understanding their academic performance. An act becomes an acquired habit when performed almost automatically. There are about 5 highly effective yet simple habits that we would advise every teenager. Start integrating these into your lives and you’ll start noticing positive changes in your behaviour and mental health!
- Reading
It is an obvious fact that reading and academic achievements are interrelated. When we say reading, we don’t just mean textbooks. Reading more about the things that interest you, including fantasy, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, etc will broaden your knowledge horizon on various topics. And who knows, you might even discover your love for poetry between the lines of the poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’.
- Eating Healthy
Start making healthy food choices and cut back on anything toxic that is going in your diet. For a teenager, a healthy diet is the most important aspect of physical and mental development. We’re not saying all your problems will be solved if you start eating healthier but you will, without a doubt, start feeling better about yourself and the choices you’re making.
- Fixing Your Sleeping Schedule
Getting enough rest and sleep during the teen years is very crucial. But most teens these days tend to stay up late studying or even just consuming content on their electronic devices. At least 7-10 hours of sleep is required by every teen to avoid fatigue and chronic sleep deprivation. So put down your phones and yes, your textbooks too and get to bed early!
- Keeping Up With The News
With all that’s going on in the world, it’s important to stay aware and informed. Digital media has grown to such a massive extent that now any information that we’re looking for can be found at our fingertips. Although the information is made easily accessible, the general public lack awareness about current affairs. Start reading newspapers and magazines to understand the world better or at least switch to a news tab now and then when you’re scrolling through Instagram.
- Being Organised
Make a habit of organizing and prioritizing the things in your life. Organizational skills will help you keep track of things. These skills include things like day planners, to-do lists, time management, yearly agendas etc. It will help you perform better in terms of academics and will also come in handy well into the future. If you don’t start developing these skills early on in life, you will find it difficult to manage tasks when you enter the workforce.
So start small. Try slowly incorporating these habits in your life and it will eventually, in the words of James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, “spark a chain reaction of good habits that will build new behaviours that will naturally lead to the next successful action”. We as educators can only go so far when it comes to giving life advice for 18-year olds, the change always begins with you and your efforts!
Surround yourself with peers who will encourage these habits and changes in you and push you to keep continuing them. At Presidency PU Residential college, Mangalore, we take it upon ourselves to see to it that our students develop the best of habits and grow into fine individuals.
Enrol today at one of the best PU colleges in Mangalore! Drop by our campus at Kelarai Post, Bondathila, Kuntadaka, Mangalore, or contact us at +91-8277146010/ 0824-2272405/ 8277146044 today!