Good, thoughtful information here. It is obvious your list of foolhardy tricks is borne out of years of practical experience with students. All of these are habits, and as you point out, habits are hard to change, especially when the list is long and involved. Trying to change all the bad behavior at once can be done only by someone who is organized and has infinite will power and drive, but this type of person doesn’t have bad study habits to deal with in the first place.

My recommendation to students is to pick just one aspect of their study routine and focus on that. If their routine is to wander from assignment to assignment, task to task in an aimless manner without getting anything done, then focus on staying on one task for 20 minutes each night. Over time, habits are changed and it gets easier and easier to stay on task. Extend the time, or choose to focus on two assignments for 20 minutes each. Once this behavior is mastered, then choose another facet of poor learning behavior like coming prepared to class. Pick just one class to focus on, and pick a time to prepare for that class, even if its 10 minutes. Once that habit begins to take, extend the time or choose another class.

Don’t be discouraged by failure. We all fall off the wagon a time or two when trying to change a bad behavior. Pick yourself up and keep working. It’s all about starting where we are and making small but deliberate efforts to change our behavior.

Thanks for the post – Tim