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BACK TO SCHOOL SERIES: Issue 1
The start of a new school year is always charged with fresh hopes and expectations, a chance to build new habits and get set for school success. Parents often take the new school year as an opportunity to get their child organised and following a simple study routine to reduce stress and make last-minute homework dashes a thing of the past.
Yet every year, around the third or fourth week of September, many parents start to get the same worry – the new routine isn’t sticking. Homework gets done at the kitchen table one night and completely forgotten the next. Parents start to wonder if there’s something wrong with the plan, or even that their child just isn’t able to study regularly.
Luckily, research into the science of habit-forming shows this isn’t the case, it just takes a bit longer than you might think to really bed in a new habit.
66 is the Magic Number
In 2009, a research team led by Phillippa Lally at University College London(1) ran a study that's become one of the most cited pieces of habit science around. They followed 96 people as each tried to build a new daily habit – things like drinking a glass of water with lunch or going for a run before dinner. Every day, for twelve weeks, participants reported how automatic the behaviour felt.
On average, it took 66 daysfor a new habit to start feeling automatic. That’s more than two months of a behaviour or practice gradually becoming easier before it stops feeling like an effort. This is probably a lot longer than you thought!
What This Means for September Study Routines
Broadly speaking, if you start a new homework routine on the 1st of September, counting forward 66 days takes you into early November. It will take until early November for things to start feeling a little more automatic and under control – like you and your child are succeeding.
Yet many parents start to worry if their child’s study routine isn’t taking shape by the end of September. At 4 weeks in, you’re only roughly one-third of the way through the habit-forming process, so the fact that the study routine is still a little shaky at this point isn’t a sign of failure. The research tells us it will still feel like a lot of effort, so it’s important to continue to help your child strengthen their habits throughout October and into November.
Missed Days Don’t Undo the Work
The second part of Lally’s research is even more useful for building good homework habits. The study also tracked what happened when participants missed a day here or there. What’s interesting is that they found missing a single day has no measurable effect on the habit-forming process. The overall build toward habit-forming kept going, what mattered was returning to the habit or behaviour over and over again. This is great news for parents – you don’t need to panic if your child has one or two bad nights, you just need to return to the process and keep going!
Your September Study Action Plan
Taking into account recent research, there are several ways you can apply your knowledge of habit-forming and learning to help your child build new home study skills:
Pick one small, consistent study slot
To help get things off to a good start, tie your new study slot to something that already happens every day like ‘after dinner’ or ‘before bath/shower time’. Make sure you can see this time of day realistically working for your child, there’s no point in choosing a time when they are usually overwhelmed or tired, for example. Start off with a short slot to get the routine bedded in – 20-30 minutes a day is usually enough for secondary school pupils, and 10-20 minutes works for primary age children.
Create a simple study space
A fixed study spot helps the brain to engage and cuts down on arguments. Pick a suitable place together with your child and let them personalise it a bit, so it feels ‘theirs’ without being overstimulating, busy or noisy.
Set the timeline going in
Remind yourself (and your child!) that it will take until roughly early November for the routine to feel easier and more automatic. That way you’re setting reasonable expectations from the outset and you’re less likely to feel like you’re failing.
Don’t let one missed study slot ruin your plan
Lally’s research suggests that one skipped day barely registers, it’s returning to the habit again and again that really builds success.
Handwriting for the win
More and more research is showing that writing by hand activates broader and more integrated brain networks than typing and is associated with stronger memory formation(2,3). While submitting typed essays or online work is now typical in most secondary schools, that doesn’t mean that study time at home has to be done online. Writing revision or essay notes and plans by hand are great ways to take advantage of what the latest research is saying, and get the most out of your study time!
Make it positive
Use tiny, immediate rewards to help the routine bed in. Praise, a sticker, 5-10 minutes extra of something they enjoy afterwards, all work to help motivate and reward. Try to keep screens out of reach unless they’re needed for homework. If screens are absolutely needed, close any extra tabs or apps to reduce distractions.
Do a weekly check-in
Make sure to have a quick weekly check-in with your child. It’s particularly important to identify any part of the routine that isn’t working and adjust accordingly. This might mean changing the study time, length, frequency or place for example. However you choose to tweak and change, make sure it's sustainable for your child – remember the number one most important factor is stable (not perfect!) consistency.
Good study habits take a lot more time and a lot more repetition than most people think. The keys are to remain persistent while forgiving small lapses, don’t take on too much at once, and don’t expect to see things getting easier until around early November. Good luck!
Visit RHINO Stationery for all the paper stationery you’ll need to support your study plans.
1. Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009.
2. Van der Weel, F. R., & Van der Meer, A. L. H. (2024). Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: A high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom.
3. Ibaibarriaga, G., Acha, J., & Perea, M. (2025). The impact of handwriting and typing practice in children's letter and word learning: Implications for literacy development.