Atomic Academic Habits as New Academic Year Resolutions

A participant in a faculty empowerment programme recently approached me during the lunch break and told me that it was the second session of mine she was attending. Following on my first session, she had attempted giving tasks and running flipped classes a couple of times and as majority of the learners showed little interest, she has kind of given it all up, she said. Her tribe is in fact quite large since we often lack the patience to work through the no-outcome zone and rush back to embrace the default comfort zones. This is what James Clears calls the inability to 'break through the 'plateau of latent potential' in his book 'Atomic Habits'. He rightly says it's common for people to "make a few small changes, fail to see a tangible result, and decide to stop". This being the start of an academic year, this can as well be the right moment to realistically set modest academic new year resolutions for teachers so that they can align their game with the make of the new generation of learners.

James Clears 'Atomic Habits' is good book which lays open a doable road map to habit-remaking. The hugely popular work, reminds us how habits make the man and prescribes incremental habit re-engineering process, leaving emphasis on the transition process of breaking the old and making the new. The sweetness of the strategy is it's professed slowness. It is not that we are unaware of the hardships encountered while kicking old habits and forming new. The author says it's ok if you start off with half a push up or perhaps the couple of serious stretches which forecast your mindset to take fitness seriously. 

It is obvious that the easy and proven ways to build good habits and break bad ones can be applied to any domain and I was thinking of its advantages in academics. Why not think what are the good habits to build atomically up, kicking the bad ones off, for you the faculty member? I always value the reading habits of academics. Though it is true that information and insights can be gathered from many other sources these days, I still rate reading as a key strength. How about starting to read at least a page a day? In Clear's terms, at least the cover and the subtitle, then the brief description about it, the next day? Again, as he stated in the book, we need to put systems and structures which will aid the gradual approximation of our habit-goals. For instance if the goal is to be a good reader, what kind of a system can you aim to build? He mentions a two minute rule to initiate good habits, calling it 'gateway habit'. None will have problem with reading for two minutes. But this is to initiate the habit and make it take roots slowly, preparing you to reach the goal of being a good reader ultimately. 

What if it is habitual teaching methods that you would like to change? In terms of teaching methods, I would place using interactive, engaging tasks and activities next.  What kind of a self-designed procedure can you set up? Remember the institutional mechanism may not, and perhaps will not, exist to back you up here. The sole responsibility of driving change lies in you. Plan an activity, task or anything which cuts down lecture-monologues in one session a week. 5 or 10 minutes in 5 work days. Start off and fail. But start off. Start off slow. James Clear speaks of a slow climb from writing one sentence to a book, passing through a paragraph, a small essay, a long essay or article and then a book at last. As he states, push yourself into the new habit without laying excessive stress on the final goal. A five minute discussion at the end of the sessions, seeing how many of the students agree with a slightly provocative statement you put on the board, seeking their reasons for that, a one sentence response to an image related to the topic you are teaching: it could be one of the many possibilities. But do launch the transition to engaging, interactive sessions atomically. 

The faculty members can use the rules which James Clear lists in his book to make the new switch to the academic habits they would like to develop, making the new habits obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. One can use the strategies he lists like habit stacking, temptation bundling, designing the environment, habit tracking, two minute rule etc with single focus. As the author puts it: "Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat". Hence, your teaching is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your professional relevance as a teacher is a lagging measure of your updating habits. The relevance of your academic skills is a lagging measure of your reskilling habits. 

We are all differently wired genetically and our personalities differ accordingly, they say. The faculty members can be alert to this reality as they start switching to new constructive habits. In the world of habits too, what works for one teacher, may not and will not work for another one. You need to build academic habits that works for your personality. Not every faculty members may be good at offering experiential learning. Not all could lead a project based assignment effectively. But there are a number other techniques a faculty member can chose from to be the academic habits that agrees with their mental make up and capabilities and that's where she/she should bet on. Remember, "The holy grail of habit change is not a single 1 percent improvement, but a thousand of them. It’s a bunch of atomic habits stacking up, each one a fundamental unit of the overall system", rightly argues James Clear. 

Babu. P. K., Ph D