I am not afraid to say that I’m far from a perfect person. I get things wrong, I make mistakes, and I try to learn from them later. I don’t always succeed, in fact sometimes a part of me decides to keep making the same mistakes on a daily basis, despite my efforts to try and change my ways. You will probably have similar little frustrations of your own, habits you’re fully aware of yet you feel unable to do anything about. In writing some of mine down here, I hope I become somehow more able to tackle them, and maybe it’ll help you handle your pesky bad habits in the process.
1) Caffeine before bed
Probably my biggest irritating issue, I’ve made and drank many hot drinks before realising how late it was. I don’t want to estimate how many hours of sleep have likely been lost to this silly bit of carelessness, however I can say with certainty it’s far more than you’d need to call it a real problem. The main offender here is coffee, though tea is not innocent. Part of the problem here, I think, is that I’m too fond of these drinks as drinks, I like the taste of them too much. It’s certainly not an addiction – that would be a serious problem – but it’s definitely an over-indulgence I could work on reducing.
Shout-out to sugar, as well. You don’t help, pal.
2) Not wearing glasses
I imagine some of you reading do this as well. It’s not a phone-in-bed sort of situation, I’ve managed to stop that from happening (after a while). The problem here is I’ll take my glasses off for a moment to stop my face feeling gross, and then I’ll keep looking at my computer or phone anyway. Flickering screens, bright light, squinting, these are all things that just aggravate my eyes like crazy (and that I’m advised specifically not to do because of this). Then I spend a long time afterwards all uncomfortable and irritable.
Now, I don’t need to wear my glasses too frequently, but just often enough to pick up annoying habits like this apparently. I’m wearing them as I write this though, I remembered this time.
3) Starting too many books without finishing
Find a more generic English student problem than this one. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if becoming an English student (or an Arts student more generally) is what triggers this, what with set readings appearing alongside your personal reading lists and such. Being introduced to texts and authors I hadn’t even heard of before attending KCL has without a doubt been a positive in my life, yet it hasn’t been a positive for my bookshelf – looking along it right now, there are at least four books on there that I’ve partially read but never finished. I’m pretty sure there are others elsewhere in my possessions, but you get the idea.
Exams and coursework are coming to an end now, though. Perhaps it’s time to revisit the bookshelf, recover some of those bookmarks that haven’t seen another book in months.
So you see, none of these problems are any more than minor nuisances, however they’re repetitive and significant enough to need dealing with. Whether or not I’ll manage to shake these habits, that’s the real question. If nothing else, I hope I’ve sparked a little reflection into your own bad habits – maybe you’ll have more success than even I will in handling them, who knows?