Now here’s a great deep dive in bad habits, their stats and more about UHS and its students. This might help you, so make sure to read carefully!
-editors note

Unresolved Bad Habits = Incurable Addiction

End it before it’s too late

By: Ammarah Qazi

It’ll pass. Eventually. Time (somehow) manages to cast away one’s flaws and completely reform and mend one's ways. Right? … Wrong. Bad habits won't miraculously vanish. They consume oneself entirely, to the point of irreversibility. Irreversibility, more evidently known as the incurable addiction; throwing oneself into the abyss of clouded judgement, leading to the inability to differentiate wrong from right. Even in the potential instance of realising it, it is too late. Regrets stand of no value in the brutal (candid) world of reality.

It is essential that they be brought to an end.

In order to gain an insight into the bad habits of our fellow UHS students, a survey was conducted with respondents ranging from year 7 to year 12, totalling to a remarkable 97 responses.

The most common bad habits were procrastination, followed by overthinking, late sleep and technology overuse and the rest depicted in the results. Other responses included:

Getting too attached to people

Picking fingers

Holding grudges

Not being locked in/ committing

Lack of food & water

Sitting in the dark

Being passive at the worst times

Doing quizzes late at night

Putting milk before the cereal

All this classically added to the growing pile

But how do we conquer our BAD habits?

The answer is simple:

Acknowledgement - In order to overcome one’s bad habits, the first step is to accept the existence of it.

Dedication - Following acceptance, it is essential to maintain commitment and devotion with the intention of losing what most likely leads to an incurable addiction.

Perseverance - Finally, the key to getting rid of bad habits lies in persisting to accomplish what one needs to, despite any difficulties in the process of doing so.

Common strategies stated as part of the survey are as follows:

Disorganisation; Being late to class/ Sleeping late (and not getting enough sleep)/ Procrastination (delaying and leaving things to the last minute)

Overthinking/ Overly Emotional

Technology Overuse

Pack your bag before sleeping
Creating a set bedtime
Set a bedtime alarm
Make a timetable on a notepad/ app
Creating a schedule/ to do list to complete work on time
Planning beforehand/ ahead
Time management
Learning methods
Breaking down work into simple steps
Giving yourself an incentive
Taking breaks, however not too long
Focus on your goals

Practising mindfulness
Take deep breaths
Stop ruminating the past and sad things
Opening up about your thoughts and feelings and not bottling them up
Journaling
Having self confidence and not overcomplicating things
Caring for yourself and building self-esteem
Doing recreational activities to stay calm and take your mind off stress (drawing, listening to music, etc.)
See if there is actually something you can do about problems
Countdown and begin what needs to be done
Being honest with the people around you
Avoiding interactions with what makes you emotional
Following intuition

Give your device/s to your parent/ guardian
Keeping devices in a separate room, or away from yourself to avoid temptation
Adding screen limits and spending less time on games
Adding new good habits and pursuing hobbies and passions to avoid excess screen time
Turn on do not disturb mode when doing work
Remove distractions

Abiding by these (oversimplified) tactics can remarkably reform oneself. And, as expected, there are always those harshly chanting 'what's in it for me.' Well, if the loss of this INCURABLE ADDICTION isn't enough to drive you content, the solution is self reward. Whether or not one chooses to believe it, there lies an imperishable motivation after hearing the word reward. Motivation great enough, to conquer one’s obstacles and achieve definite success.

Thanks for reading.

Unresolved bad habits