Add Behavioral Science to your Back-to-School List
As the back-to-school season approaches, students and parents alike are gearing up for that new academic year. From freshmen off to embark on a new chapter of life to seasoned seniors motivated to conquer their final year, one thing remains constant: the importance of setting good goals, staying organized, and being productive.
Integrating behavioral science into the back-to-school journey can increase motivation and productivity throughout the year. When shopping for supplies this school year, consider adding a tool backed by behavioral science to set yourself or your student up for success.
Innovative tools designed specifically for helping people manage their time and accomplish their goals, such as productivity planners or goal journals, can help to combat the many challenges students face throughout the year and keep them on track to succeed.
Overcoming Challenges of College Life
Many students are energized by the excitement of new opportunities and newfound independence this time of year. However, along with the excitement, comes concerns of the many challenges students face throughout each semester. Too often students become stressed and overwhelmed during the school year trying to manage challenges such as social commitments, time management, and academic pressure. These challenges can negatively impact goal setting and achievement if students are unable to cope with the stress and begin to feel defeated. This can lead to lower self-esteem and confidence, burnout, and frustration.
Having the right tools in your back pocket (or book bag) can help students overcome challenges before they escalate and maintain their motivation to succeed. The benefits of using structured tools for personal growth and achievement are endless. Improved time management and prioritization, enhanced academic performance through goal setting, increased motivation and commitment to achieve personal and academic goals, and formation of positive lifelong habits that promote success beyond their college career are just a few to name.
Behavioral Science in Goal Achievement
Behavioral science-backed tools empower students to take control of their academic journey and enhance their productivity through a structured approach that leverages evidence-based strategies for success. Behavioral science combines insights from various disciplines such as psychology, sociology, economics, and biology to understand human behavior. This includes research on human motivation, decision-making, and productivity.
Research shows that goals are powerful motivators that drive increased persistence and improved performance. When students set goals effectively, they provide direction and a path to achievement. Keystone goals are aspirational goals that, when achieved positively impact other areas of life and drive success. These goals can often be overwhelming and get put off in exchange for the chaos of daily life. However, understanding how to break these goals down into smaller, more manageable stepping stone goals, makes keystone goals more attainable.
Another behavioral science insight that helps drive success is setting intentions for the day. Science has shown that we are greatly influenced by our mindset. When we purposefully set an intention for the day for how we want to show up, we are priming ourselves to behave in ways that are aligned with the mindset we selected for that day.
Practicing daily gratitude is another way to prime positive thinking. Taking the time to identify aspects in life you are thankful for helps you feel more fulfilled by life. This is especially important for college students as they begin a new chapter of life and can easily become overwhelmed and discouraged by the new challenges they are faced with.
By utilizing behavioral science-backed tools, students can unlock these insights and more to apply them to their own life to set more effective goals and increase their productivity.
Benefits of Behavior Shift Products
Our products are designed by behavior change experts. We back our tools with behavioral insights to create products for people to make positive change happen in their life. Harness the power of behavioral science to make the most out of every day, in just a few minutes each day!
Both the Daily/Shift Planner and the Brain/Shift Journals are behavior science-backed products that are designed to set students up for success throughout the school year. Setting realistic and measurable goals at the start of the school year provides students with the direction and vision to stay on track.
The Daily/Shift Planner is a 13-week tear-off desktop planner that leverages scientifically proven methods for improving productivity, time management, and increasing goal achievement. This tool helps you optimize your day by identifying and prioritizing your most important tasks and the actions needed throughout the day to achieve them for maximum efficiency and productivity. Then, with time blocking, schedule out your day to ensure you dedicate the time needed to accomplish your action steps for the day.
The Daily/Shift Planner also includes unique features not found in other planners such as daily gratitude prompts and “brain breaks” - designed to prevent burnout and allow the time needed to reset and refresh. Too often, we become consumed by daily tasks and forget to take the time needed to reset and recenter. “Brain breaks” allow your prefrontal cortex to remove itself from the task at hand and thus, allow other unique information stored in your mental memory to break through. This often leads to those "aha" moments when you may otherwise be lacking inspiration.
The Brain/Shift Journals are perfect for students who want to set better goals and disrupt the status quo. Packed with behavioral science insights such as the habit loop, keystone habits, the status quo bias, and goal theory, students not only learn how to set better goals and identify the actions needed to achieve them, but also develop a better understanding of themselves. Setting daily intentions to prime their mindset along with taking time to reflect on what occurred throughout each day instills values of continuous learning and growth that will stick with them beyond their college years.
Your Best Academic Year Yet:
Improved time management and prioritization skills, enhanced academic performance, increased motivation and perseverance in achieving both personal and academic goals, and developing lifelong positive habits are just a few of the benefits of using a tool backed by behavioral science. Don’t hesitate to set your students (or yourself) up for success – your goals in life matter and achieving them shouldn’t wait. Imagine a year from now – what is it that you will be proud your student accomplished because they started today?
Send them off with the products you wish were available back when you were navigating your college years. Click here to shop our collection of behavioral science backed products and tools!