How to Get Back Into a Study Routine After the Holidays

Getting back into a study routine after the holidays feels hard because it genuinely is — your sleep has shifted, your brain has relaxed, and the habit of sitting down to study has weakened. The solution is not willpower; it is rebuilding small habits one at a time, starting before you need to be in full revision mode.

Why holidays disrupt study habits

Holidays are meant to be restful, and rest is genuinely important for learning. But breaks longer than a week or two tend to have a few consistent effects:

Sleep patterns shift. Without a fixed school start time, most teenagers naturally drift towards staying up later and sleeping in. Returning to a 7am wake-up after two weeks of 11am starts is a significant adjustment.

The habit of studying weakens. Habits are maintained by repetition. After two to three weeks without a regular study session, the automatic quality of sitting down to work disappears. It has to be rebuilt.

Anxiety about falling behind builds. Paradoxically, students who worry about school during holidays often do less than those who relax fully — the anxiety circles around without producing action.

Understanding these patterns helps because it means the difficulty you feel returning after a break is not personal failure. It is a normal reset that just needs a deliberate strategy.

Step 1 — Reset your sleep pattern first (two to three days before term)

Study skills start with sleep. The NHS advises that teenagers need 8–10 hours per night for optimal cognitive function. If your sleep pattern has drifted during the holidays, start adjusting it two to three days before term begins.

Move your bedtime and wake time earlier by 30–45 minutes per night rather than trying to jump straight back. Going to bed at 10pm feels impossible if you have been sleeping until noon; going to bed at 11:30pm feels achievable, and the following night you can move it to 11pm, and so on.

Step 2 — Do one small study task the day before term starts

This sounds almost too small to matter, but it works. Sit down for 20–30 minutes the day before school returns and do one simple, low-stakes study task: read through your notes from the last topic before the holidays, or complete a short BBC Bitesize quiz on something you covered last term.

The purpose is not the content — it is re-establishing the habit of sitting down to study. Getting started is almost always the hardest part of rebuilding a routine. A small, gentle start lowers the barrier significantly.

Step 3 — Build your after-school routine before adding revision

In the first week back, focus on re-establishing the basic structure of your day before adding study time to it. A sustainable after-school routine might look like:

Time | Activity
3:30–4:00pm | Get home, have a snack, decompress
4:00–4:30pm | Light admin (pack bag for tomorrow, check homework)
4:30–5:30pm | Focused study (one subject, no phone)
5:30–5:45pm | Short break
5:45–6:30pm | Second study session if needed, or finish early
Evening | Family time, hobbies, downtime

In the first week back, even one focused session per day is a success. The Education Endowment Foundation's evidence on habit formation and self-regulated learning consistently shows that consistency matters far more than length in the early stages of rebuilding a routine.

Step 4 — Clear the space and reduce friction

Your study environment matters. A desk covered in holiday clutter, a phone within arm's reach, or a noisy common space makes starting harder. Before your first study session back, spend ten minutes clearing your space and putting your phone in another room or in a drawer. Reducing friction — making it physically easier to start — is one of the most effective behavioural tools for rebuilding habits.

Step 5 — Set one goal per day, not a weekly target

A common mistake is writing out an ambitious weekly revision plan on the first Sunday back and then feeling like a failure when Wednesday's session does not go as planned. Instead, set one specific goal for each day the evening before:

"Tomorrow I will spend 30 minutes on my history notes from last term."

"Tomorrow I will complete five algebra practice questions."

This keeps goals achievable and immediately actionable rather than abstract. At the end of each day, note whether you did what you planned. If not, ask why — was the goal too big? The time wrong? Something came up? Adjust tomorrow's goal accordingly.

What to do if the first week back goes badly

Almost every student has at least one difficult week back after holidays. It does not mean your routine is broken. Take stock of what got in the way, make one small adjustment, and try again. Progress is rarely linear and a rough first week is rarely predictive of the rest of the term.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to get back into a study routine?

Most students settle back into a consistent routine within one to two weeks of returning to school, provided they do not try to do too much too soon. The first week back is usually the hardest. If you find a basic routine is still not established after three or four weeks, it may be worth speaking to a tutor or school counsellor — there may be something specific getting in the way.

Should I have revised during the holidays?

It depends on where you are in the academic year. In the weeks before exams (particularly GCSEs), short revision sessions during holiday periods — a couple of hours every few days, not all day every day — can be very useful and prevent too much knowledge fading. Further from exams, genuine rest during holidays is beneficial and should not be replaced entirely with revision. BBC Bitesize provides short, low-intensity topic reviews that work well during holidays if you want to keep things ticking over without pressure.

My parents want me to revise all holiday but I need a break — what do I say?

This is a real tension for many students. A good compromise is to agree on a specific, limited revision plan with your parents — for example, one hour every other day during the last week of the holidays — rather than an open-ended expectation that you should always be working. The NHS is clear that rest is not laziness; it is necessary for both mental health and learning effectiveness.

What is the best way to remember what I learned last term?

The most effective technique is retrieval practice: testing yourself from memory rather than re-reading. Before adding any new material, spend the first study session back trying to recall — from memory — the main topics you covered last term. Write down everything you remember, then compare it to your notes. What is missing is your revision priority for the next few weeks.

For personalised tutoring that adapts to where you are in the year and helps you rebuild momentum after any break, visit aitutors.me.