This seems to be true of learning as well. It's strange how easy it is (for me at least) to break the cycle of doing something every day--I tell myself that it's okay to skip today so long as I make it up tomorrow (or on the weekend or whatever). At that point it's easy to keep putting it off just through inertia.
I learned this over and over again in college. Cramming is never as effective as smaller chucks of daily studying.
Learning a new mathematical technique or programming paradigm is similar to exercise. Your brain needs to develop some "muscle" memory for a new way of thinking to stick.
