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Habit stacking is as straightforward as the name suggests. You stack habits on top of each other. Or to put it more accurately, you follow up one habit with another habit.
Habit stacking can help you build new habits, and weave together your habits. So, you’ll find yourself in a continuous flow of good habits.
Before we get to the how-to habit stack part, I want to take a look at why good habits are important.
Why Good Habits are Important
Let’s face it. Habits are crucial. Habits are the vehicle that will get you wherever you want to be.
You want a healthy body? Habits! You want to build a business? Habits! You want to learn more? Habits!
We are all building habits all the time. The only problem is that some of them are ‘bad’ habits.
For instance, you might have the habit to switch on the TV as soon as you get home. It’s an automated action, and you don’t even think about why you’re doing it.
The bad habits are also the ones that are formed effortlessly. You don’t have to overcome resistance to turn on the TV. Forming good habits, on the other hand, is often a challenge for many people.
If you want to improve in any area of your life building good habits in this area is unavoidable. To have a muscular physique working out needs to be a habit. To become a good painter painting needs to be a habit.
This means deciding to be disciplined to gain freedom. And this freedom can, for instance, come in the form of freedom from inner and outer pressures. Or it can come in the form of creating the life, or person you want to live or be.
Many people say they don’t like to be constrained in life. Yet, everyone benefits from a structure in their daily life. This doesn’t mean that you structure every day from beginning to end.
You don’t want to get caught in the downside of good habits and become a rigid habit machine.
However, using habits to structure specific parts of your day is without a doubt beneficial. Personally, I like my mornings and evenings to be structured.
Over the years I have created a morning routine and evening routine that improved my life dramatically.
My mornings and evenings are also the time where habit stacking comes into play.
How to Habit Stacking
Let’s say you want to build a new habit. For instance, you want to read more, and you tell yourself: “Every morning at 8 am I will read for half an hour.” This is very noble of you.
The next morning you start reading. And the next morning as well. This goes on for a week, then you start to slack.
Many people fail to build good habits because building them takes time and consistency. There is this myth that building a new habit takes 21 days. But everyone who has formed multiple habits knows that this is rarely the case.
In a study health psychology researcher Phillippa Lally and her research team concluded that on average it takes a person 66 days to form a new habit. However, this can vary depending on the person, the behavior, and the circumstances. So, in the study, they found that takes anywhere from 18 days to 245 days to build a new habit.
Now the question how can you make sure you stick to a new behavior?
What you do first is identify an existing habit that you can use as a trigger for your new habit. To get back to the reading example. Instead of connecting it to a specific time, you connect it to an existing habit.
For example, you might say after I brew my morning coffee, I drink it while reading a book. That way the new behavior is associated with something you have already internalized.
Habit Stacking Examples
Now I want to give you some habit stacking examples of my own life to clarify this concept.
My morning routine habit stack:
1. After I wake up, I read positive affirmations.
2. After I read positive affirmations, I do yoga.
3. After I do yoga, I have a cold shower.
4. After I have a cold shower, I meditate for 30 minutes.
5. After I meditate, I make myself a coffee.
6. After I make myself a coffee, I read a book.
My evening routine habit stack:
1. After I finish dinner, I read a book.
2. After I read a book, I visualize.
3. After I visualize, I say 5-10 things I am grateful for that happened today.
4. After I say 5-10 things I am grateful for that happened today, I meditate for 30 minutes.
5. After I meditate, I go to sleep.
You can also use habit stacking to insert new behaviors in between your existing routine.
For instance, in the evening between saying 5-10 things I am grateful for and meditation I could insert writing a to-do list for the next day.
In general habit stacking gives you a set of rules to guide your future behavior. So, you always know what comes next.
As a next step you can also create some general habit stacks for specific situations:
• Before I eat a meal, I will drink a glass of water.
• When I see a set of stairs, I will take them instead of using the elevator.
• When I walk into a party, I will introduce myself to anyone I don’t know yet.
• When I leave the house, I will check if I have my keys, wallet, and phone.
Final Word
When it comes to stacking habits finding the right trigger is key. You are not choosing a specific time for your new behavior. Hence, the trigger should be at a time that is appropriate for the new habit.
Using “entering the subway” as a trigger for “shaving my armpits” might not be the best choice.
Also, if you want to implement a daily habit, your trigger should also occur every day. Be highly specific with your triggers by stating exactly when you’re doing the new behavior.
Apart from that, habit stacking can be fun. It’s like playing a videogame with recurring side-missions. But I guess that’s just life in general.
Anyway, happy habit stacking!
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“Drop by drop is the water pot filled.” – Buddha
Luka
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[…] incorporate a gratitude practice, it’s important to think about something called habit-stacking. Above all, your gratitude practice should never be a burden or feel like a tedious task. Instead, […]