What Seven Days of Habit Stacking Taught Me
How habit stacking has transformed my on-the-go morning routine.
Have you seen one of the over ten-thousand TikTok videos under #habitstacking? Chances are, if you’ve been looking to change up your routine, then it’s probably come across your For You Page.
What Is Habit Stacking?
Habit stacking, according to an article by Better Up, is “taking advantage of connected behaviors by choosing an existing current habit and ‘stacking’ a new behavior on top of it.”
In 2014, author S. J. Scott coined the term in his book, Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes Or Less. Since publishing, the concepts Scott discussed in his book have been popularized on social media.
Implementing Habit Stacking In Routines
At first, habit stacking can seem daunting with the looming threat of daily added habits. However, habit stacking can actually be used as a tool to help you slowly build your habits rather than dive into them suddenly.
For me, building my routine using habit stacking starts with identifying my end goals for my routine: on day thirty, what does my finalized routine look like? From there, I start to decide what pieces of the routine I want to implement and when.
To ensure I don’t become overwhelmed and abandon my routine, I do the following while beginning my habit stacking journey:
- Be realistic with my goals. For example, while I may want to read every day, I know it’s unrealistic for me to read a certain amount every day. All of my goals are designed to get me to at least do a little bit of my habit each day without forcing certain time constraints on myself.
- Give myself grace. My first day of not doing my habit stacking morning routine happened to be the eighth day of doing my routine. Six months ago, I would have been so discouraged by this that I would have given up on my routine altogether. This time, on day nine, I just get back up and continue my journey. At the end of the day, I know I’m only human, and there will be days I don’t do my routine. And that’s okay!
- Slowly add in habits. Adding in too many different habits at once is not only overwhelming, but also, it’s hard to even remember. It’s easy to start to want to add in every possible positive habit into your routine when habit stacking, but it is important to remember that it’s about building a routine that you could easily do forever, not just right now.
How Habit Stacking Revolutionized My Mornings
Prior to starting my habit stacking morning routine, I basically rotted around all day until it was time to actually do something. I felt like there were all of these habits I wanted to pick up, but I had no idea where to start. Turns out, habit stacking is exactly what the doctor ordered.
I went from being someone who couldn’t be bothered to do simple getting ready-type tasks to someone who immediately got started on my morning routine after I got up. For me, that’s a miracle.
Habit stacking adds an exciting element of getting to add on a new task every so often that adds excitement into the routine. Moreover, I feel more motivated to continue on my streak of adding habits than I ever have been to just try to stick with a morning routine all month long.
Becoming an easy, game-like way for me to complete tasks in my routine, habit stacking has allowed me to effectively build a new morning regimen. Trying it out for a week has allowed me to see changes in my life that have convinced me to continue habit stacking in my routines for my long-term future.
