It is morning, you open your eyes, get out of bed, and go take your vitamins.  It is the first thing you do every morning.  You don’t even need to think about it, you just do it naturally.  It is one of your habits that you do every day. A new habit that you want to develop is to read a positive and motivational saying each morning to set the tone for your day.  But the household wakes up, life gets busy, and it is mid-afternoon before you think of finding a saying for the day.  This is where habit stacking comes in.  It is habit stacking to the rescue.

What is Habit Stacking?

Habit stacking is when you take a strong habit that you do (or take for granted every day) and connect it to a new habit you want to develop.  In the previous example, one can put a book out by their vitamins, or a stick note that reminds them to read their positive saying.  They can stack the positive affirmations with taking their vitamins.

Habit stacking counts on the fact that it is easy to pair a new behavior with a current one that you automatically do.  You brush your teeth every evening, without fail.  You do want to begin flossing your teeth every day.  So, one can put their dental floss next to the tooth paste and stack flossing with brushing their teeth. You are linking a new behavior to an existing one.

I coach a gal who wants to lift weights.  Weights are currently not one of her habits, so she never thinks about lifting. Currently, she walks 3-4 times a week, so she got her weights out of the basement and put them by her walking shoes. She relies on the fact that when she puts on her walking shoes, she will spend some time lifting weights before she walks. She is connecting the new behavior to a current one, stacking together multiple behaviors. 

What new habits or routines are you wanting to create? If you need help remembering them, remember to look for ways to link your habits.  It is habit stacking to the rescue!