We all have habits, some of which we would like to get rid of since they may not serve us well, and others which are beneficial to us. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could replace our ‘bad habits’ with ‘great habits’ that will improve our lives both personally and professionally?
The answer is habit stacking, which is a type of implementation intention. How does this work? Rather than pairing a new habit with a certain time and location, you link it with an existing habit. BJ Fogg developed this strategy as part of his Tiny Habits Behaviour plan; for example, instead of an hour of meditation, you would practice ten deep breaths each morning.
You focus on small habits that you can accomplish and that are doable, so you don’t have to rely on the unreliability of motivation. In essence, forming a long-lasting habit requires starting small. If your objective is larger, such as an hour of meditation every day, you should begin with one small habit you can do every day (the ten deep breaths) to help you accomplish this larger goal.
Conditioning your brain, like a coding system!
The average person has 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day, and according to National Science Foundation research, 80% of those thousands of thoughts our brains process in a single day are negative, and 95% are the same repetitious thoughts we had the day before.
To deal with the overwhelming volume of traffic our brains must process daily, the routines or habits our minds create are ‘how to scripts’ that allow us to work more on autopilot, for example, you put your clothing on in the same sequence every day. We have to think about every step of the process when learning a new skill, but once you’ve learned it and do it on a regular basis, you don’t think about the process, you just do it.
If you want to perform 10 minutes of yoga in the morning but can’t do it right away, do it after your first cup of coffee and then brush your teeth. By incorporating this new habit in between previous habits, like a coding system, you are helping your brain in naturally adapting to the new habit.
The habit stacking formula
A lack of time is frequently used as an excuse for not incorporating new habits/routines into your lifestyle, but if you look at the dead space in your week, such as scrolling through social media feeds in the evening, this is where you could introduce a new positive habit.
Listing your current habits
An excellent place to start is to write down your current habits, such as ‘making my bed,’ ‘having a shower,’ ‘eating lunch,’ and so on. Then, pick a new realistic goal, such as working out for 20 minutes when you finish work; this is a very specific cue that will help you with habit stacking. There is a habit stacking formula that is described below, using working out after work as an example:
- The Habit Stacking formula is: AFTER … (existing habit), I WILL … (new habit).
For example:
- After I turn off my work laptop for the day, I will immediately change into my workout clothes.
You can establish a goal by incorporating the stacked habit into your routine for seven days and keeping track of how you feel about the new habit and whether or not you stick with it. If not, is there a better time to work out, such as at lunchtime?
Habit stacking works so successfully because your current habits are already embedded in your brain, and you have patterns and behaviours that have been reinforced over time. By connecting your new behaviours to an existing cycle in your brain, you increase the likelihood that you will stick to the new habit.
So, try habit stacking to replace some of your ‘bad habits’ with ‘great habits’ and improve your overall wellbeing.
