Habit Stacking

Habit Stacking is a strategy which is an expansion of the idea covered in Implementation IntentionsImplementation Intentions
Implementation Intention is a strategy that can be used in forming [[Habit]]s, and talks about having a concrete plan on how you will implement a certain habit into your life.

Our habits always st...
, that relies on the fact that habits can be cues to other habits.

Once we perform a habit, we can perform another one just after it, and use the momentum we gained from performing the first habit to make all the others much easier to do.

Habit stacking formula might go something like this:

When i finish $HABIT_ONE, I will $HABIT_TWO

We can stack a couple of these together to achieve the best results with the lowest amount of effort. An example would be:

- As soon as I go to toilet after waking up, I will take my supplements in the bathroom # implementation intention
- When I'm done taking supplements, I will do 10 minutes of exercise # stacked habit
- When I'm done with exercising, i will read a nonfiction book for 10 minutes # stacked habit

A neat trick that makes habit stacking even more effective is making sure to always start the habit stack with the simplest, easiest habit you can think of. Making the first step is always the hardest, and by making the first step easy, we make the whole process much easier.

Another good trick when designing your stack of habits is to start the stack with some habit you already regularly do. This is probably one of the easiest ways to form a new habit.


Status: #💡

References:

Part of Make it obvious - First law of behavior changeMake it obvious - First law of behavior change
The first of the [[The Four Laws of Behavior Change]] is to make cues to your desired habits more obvious.

Every [[Habit]] starts with a cue (see [[Habit Feedback Loop]]), so in order to ensure we...