Habit stacking.
A cool name.
An even cooler concept.
A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the different types of habits -- goal-, system-, and identity-driven habits -- that James Clear discusses in his book Atomic Habits.
In that article, I mentioned that we want to start with identity-driven habits because they inform our goal and system-driven habits.
Today, I wanted to talk about an easy way we can build those habits into our daily lives. And that is habit-stacking (also called habit chaining).
The idea is that we add the new habits we want to build onto the habits we already have in place.
For example, let's say you want to drink more water in the day. You might try drinking 12 ounces of water right after you brush your teeth in the morning.
Adding that one new habit to the morning habit stack you already have in place.
To give you a longer example, my current morning habit stack looks like this:
- 15m for planning my day
- 5m of meditation
- 10m of journaling
- 60m of reading & writing
- 45m walk
- 60m for shower + breakfast + checking email
- 90m of working on my most important business task
The 60 minutes of reading and writing is fairly new. I was finding that I wasn't getting enough non-fiction reading in, which wasn't helping me come up with ideas for creating content.
I needed to do something to fix that.
So, I decided to sandwich in 60 minutes for that before I went out for my walk in the morning. And since I was already journaling, I decided to add it right after the journaling since I was already in a writing frame of mind.
That easy transition makes it a breeze and a joy to just continue writing.
Let's take a look at why these habits are so powerful from an identity-driven perspective.
The 15 minutes of planning my day fits in with my identity of being a successful business woman. Most successful people plan their day.
Five minutes of meditation and 10 minutes of journaling fit in with my identity of being a calm and centered person.
Sixty minutes of reading and writing fit in with my identity of being a content creator who provides value to her community.
A 45-minute walk fits in with my identity as being a fit and healthy person, as well as one that is calm and centered.
And starting my work day with 90 minutes focused on my most important task is also aligned with being a successful business woman.
I share this with you because I am 100% certain that stacking identity-driven habits one after the other are the reason that I have been able to earn a Masters and then a Ph.D. And build a successful coaching business.
I invite you to think about your identity -- who you are now and who you want to become.
What are the habits you already have in place that are aligned with those?
What are the habits you can sandwich in and stack to enhance it even further?
I hope this serves. Have a great week!
With love & joy,
Selena
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