It’s the start of a new year, and you’ve decided on a wellness routine consisting of mindful meditation, yoga, and journaling. After a few days, you struggle to keep up and can't help but stare at those who have a regular and more consistent routine with envy. You are not alone.
Starting a new habit is notoriously complicated, and what’s more challenging is sustaining it. Instead of relying on the power of your discipline or how motivated you feel, experts have introduced habit stacking as the best way to form long-lasting routines.
Habit stacking is a method that leverages your brain's strong connections with your current routines to form new ones.
Whether you are trying to form simple habits like drinking more water or more demanding ones like running every morning, habit stacking is a game changer. Habit stacking is not about breaking old bad habits — that’s something different. It’s about more effectively establishing new, healthy habits.
This article will lead you through the habit stacking technique, teach you how to use tiny habits as stepping stones for change, and provide tips for gaining the best results.
What Is Habit Stacking?
Habit stacking (also known as habit hijacking) is a technique introduced by author S.J. Scott in his book, Habit Stacking: Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less. As its name suggests, this technique involves identifying a regular habit and stacking a new one on top.
Let's say you brew a cup of coffee every morning (your regular habit), and you also want to add meditation to your daily routine. All you have to do is schedule this new activity before or after the existing habit. By doing this, you take advantage of the solid synaptic connection your brain already has with your current routine and use it as an anchor for your new one.
The best approach to habit stacking is treating these tiny habits as building blocks toward a larger goal.
Your present routine must be strong enough to withstand a new block of behaviors, or they will both come crashing down. This practice is called habit hijacking because you are seizing control of something you already do to accomplish another goal. You are choosing an established habit or behavior to get you where you want to go with your new goals.
How Does Habit Stacking Work?
Each of your existing habits (whether good or bad) results from a strong link between some groups of neurons. This connection is known as the synapse and is reinforced each time you practice a ritual. Nevertheless, the brain always carries out a special sanitation process called "synaptic pruning." This process cuts off the weak synaptic connections or links that have not been used for a long time.
Ever wonder why you struggle with certain activities after a long hiatus? It is because the neurons for that habit are no longer connected, and you have to form a new link. This forgetfulness or inconsistency happens even more frequently when the connection is not strongly ingrained in the first place.
The reverse is also true — habits, behaviors, or information deeply ingrained will stand the test of time. This phenomenon is why you can remember the words of a song you haven't heard in decades — because you sang it so many times in the past and probably had an emotional connection. It's also why music is often used in education—the new information is connected to the habit of singing.
With habit stacking, you leverage the power of an already strong link instead of creating new synaptic connections each time you want to start a new habit. Habit hijacking is simply building a new routine stacked on to an existing one to give you a better chance of execution.
Behavior scientist B.J Fogg, PhD., and author James Clear further explained the concept of habit stacking in their respective books: Tiny Habits and Atomic Habits. They refer to your current habit as an anchor point for the new habit. So instead of abruptly starting a new habit, they suggest that you link it to a routine using the following formula:
After/before I do [current or anchor habit], I will do [new habit].
With this formula, your anchor habit acts as a reminder or trigger for the new routine.
It is important to note that when it comes to success, stacking a new habit before an established one is a bit more complex. This is because doing so requires you to think of the new habit first, rather than the established habit being the trigger to remind yourself. For example, if your goal is to learn grounding techniques, “after brewing a cup of coffee each morning, I will breathe deeply for one minute,” is likely to be more effective than “before I brew my morning coffee.”
If the situation absolutely calls for building a new tiny habit before an existing one, make sure you set yourself up for success. This may involve setting up another routine. James Clear offers this example. If your goal is to read before going to bed, you may also want to create the habit of “after I make my bed, I will put a book on my pillow.” This way seeing the book will trigger the reminder to read before going to sleep.
Here are some more examples of how you can implement the habit stacking technique:
- After I take off my work clothes, I immediately change into gym clothes.
- After the alarm goes off, I will meditate for one minute.
- After I sit at the dinner table, I will say one thing I love about the day.
- After brushing my teeth each morning, I will do 5 minutes of stretches.
Once you no longer have to think about doing the new behavior, it means a solid neural connection has been formed. Then, you can stack another new habit on top again.
In addition to the after and before formula, there is also a “while” formula which is a great way to use your time efficiently. This is similar to multi-tasking, but not exactly. Habit hijacking “while” doing something else is about using established habits and routines to build new, healthier habits. It’s not about jamming as much as possible into your day. Common examples are listening to audiobooks or self-improvement podcasts while driving or doing a few simple exercises while waiting for food in the microwave.
Habit stacking or hijacking doesn’t always have to utilize these exact formulas. For someone who is trying to use positive affirmations in their daily lives, creating passwords that ARE affirmations is a way to hijack the habit of logging in to accounts. This way, every time they have to sign in, they are saying an affirmation.
The key to habit stacking is to hijack or connect a new positive behavior to an existing healthy habit.
How To Get The Best Results From Habit Stacking
Habit Stacking or habit hijacking is quite an effective method of forming healthy and productive routines. However, you have to do it right to get the best results. Below are some tips on improving your life with new tiny habits through habit stacking.
Be Specific
Habit stacking requires highlighting specific actions and their order, thereby eliminating ambiguity.
So instead of saying, "I will walk around the office during lunch," you'd want to set a specific goal like "I will walk around the office immediately after eating my lunch." In the first example, the goal is unclear and raises questions like, will the new habit be after or before eating? How long after? Procrastination sets in with no specific anchor point and eventually leads to inconsistency.
Focus On Tiny Steps to Build Lasting Habits
Habit stacking is easily adaptable when focusing on tiny steps rather than major changes.
For example, instead of having a 30-minute workout session after breakfast, you can choose something simpler, like doing ten push-ups. The goal is to build a strong connection between your brain and this activity. Once the first habit is well-established, you can stack up another action, like 30 seconds of jumping jacks. When appropriately utilized, habit stacking can help you do more exercise and improve fitness levels.
Build Only On Already Ingrained Habit
The only way to ensure the longevity of a new habit is by building it on a solid foundation (a regular and ingrained habit).
When choosing your anchor habit, ensure it is specific, time-bound, and regular. Some examples are eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, using the stairs, going to bed, sunrise, sunset, etc. In that light, if your goal is to increase your water intake, a perfect habit-stacking tiny habit would be: "After brushing my teeth every morning, I will drink a glass of water."
Not only is this small goal achievable, but it is also time-bound and regular because you have to brush your teeth every day. Don’t drink tap water? Make sure you have the habit of putting bottled water in your bathroom, so nothing distracts you from this goal!
Avoid fixing your habit on a volatile or inconsistent anchor for the best results. For example, "I will read a chapter of a book once my child goes to bed." The anchor point may become problematic when your child fails to sleep at the intended time, which brings us to our next tip.
Have a Contingency Plan
Making plans for rainy days is essential in your journey to building healthy and consistent habits.
Remember to create an alternative behavior to fall back on when stacking up patterns if all else fails. For example, let's say your goal is to read one chapter of a book before sleeping, and something comes up that delays bedtime or you can't focus on the task. In that case, your contingency plan could be to listen to calming music or podcast.
Have a Deadline
While setting a deadline is not a yardstick for creating a successful habit, it certainly keeps you motivated.
According to Clinical Psychologist Melinda Ming Foynes, Ph.D., a practice bounded by a deadline makes the process achievable and less overwhelming. Once you successfully hit your goal, do not hesitate to celebrate yourself for a job well done.
Overall, ensure that you aim for consistency as you practice habit stacking. Small, consistent rituals are bound to have a more significant impact than tedious, inconsistent ones.
Did you know that some personality types are more disciplined and easily stick to routines? Take a personality assessment to see how you score!
