Habit Stacking

When you hear the word “habit”, what comes to mind? For many, we think about undesirable habits such as nail biting, procrastinating, smoking, spending, mindless eating or checking our phones too often. But what about great constructive habits like having a glass of water near by, moving regularly, preparing meals at home or taking desk breaks?  One of the concepts that has become recently popular is habit stacking. In a nutshell, habit stacking is a way to help you reach your goals by adding a desired action (one that you are working on) to an already established habit! By stacking desired actions onto the ones that we already do on autopilot, we decrease the mental effort needed to establish a new habit. For example, when you brush your teeth (an established habit), you could tidy-up the bathroom (perhaps a goal to become more organized). Or, while preparing a meal, you could listen to an educational podcast.  Hopefully you will find a way to use habit stacking to bring yourself more in-line with your intentions and achieve your goals!