Build Habits by Habit Stacking!

Goal setting is an important practice, but you must build and maintain habits to accomplish many of your goals. I mentioned before that we would dive deeper into habit building, and one of my new favorite goal setting / productivity hacks is habit stacking!

I first learned about Habit Stacking after reading James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits earlier this year which has truly been a game changer for me.

Habits help you build a system, and a system is what helps you accomplish your goals.

We all have habits that we follow everyday whether it be making your bed as soon as you wake up, going to the gym after you walk the dog, scrolling on your phone for one hour before bed each night, etc. Let’s learn how to leverage your existing habits to build new ones!

Beginning a new habit is easier than you think, but maintaining it is the hard part. If working out at 4:30AM every day was easy, then many more of us would do it.

Being a firm believer in the power of goal setting, and being a big goal setter, I always wondered how some goals would always slip past my grasp each year. Looking back, I did not have the right habits and system in place to accomplish some of them.

For instance, I have yet to accomplish my goal of reading 12 books in a year (that’s changing this year!), and that’s because I did not make reading a routine practice or a habit. It was simply something that I would do occasionally knowing that I had it on my goals list.

Habit Stacking 101

Wa-La! I present to you a magic trick…not really, but an awesome method to build new habits that actually works. It’s amazing what happens when you’re intentional about something, and write down what you intend to accomplish.

The practice behind habit stacking is actually derived from implementation intention theory. Implementation intention theory was introduced by Peter M. Gollwitzer, PhD, which shows that goals are more likely to be achieved when you make a plan beforehand about when, where, and how you are going to act.

Several studies have proven that out of multiple control groups being tested to build a new habit, accomplish a task or a goal, the most successful groups were always those that had a plan written down and in place.

Now, how do you use this practice to build new habits? Grab your pen and paper, it’s time to start writing!

You know what your habits are on a daily basis, both good and bad. Think about the habit(s) you want to build now in order to accomplish your goals. Personally, I am building a habit of reading each day in order to accomplish my goal of reading 12 books per year.

Using my existing habit of working out early in the morning before work, I am stacking my new habit of reading daily before going to work. As you can see, I have written out a simple plan of attack utilizing existing behaviors and habits.

Another way to reinforce your habit stacking is to have an accountability partner and / or mentor!

My friend Kayley and I challenged each other to complete Atomic Habits by a certain time, and then implement lessons covered in the book. Hence, Habit Stacking!

Having a friend like Kayley who’s an absolute rockstar will help keep you motivated. Go and find the rockstars in the world!

Kayley and I now can use these documents to continue holding each other accountable, and we sure will! Having awesome people like Kayley in your corner only helps strengthen your system, and you’ll be even more likely to accomplish your goals.

Write It Down

The key lessons here? Write things down and be intentional. It will work wonders for you! You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish once you give this a shot.

Win Today!