Habit Stacking: Building and Maintaining Effective Routines

Who Can Benefit?

Habit stacking is particularly useful for individuals who struggle with establishing and maintaining new habits, creating consistent routines, or remembering to complete recurring tasks. This method helps seamlessly integrate new behaviours into your daily life by leveraging existing habits.

How to Implement Habit Stacking

  1. Identify a Current Habit: Start by choosing a habit you already perform regularly and find easy to remember (e.g., showering each morning).
  2. Stack a New Habit: Connect the new habit you want to establish with your existing habit. For example:
    • If you often forget to brush your teeth but consistently remember to shower, stack the habit of brushing your teeth right before your shower.
    • If you dislike exercising but love your morning coffee, make it a rule to complete 10 minutes of yoga or walking before enjoying your coffee.
    • To cut down on drinking, stack the desire to drink alcohol with another activity, like reading a book or doing housework. By consistently pairing these activities, you can rewire your brain over time to associate the urge with a healthier behaviour.
  3. Use Visual Reminders: When you’re starting out, use visual cues like sticky notes to remind yourself of the new habit. Place them where you typically perform the existing habit to reinforce the connection.
  4. Start Small: Focus on building one or two new habits at a time. Let these habits become solid before adding more to your routine.

The Science Behind Habit Stacking

Habit stacking leverages the brain’s natural process of synaptic pruning, where unused neural connections are weakened, and frequently used connections are strengthened. This process makes habitual behaviours more automatic and efficient over time. By linking a new habit to an existing strong neural pathway, you can effectively build and reinforce the new habit more easily. This principle is also why breaking addictions can be challenging, as those neural pathways are highly reinforced. Habit stacking allows you to take advantage of existing connections to create new, positive behaviours.

References

Clear, J. (2020). How to Build New Habits by Taking Advantage of Old Ones. jamesclear.com.

Gendron, A. (2023). The Mini ADHD Coach. Penguin Random House UK.

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