5 Minute Habit Stacking: mini-mission
Over the past few months, I’ve developed a peaceful, yet energizing morning routine. I did it through habit stacking.
What is Habit Stacking?
You probably already practice habit stacking without even knowing it. If you wake up, take a shower, use shampoo, then conditioner, dry off and get dressed, you’re a stacker. Perhaps you stack in the evening by brushing your teeth, washing your face and reading a book before bed. You can probably identify little pockets of habit stacks throughout your day.
I first heard about stacking habits in this article written by my friend Dan.
If there are new habits or activities that you’ve been meaning to build into your day, you’ll really like this mini-mission.
5 minute habit stacking
Start by thinking about what you’d like to do everyday. These are probably things that you try to squeeze in once in a while, or feel rewarded when you get to do them. This could be part of a morning, afternoon or evening routine or ritual. Include the things that you really want to do, and that will contribute to your health and happiness. I started with a really big list of Yoga, learning spanish, reading, writing, walking, meditating and a few more.
Choose two. (don’t worry, you can add more later). I used to naturally take on more than I should and almost always burned out from any new habit, exercise plan or lifestyle change. Now that I do it more slowly and intentionally, I am much more successful.
Pick a time that you can practice each day. Morning, afternoon or evening. If you can stick with a consistent time, at least for the first month, your stack will have more staying power. If other things come up, that’s ok. Just get back to it the next day. In other words, if you miss a day, all is not lost. This is when we usually throw in the towel. Instead, keep going.
Show up. That’s the only rule. Even if you don’t do a thing. Just show up. There will be times when you don’t feel like it, or feel tempted to put it off for a an hour. Instead, go there.
Only five minutes. Do your two activities for only five minutes each. Yes, even if you want to do more. Just 5 minutes.
Add one minute to each activity each week if you’re ready. If your first week was a challenge and you missed a few days. Stick with five minutes for another week. This isn’t a competition or a race. Do it thoughtfully.
When you are ready, add another activity and repeat the steps above.
Leo Babauta and his Sea Change Program have been instrumental in helping me to make change in my life by establishing new, healthy habits. Leo suggests one habit at a time, and while I strongly believe in the power of one, I love the momentum and energy that comes from habit stacking.
Today, months after I started with two activities at five minutes a piece, I start my day with fifteen minutes of meditation, fifteen minutes of yoga, a thirty minute walk and fifteen minutes of creative writing. There are some days that I have to break it up into two sessions depending on other responsibilities, but it comes before work and most obligations. This practice quiets my mind, nourishes my body, and fuels my creativity. It doesn’t replace other exercise or writing that I do during the day, but instead supports it and allows me to start each day with intention and gratitude.
You might feel tempted to power boost your habit stacking by starting with ten minutes, or adding three minutes every week instead of one. Resist. Give this small, slow method a chance
I never thought I would have more than an hour a day to dedicate to activities I love, and if I hadn’t eased into it, it would have been overwhelming. By starting small, I was able to grow into my morning routine.
I’d love to hear about the habits you want to stack. Where will you start?
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21 Responses to “5 Minute Habit Stacking: mini-mission”
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What a great idea. I’d like to start with Bible reading and prayer. After that I want to add a morning walk. Actually, I’ve thought before, in a vague sort of way, that to start small and build is the answer to acquiring the discipline of daily, enriching habits. So your article put it all together for me. What a huge help, maybe I can finally have success. Thank you, Courtney. And also, thank you for sending me the book by Tammy Strobel. She has a such a flow to her writing and she’s very inspirational…I’m breezing through the book and will pass it on when I’m finished. So much fun to win that, thanks again
So you’re giving us a classic two-for-none today, eh? None as in free and two as in great information about how to build our own habit stacking practice AND a great site redesign.
Ever since we spoke about habit stacking a little while back, I’ve been waiting for this post about how you do it. This seems so appealing that it’s time for me to design my own habit stacking routine. I think I’m going to start with doing it every other day at first and then incorporating it into every day. It’ll be like a control experiment to see if I can tell the difference between the days I habit stack and the days I don’t.
And way to go on the site redesign. Based on what you’ve shared your high level goals were, I’d say mission accomplished.
I love this idea. I already meditate first thing every single morning. Now it’s a question of what I would like to add to the stack. Gentle exercise is at the top of the list! Adding 5 minutes will work ideally for me cause like you if I take on too much, I drop it. Thanks!
I love this easy and deliberate way of making things I’d like to be doing into an intentional addition to my day.
Gretchen Rubin taught me that the things I do every day are more important to my happiness than things I only do occasionally. I have found this to be true, and I will surely try your habit stacking idea!
Two things I enjoy when on holiday but find difficult during to make time for when back at work are daily reading and a short walk. These are things I enjoy so should be easy to make renewed habits. A great motivational post, thank you.
I must say that I suck at habits & routine in general. I’m not sure why, but try as I may, I can’t even get the bedtime/morning stuff together. More often than not I’ll be crawling into bed and then realize that I forgot to brush my teeth or take my nightly medication, or some other thing that should be automatic. Perhaps it’s my rebellious nature, but it takes real conscious work for me to do ANYTHING on a schedule – and I inevitably resent it… well, I don’t resent the schedule per se… I just always mess up and then end up feeling like a failure, which I resent. I mean – I’ve been taking daily vitamins for 20 years now, you would think I’d be able to remember – but no… I forget at least 2-3 days a week.
Perhaps I’ll go read some more about habit stacking. Sigh.
I am so exactly like this. I’m a project manager by trade, so in my work life, I’m very organized and methodical. When I come home, I like things to be more fluid and less structured. As a result…my personal life is a little wonky, and I resist routine…it feels too much like work.
So, I’m going to try habit stacking just one thing for now…writing a to-do list every morning. I started this morning, and felt so much more at ease throughout the morning. I didn’t have a running list of things in my head, trying not to forget to do them. I’m hoping over time, this will set me up for a better planned day and more productive week. I can do dinner menus, grocery lists, chores lists for my girls and pay bills during my morning “organizing time.”
Maybe using a checklist would work for you? Using a whiteboard to check off vitamin-taking, etc. every day? GOOD LUCK!
Thanks Laura,
The white board is actually a great idea, but I must say my initial response is NO FREAKIN’ WAY!!!! I think I have the same reaction as you described, it just feels like I’m making my personal life into work, and there’s nothing I hate more than work. Of course, part of me thinks that I’d have sooo much more free time and energy if I could put some things on auto-pilot, but I certainly chafe against the whole notion of being “required” to do ANYTHING.
My strategy in general has been to whittle down my to-do list to an absolute bare minimum. I work from home – and my work is the kind that can be done whenever I want, or not at all. I live EXTREMELY frugally so I can afford to do that. I have all of my bills set up to be paid automatically, and I stock up on everything that I need on a regular basis so that shopping is less stressful because I don’t have to worry about forgetting to buy something important. I have finally started forcing myself make shopping lists, which is a good step, but unfortunately I tend to forget to bring them with me at least 50% of the time.
I actually have one of those little old lady pill dispensers for my vitamins so I can at least tell when I’ve taken them and when I haven’t. It helps – but more often than not it only points out my failure to remember. Oy Vey!
Anyhow, your idea of choosing one thing to start with is a good one. Just gotta figure out WHICH thing to start with since chaos reigns supreme in my life! I think that having a bedtime would be a good starting place for me… if I could just keep that one under control soooo many other things would be easier.
Okay, probably too much information here, but I’m going to springboard off your shower/shampoo/conditioner analogy. I shave and brush my teeth in the shower as well. Most people who learn that of me have the “eeeewww” response. It’s a bit of my OCD, but it’s more about getting to spend more time under the hot water! And, I can go from bed to front door in 17 minutes (really, 17) by habit stacking my morning routine!
I have a similar technique but I call it linking. When I am waiting for the coffee to brew, I unload the dishwasher. When I take the kids to school, I take out the trash. When I get the mail, I sweep the porch. Instead of an individual activity they are linked together. When I worked as a professional organizer, this helped my clients feel less overwhelmed because small and essential tasks didn’t require thinking. It is the mental noise that is more exhausting than the task itself.
Nice ideas…especially love the last sentence. Why are humans so prone to make things that much harder?
I also do jumping jacks while I heat up my food in the microwave.
This sounds really awesome! I think I will start with excercise and practicing Spanish for my habit stacking. And I’ll probably do them in the evening before I shower and go to bed.
I love this idea, and that of habit linking: two approaches to the same goal of living in a more intentional, I-decide-how-to-spend-my-time way, as opposed to feeling constantly under the gun and worn out with worry. What would you all do if you had competing habits for a certain time? For example, running first thing, and writing first thing, in the morning? I’ve been stuck with this one for a long time and jumped back and forth with the two habits…
I’ll try this.
The link here:s in this article written by my friend Dan.
is broken.
I have read all of the above and am taking some little parts from each. Sandra mentioned morning. My mornings are when I am able to walk with my husband, have coffee, and write. We do it every morning. Although I did not consciously habit stack (I think my desire to go out for coffee and extend our conversations led me to the second “habit”), I find that I am better for putting my priorities first. Fortunately, I work at home in the mornings and go to the office in the afternoons and evenings. If not, I guess I would have to rise at 4am instead of 5:30. My 22 year old self would never believe my 41 year old self is a morning person! Hats off to you once again, Courtney!
Great idea.
You may want to check out http://tiny.cc/h0qpkw, a very nicely built Android app designed for tracking habits.
It’s clear, focused, easy to navigate, and most of all, really works!