Have you ever made a resolution to do something new, like drink more water or have vitamins everyday? I've made tons of resolutions like that, but they've never really stuck.
So when I came across S.J. Scott's book "Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take 5 Minutes Or Less" (free for Amazon Prime Members by the way), I was pretty excited.
Habit stacking, according to Scott isn’t supposed "to nag you about developing positive routines." He actually aims to show us how to create a simple routine that we are to repeat every day.
This routine is managed by a checklist so we don't have to remember all the good habits that we need to do every day. All we need to do is remember to follow the checklist.
Scott says that these little changes can have a lot of impact on your life, and you can check out the science behind being consistent with them too.
His focus is to "make giant leaps forward in your business, strengthen your personal relationships, stay on top of your finances, get organized and improve your health."
So how do you stack habits?
Check out Scott's 8 elements below:
1. Each habit takes less than five minutes to complete.
This makes sure that your tasks are easy, which makes you more likely to do them.
2. It’s a complete habit (or an action that cannot be built upon).
This means that you can't keep making it harder, like exercise. It's like drinking a glass of water when you wake up.
3. It improves your life.
That's the whole point of this exercise.
4. It's simple to complete.
Given that your tasks are short, they probably aren't too rigorous. This way you can see improvement quickly.
5. Your whole new routine takes less than 30 minutes.
This will make sure you aren't overwhelmed.
6. It follows a logical process.
An example: if you plan to drink a glass of water, brush AND floss, take out your trash from the kitchen, brush your hair, and moisturize it's probably a good idea to split the tasks into bathroom and kitchen so you don't have to move back and forth between the two rooms.
7. It follows a checklist.
This is so all you have to remember is to follow the checklist.
8. It fits your life.
This is so habit stacking makes you feel great and start your day off better!
