Welcome to Day 2 of the Club 12 Habit-Building Challenge!
In Day 1, you identified the ONE most important habit you want to build… Then, you shrunk that big habit down by turning it into a “tiny habit”.
Doing that helps you overcome one of the biggest hurdles to habit formation:
Getting started in the first place.
Making a big habit small makes it easier to start taking action.
And the more you act on the smaller version of your habit, the easier it’ll be for you to eventually expand it into the larger version…
We’ll talk more about expanding your tiny habit later in this challenge.
But for today, we need to figure out exactly when you’re going to do it…
Because, if you just say, “I’m going to do my 10 pushups today,” you’re leaving it up to chance.
You’ll get busy, you’ll get tired, and you’ll keep punting it off to later—and later usually means never.
To keep yourself from putting it off, you’re going to use a method called habit stacking - which is one of the best ways to build a new habit.
Here’s how it works:
You identify a current habit you already do each day, and then you stack your new behavior on top of it.
This concept—of habit stacking—is known in behavioral psychology as an implementation intention. In one study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, researchers looked at two groups of people trying to build an exercise habit:
Group 1: the group that simply relied on motivation, had a 35% success rate.
Group 2: the group that explicitly stated when and where they would exercise, had a 95% success rate.1
That. Is. HUGE.
Your brain already has powerful neural pathways built around your current habits—things like brushing your teeth, making coffee, or turning off your alarm…
With habit stacking, all we’re doing is piggybacking on top of those existing pathways.
Here’s a formula you can utilize for creating your own habit stacks:
After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].
Some examples:
Reading: After I brush my teeth in the morning, I’ll read for 20 minutes.
Relationships: As soon as I get into bed each evening, I’ll tell my partner one thing about him/her that I’m grateful for.
Daily Planning: While I wait for my morning coffee to brew, I’ll write down my one most important goal for the day.
You can utilize habit stacking for virtually any habit you’re working to develop. Just keep in mind that the key to habit stacking is to tie your desired habit/behavior to something you’re already doing on a daily basis.
Actionable insights
Think of a habit you currently have. Identify one rock-solid daily habit you already do everyday without fail. (Brushing your teeth, making your morning coffee, etc.)
Next, think of a habit you want to develop. For today, we’ll use the tiny habit you created in Day 1.
Now, use the habit stacking formula to bring it together and make it happen:
“After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will do my [NEW HABIT/TINY HABIT].”
Ex: “After I turn on the coffee maker, I will do my 10 pushups.”
Ex: “After I brush my teeth, I will read one page of my book.”
Up next…
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503.
