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We live in a world of productive people. They do an excellent job, keep order at home, regularly devote time to their loved ones and do not forget about themselves. Seeing how others delicately balance between professional and personal life, we can feel useless and helpless. If your daily routine doesn't leave you time to take care of yourself, try a new approach — a stack of habits.
This is a simple mental trick that helps you turn cases into a real quest and easily complete it. The method was published back in 2014 in his book S. J. Scott. Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes Or Less Habit Stacking was described by Steve J. Scott. The process of compiling a stack of habits is simple: you need to write down all the tasks that you already do regularly, such as walking your dog or driving to work, and add self-care techniques to them.
It can be absolutely anything. Ask yourself what you would like to work on. Perhaps there is some activity that you don't always have enough time for, but that makes you feel better.
The main thing is to add as many details as possible. Let's say you want to lead a more athletic lifestyle. It is not necessary to add the abstract word "training" to the to-do list. It is better to fix it more specifically, for example, "doing an exercise "rock climber"10 times in the bedroom". And then "attach" this activity to another daily habit, for example, to devote time to such a small workout after breakfast.
When you already have one stable habit and you add another to it, you form a bond that helps support new behaviors. And gradually they become a natural part of life.
Take a look at your routine and highlight the tasks that you automatically complete every day. For example, you make your bed every day, make coffee, or take the subway to work.
Put it all down on paper. This way you will be aware of your capabilities and will be able to choose tasks that are suitable in order to add new habits to them. For example, you can combine dinner with gratitude — before eating, write down or say out loud three things that you are grateful for today.
There are other potential combinations: meditate for a minute while coffee is brewing; do several yoga poses immediately after changing clothes after work; take 5 minutes to keep a diary before going to bed.
You can also stack habits by category. For example, to combine two healthy ones — drink a glass of water before and after a daily walk.
The main purpose of creating a stack is to teach the brain to automatically associate one habit with another. However, this takes time.
Don't overload yourself. Imagine that you have several habits that you want to start at once, for example, switch to a healthy diet and do stretching. It is not necessary to combine both at once or complicate your day by combining them with other things. Start with a healthy diet, and when this habit is learned and becomes a part of your life, move on to stretching.
Try not to lose patience if the process of introducing a new habit is delayed. A stack of habits is a kind of lifestyle change. And you may not see the desired results, because new habits increase productivity in one area and decrease it in another.
Also, don't forget that stacking habits is not multitasking. You should not do two things at the same time. On the contrary, you need to use the completion of one task as a signal that it's time to start another.
It is important that evaluating progress becomes a separate habit as you move towards your goals. Take care of yourself, whether you always make entries in your diary before going to bed or do not forget to do push-ups after brushing your teeth. You can write down your progress or check the boxes in your notebook — it will cheer you up.
