You Don`t Need More Willpower, You Need Habit-Stacking.
On the 29th of May, two of my friends and I came together in my place to start our Slovenian vacation the next day.
Markus, my friend from Berlin notices the new pull-up bar in my living-room door.
I call him Jet Li for good reason.
Of course, he gives it a try.
9, 10, 11, 12, 13.... Reps is easy for him, he hangs there like a monkey, easily pulling himself up with a wide grip without any effort.
I....have always sucked at pull-ups and thought I could never change a single thing about that.
I increased my weight on lat pull-downs, did inverted rows, and used the pull-up assistance machine.
What more can I do?
Never take them to failure for instance.
Now I am committed to changing that.
When I enter my living room, I do 2-3 reps, at least 1 rep shy from failure.
I am building a new habit.
The formula is, "Whenever I get into the living room, I do 2-3 reps" (and more in the future).
This approach is based on a concept called stacking habits, which has shown to be effective for building sustainable habits.
Why Do So Many People Fail To Build Healthy Habits
Habits can work for or against us.
The mindless munching in front of the TV or 8+ hours of sitting in an office chair.
We know both activities have a bad effect on our health if we do them long enough.
The reason why we fail is because these actions run on autopilot. We do them without thinking about the consequences.
We feel powerless because we cannot find the mental strength to change stubborn habits.
Say you want to meet friends at a bar for a beer. Before you realize it, you have 3-4 beers and get the munchies. The next step is grabbing fast food.
Now, this does not need to be bad if you enjoy the evening and your diet tends to be healthy most of the time.
If you tend to throw your intention overboard when your first habit (having a beer at the bar) causes a second to form (eating processed food), you need to break through the cycle.
Using willpower against them can work in the short run.
But it won`t be enough to help you establish strong and healthy habits.
Breaking unhealthy habits and forming healthy ones are crucial for successful behavior change.
Healthy habits rely on the same mechanism but have a better outcome.
We will look into the concept of stacking habits to understand how we can make habits work in our favor.
How Habits Form
The more often we do things in a certain way, the more habitual it becomes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best
Before you establish a new habit, you will meet obstacles.
In the context of Health this could mean…
You will dread to incorporate exercise into your busy life.
You will resist investing time into meal prep to have healthy foods ready
Once you feel the positive consequences, it becomes much easier.
You will have more energy, feel lighter, be more focused at work, be better rested after the night, more self-confident, and much more.
How do habits form?
Trigger or Cue: Habits begin with a trigger or cue that signals the brain to initiate a specific behavior. This can be a time of day, location, emotional state, or preceding action.
Routine or Behavior: Following the cue, you perform the actual behavior or action. This is the habit itself.
Reward: After performing the behavior, you experience some form of reward or positive reinforcement, which encourages repetition.
Repetition: Consistent repetition of the cue-routine-reward loop strengthens the neural pathways associated with the habit.
Automaticity: With continued repetition, the behavior becomes more automatic, requiring less conscious effort or decision-making.
Context Consistency: Performing the behavior in the same context (time, place, or situation) each time helps strengthen the habit.
While there are many methods to do that, stacking habits has become one of my favorite ways of building habits.
Let us dive into it.
What is Habit Stacking
Habit stacking is about adding a beneficial or healthy habit to an established routine.
The term "habit stacking" first popped up in S.J. Scott's 2014 book, "Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less"? Since then, it's caught on with psychologists and productivity gurus, helping folks switch up their behaviors or pick healthier options.
How does it work?
Mix tasks that lend themselves to be done at the same time or in a sequence one after the other.
Let`s say you despise sweeping the floor (like I do), but it needs to be done.
Now you combine this chore with something you enjoy, such as listening to the latest episode of your favorite podcast.
These tiny victories add up because they're easy to remember and do. And just like that, before you even realize it, these little actions put together make a big difference in the long run.
If you use this in the context of Health and Fitness, you mix and match
"When I do a, I do b."
A stands for the thing that you do anyway, and b is the new to be installed health habit.
"When I go to the kitchen and prepare my coffee, I use the time waiting to do some calf raises.
My favorite stacked habits
Nutrition
1) When I`m in the kitchen on Sundays to prepare my breakfast, I chop veggies and fry chicken breast or salmon to have healthy ingredients ready when I need them.
2) When I drink water in the morning, I will add a teaspoon of creatine. It is the most widely researched supplement and has shown no negative sides.
Increased strength, muscle mass, injury prevention, and more effects have been proven.
3) When I prepare my meals, I include 2 different sources of vegetables for lunch.
And I build it around protein. This brings me a variety of vitamins, and minerals, while the fiber and protein help with feeling full.
Exercise
1) When I am done working, I exercise or go out for a walk.
Whenever I got too comfy on the couch after work, it was much harder to get back up.
So, it`s best to be active before and then chill.
2) When I leave my bed, I go for a morning walk.
There is no better way to feel awake, have a greater perception of energy, and get prepared for the day ahead.
3) When I get back to my desk after lunch, I work from a standing position.
This ensures I don`t fall asleep on my laptop. Once I made this a habit, I could prevent sleepiness.
Now it`s your turn, to mix and match your combination of habits.
Think about all the activities in your day you will do or have to do.
Then add what you have been wanting to do and combine the two.
How To Start Habit Stacking
This depends on how big of a change to your regular routines a future habit is.
Start easy.
It is much easier to combine a coffee with some form of meditation than run a 5 k.
Gradually increase the level of difficulty.
It makes sense to divide the overall goal into smaller manageable chunks.
The workout clothes next to your bed (if you exercise first thing in the morning) will prompt you to get into action.
If you are new to exercise, start with a brisk walk of 15-20 minutes.
Next, do this 2-3 times every week and then increase your speed.
Here`s how to get to your first 5k run.
Why Does Habit Stacking Work
Habit stacking takes advantage of neural connections already established for existing habits. By linking a new habit to an existing one, it becomes easier for the brain to adapt and remember the new behavior.
Every day, we make endless decisions, most of them happen in milliseconds.
When you stack a healthy habit on top of an established one, you don`t have to decide for or against it.
It is a natural part of a combo you decided to put together.
The result?
Less decision fatigue.
For example, unless you are sick, you will leave your bed.
Putting your workout clothes near your bed will act as a prompt to go for a run first thing in the morning.
No need to reconsider or put off.
This improves efficiency because you group tasks, leading to multiple positive behaviors in your day.
Once you get into the rhythm of your new combined habits, they become automatic.
This is when you won`t feel resistance anymore.
Yes, there will be exceptions on certain days, but generally speaking, this is how you can establish new habits in an effortless way.
Which habits can you combine?
Let me know in the chat.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/416934-sow-a-thought-and-you-reap-an-action-sow-an
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habit#:~:text=There%20are%20three%20main%20components,that%20triggers%20the%20habitual%20behavior.