Habit Stacking

I’ve been leaning into habit stacking lately. Here’s what that means: once you establish a habit, add on another habit near that same time. Most people really want to make changes in their lives, but man it’s tough if you forget to do what you want to change!

God has formed a mighty powerful ability within you. It’s the nature of habit. Jay Adams talks about what it would be like if you had to wake up every day without any established habits. You would have to think to open your eyes, realize where you were, decide whether to sit up or roll over, and the muscles you would need to sit up or roll over would need to be individually mentally engaged! You would get nowhere without habits in your life.

Therefore, embrace it people! You were made for habits. They are a good thing.

I’ve been habit stacking things in my morning and evening routines, as well as during class, but I won’t bore you with the class habits.

I had a previously established habit of reading the Bible everyday. It took a while, but we got there. I then also established a habit of reading the Bible in the evening as well. Now that those two are established, I’ve capitalized on them.

For the morning, I stacked making breakfast onto reading the Bible. I cook the oatmeal while I’m reading. Then I stacked taking my vitamins and doing my exercises on after that. I also noticed that I was just sitting still while reading the Bible, so I decided to start stretching while reading the Bible. This isn’t active stretching, just a couple of poses on the ground to increase my mobility (deep squat, 90/90, seiza, and wide stance forward fold). I can still focus on what I’m reading and doing, all the while getting more things done.

Of course, life isn’t all about getting things done, but more on that later.

So, what habits do you have in your life already, and what can you stack onto them? I guarantee you eat food; find something to stack onto that. Bible reading, regular reading, exercise. The possibilities are endless.

Lord willing, it won’t take you until you’re my age to figure these things out!