Habit Stacking - Fad or Fantastic?

Habit Stacking - Fad or Fantastic?

Firstly what is Habit Stacking? It's the concept of  adding another habit on top of an already existing one. For example it could be that I have built the habit of cooking myself eggs in the morning. As this is an established habit I could add taking an Omega 3 supplement whilst eating those eggs. Once I have done that I could add preparing a healthy snack for mid-morning on whilst the eggs are cooking. Once that has been established I could add having a glass of water with that breakfast and so on and so on. Now obviously there is a limit to this but you get the point. Essentially it's easier to build habits on top of established habits and do enough of it and you can relatively quickly build a stack of healthy and productive habits.

That's the theory and on the face of it, it should work really well. But what are some of the pitfalls of it? Well firstly it is reliant on having that first habit really dialled in, failure to establish a really solid base habit to stack on top of and the whole thing becomes in danger of crashing down very quickly, its like that old adage of building a house on sand. On that note there also needs to be consideration to what happens if, for whatever reason, that base habit gets missed, even for a day. If there are a lot of positive habits built off of a good base habit that doesn't happen, the impact of not doing that base habit, even for a single day can have big ramifications, miss it for 2 or 3 days in a row and just like the above, everything could come crashing down quickly.

Speaking from personal experience Habit stacking has been a fantastic way for me to build my morning routine which looks a little bit like this:

05:45 - Cycle to Gym

06:00 - CrossFit Class (Participate or Coach)

07:10 - Cycle Home

07:30 - Dog Walk (often a slight Jog)

On that dog walk there are a number of things I do such as listen to a podcast or audio book and talk type as a way of journaling. 

08:15 - Cook Breakfast and Eat

During that time I will also grab some supplements, prepare some of the fresh food for the day (i.e. cut some of the fruit and or vegetables I am going to eat throughout the day and check personal e-mails.

From there it depends on what time meetings start as to what else I can fit in but that’s my core morning habits stacked. As you can see its got a good mix of exercise (outdoor and indoor), learning/ reflecting and nutrition in there. But to begin with, it started with just the morning CrossFit class, then we got our dog Lara and the walk got added, then I decided I wanted a healthier breakfast so I added cooking eggs over cereal which I then added the supplements to and so on and so on. It didn't all happen at once.

BUT I also fall foul of the risks that come with Habit Stacking, especially at a weekend  where maybe I lay in a bit later and have breakfast with my partner (maybe we do something like cook pancakes for example) and for me personally, the habit of cooking those eggs for breakfast is the one that, if I don't do it, the rest all comes crashing down.

So is Habit Stacking a Fad or Fantastic? Well for me personally I think it's fantastic way to help build healthy habits and is without a doubt something to try. But beware of the pitfalls... make sure that you build strong foundational habits and make sure that one miss doesn't bring your whole routine down. 

Andy