Habit Stacking

Habit stacking is the act of combining two habits into a single activity to encourage better adherence to one or both habits. The prototypical example is brushing and flossing your teeth; if you associate brushing and flossing as a thing you do together, you may have an easier time building and maintaining a flossing habit than you would if you tried to brush in the morning but floss after lunch.

The best example I have from my life stacks three habits: Brushing, flossing, and skincare.

• First I put on my lightweight moisturizer.
• While that is drying down I floss my teeth.
• Then I put on my moisturizing cream.
• While that is drying down I brush my teeth.
• Then I put on my sunblock and hurray ta-dah, five things I hate doing individually are now one efficient routine.

There are thousands of examples out there, and you can play around with it to make it more effective. Maybe you want to practice playing guitar more and you want more fiber; perhaps you get to have a nice smoothie with chia seeds after you've practiced for at least five minutes. Maybe you want to play with your dog more and also stretch more; perhaps you make a game of stretching that you can play with your dog. Think about some of the things that you wish you did more of and think about whether you might be able to do that while also doing dishes or riding on your commute or working in the garden.