Energize Your Day: The Art of Habit Stacking

As an entrepreneur, reducing complexity, managing your time, and ruthlessly prioritizing are crucial. It all sounds great, but it’s a challenge. We’ve all heard of habit stacking – coined by author S. J. Scott, and popularized by author James Clear in Atomic Habits. There’s a reason it works, and there’s some pretty cool things that happen in your brain that make these habits stick. 

We’ll talk about habit stacking but with a twist – discovering the personal energizers that take habit stacking a step further. If you’re trying to fit more into your day that constantly feels too short, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in to how you can approach a daily routine to add more of what you enjoy into the never-long-enough day.  

The Power of Habit Stacking

Unleash the Potential of Small Changes

Minor adjustments compound, creating immense change. Habit stacking incorporates tiny, purposeful additions to your existing routines. This doesn’t mean that you add a bunch of habits all at once – that’s a recipe for disaster. What it does do is that it allows you to build consistency in a new habit on top of one that already exists. Habit stacking harnesses consistency, iteration, and the compound effect. Each purposeful moment builds towards major transformation through regular repetition. 

This concept was championed by James Clear in his book “Atomic Habits.” It’s brilliant for building habits, but why not apply the same principle to your habits that make you happy? Start your day with activities that energize you, that make you feel like you could conquer the world. This doesn’t mean neglecting your responsibilities; it means energizing yourself before diving into them.

Ever wonder why experts often suggest tackling the toughest task first thing in the morning? It’s not just to get it out of the way. Psychology research shows us that our willpower and decision-making abilities are strongest at the beginning of the day. By stacking energizing activities beforehand, you turbocharge your productivity for the tasks that lie ahead.

For example, say that you have the good habit of brushing your teeth every morning. Awesome. In addition to that, you decide that you want to floss every day too. The best way to build the habit of flossing is doing it during the time slot when you brush your teeth. Otherwise, you may forget or decide not to do it. 

The cue for the new habit is the existing habit. In the example of adding flossing, the habit of brushing your teeth is the cue to also floss. 

When you think about adding in a new habit, you need to consider what your cue is going to be. Not your memory, not your to-do list, but the action that will spark doing the new behavior. 

This is the same for the things that bring you joy. If you want to do more of the things you like during day, how can you stack those? Let’s double click into that.

Discover Your Energizers

Reflect on Your ‘Flow’ Moments

Think about the times where you really light up and feel energized. What are you doing, and who is around you? Think about the activities that ignite happiness, creativity, or some other positive feeling. 

You may also consider the things that you want to add more of because you really like them. They make you feel grounded, connected, or productive. These might be things that you keep saying you’re going to do but never actually get to them. 

Some examples might be taking a hike, exercising, taking your dog to the park, or hosting a dinner party. 

Those habits that you want to do more, well, now you can actually do them. You don’t need to put them on your to-do list anymore because you’re going to make them a consistent part of your routine. It will require you to change your behavior in some way, but it’s going to energize you to tackle everything else going on. 

Identify Existing Habits

Determine a current habit that already exists that you do 9 or 10 times out of 10. During this time block for that habit is when you want to put the new habit alongside it. Said another way, this existing habit you’ve identified is going to be your cue. Let’s take a recent example from above. Say you want to host a dinner party as your new habit. Well, you know that you eat dinner in the evening, and you know when you like to hang with your friends. Think about inviting friends over to have that dinner you would already be eating, and now, it’s with friends. You’ve now created a new routine to host a dinner party. 

See where I’m going with this?

Habit Stack Energizers & Form New Routines

Establish and Maintain a Routine

Routines may sound mundane, but they’re potent. Science shows that routines create structure and reduce decision fatigue. They’re like the guardrails that keep you on the highway of productivity.

That cue we talked about is going to help you set a routine for the new habit you want to start and maintain. This stacking of habits becomes your success routine and it sustains your happiness (if you’re actually doing things you enjoy).

Imagine this: Your morning routine becomes a sequence of actions that prepare you for the day. You get out of bed without snoozing, you drink a glass of water before your morning coffee, you even floss in the morning before brushing your teeth. Then you get to go do your next routine which is the stuff that you’re excited about! These routines are building up your reserves to face challenges, making you more resilient. Routine helps build discipline, and discipline is your secret weapon against procrastination.

Sustain Your New Habits 

Expect Road Bumps

No one is perfect, and you’ll likely miss some days. That’s okay. Your entire new routine is not ruined because you missed a day or a few. Start fresh tomorrow, and keep going. Consistency over time will get you moving in the direction you want to be moving. Expecting to do it without imperfection is unreasonable, so be kind to yourself. 

Share Your Journey

Tell someone about what you’re trying! It will help keep you accountable to what you say you want to do. It could also inspire someone else to do something for themselves they’ve been wanting to try but haven’t gotten the courage to do. You might be surprised at how your journey can impact someone else.

Habit Stacking to Happiness

Okay the subtitle is cheesy, but come on, have some fun! Put some habits that you like and enjoy into your daily routines through using those specific and well established cues we talked about. Be kind to  yourself in the process, and be proud of the progress you make! You got this.