Building Habits: The One Technique That Worked For Me

The post says habit stacking worked for the author after other attempts at habit change failed. A new habit is added by pairing it with an existing automatic activity, so the older habit becomes the trigger for the new one.

Reading notes

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• Habit stacking means taking an existing habit or automatic activity and doing the new habit afterward.
• The author gives examples: charging the phone when entering the bedroom, filling a bottle after washing a cereal bowl, and buying a healthier lunch after a run.
• The technique works because daily life already contains many automatic triggers.
• Naming the idea makes it more conscious and helps people look for places to build a stack.
• New habits can be added to an existing stack, but the stack should stay small or it stops feeling automatic.
• Each stack needs a solid foundation, so the trigger habit must be something the person really does without thinking.
• The author’s Pomodoro-based water habit failed because the Pomodoro habit itself was not automatic.
• The two habits in a stack should be linked, visually or thematically, so the second one follows naturally from the first.
• The post notes that phone checking often becomes a Phone > Twitter stack, and awareness can help change that pattern.