New Habits for Old

Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented.
Maya Angelou

When I first became aware of that quote, it seemed like a massive undertaking and one that required a really huge and constant amount of awareness and work. It seemed impossible. But I’ve come to realise that reinvention doesn’t need to be huge, it’s more like a thousand tiny things over a period of time that mount up to the whole.

The sniff of spring always has me tidying out my closets, cupboards, and the garden shed. So I’m currently in the mood for ‘out with the old, in with the new’. A while back I bought Atomic Habits by James Clear. In this book he talks about how making small changes (or even minuscule ones) can grow into such life-altering outcomes and how these small changes can have a transformative effect on all areas of our lives. I love this book and as you can see it’s well flagged with my favourite sections. In fact, I love this book so much that I recently bought an audio version to listen to while walking Vivvy.

Anyhoo, one of the things that resonated with me was the idea of habit stacking, where you identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack the new behaviour on top… example: After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout gear.

I’ve tried this a few times (not with the workout one, ha!) and found it really effective. The most successful habit stacking I’ve done of late is every time I turn on my computer, I open up my work in progress first. I hoped it would stop me wasting precious writing time by heading down the rabbit hole that is social media. It’s worked really well and now I do it without thinking. Another one is every time I enjoy a cup of coffee, I drink a glass of water right after. Again, it’s worked for me and now really is a habit. I’m trying out a few new habit stacking ideas as we move into spring. The first one I’m adopting is every time I open the biscuit tin, I screw the lid straight back on without indulging. 🙂 That’s going to be a hard one, but giving up biscuits/cookies is my long term goal. Watch this space!

Have you ever tried habit stacking? Do you think it would work for you?

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