Turn Actions into Habits

As famously stated by the philosopher Aristotle “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

We are creatures of habit. The habits that we develop over time are not always what is best or healthiest for us. Sometimes, we fall into patterns of behavior that are comfortable and easy, or that help us to soothe feelings of stress and high emotions. Habit-forming can be entirely subconscious and we do not realize the unhealthy traits that become ingrained in our everyday behaviors. Small habits stack upon each other to make a larger impact on our lives. Choosing to form small healthier habits in our day-to-day routines can lead to much larger beneficial rewards further down the line.

Habit stacking is a behavior change strategy to help you develop multiple new habits by sequencing them together in a ritual that you can follow every day. You may begin with a habit you already have and progress through a checklist of habits you wish to follow that action. Using a checklist to complete a group of activities you wish to achieve daily helps remove the cognitive pressure of remembering every step separately.

As an example, I have used this method with my skincare routine. For a long time, I had no routine in place, I would often go to bed with make-up on and rarely made any effort to care for my skin. I decided to make a change and invest in a line of skincare products. I then had to incorporate those into my daily routine. I chose an ‘anchor habit’ to stack my new habits on top of. This is a habit that you already complete daily without thinking about it.

I stacked my skincare habit onto brushing my teeth. Now, every day without fail I wake up, brush my teeth, and then begin my skincare routine. Every night before bed, I brush my teeth and then complete my skincare routine like clockwork. My skin is glowing and I constantly receive compliments on my healthy complexion. This took a while to become completely ingrained in my routine, but by stacking a checklist of habits onto my anchor habit, it is now a non-negotiable.

This can be applied to any new behaviors you wish to incorporate into your life. Do you constantly criticize yourself for not drinking enough water, but seem to find the time to drink coffee without issue? Try placing a large bottle of water next to your coffee mug and each time you reach for your coffee take a drink of water too. Eventually, you will find yourself reaching for your water bottle without thinking about it.

Always forgetting to take your vitamins or supplements? Place them next to your cereal box and routinely take them alongside your breakfast each morning. Creating checklists of small, manageable tasks that you can build on top of each other can make a whole routine seem less daunting and remove the temptation for procrastination.

- Wake up, brush your teeth, wash your face, make coffee, drink water, pour cereal, take vitamins, and head to the gym.

This is only an example of what a desirable morning routine may look like to you, you may want to spend more time reading instead of mindlessly scrolling on social media, and you may wish to keep your room tidier, but the goal is to identify which small tasks are the most important to you and then design a logical process of achieving those goals incrementally. One task leads to the next and before you know it you have achieved multiple things in a short space of time. Set your book next to your bed so that as soon as you get in, you see it and grab it instead of reverting to your phone. Place your laundry basket next to the TV so when you go to switch it on and notice the basket is full, you will be prompted to put a load in the machine.

This can be applied to an exercise routine. Setting the same time each day for your workout will help you adhere to the program and turn the action of exercise into a habit. Maybe this would work best for you first thing in the morning, deciding upon a set time that you need to be at the gym, like any other appointment. Maybe you prefer to work out in the evening and you could block out a 30-60 minute session into your schedule, as soon as you finish work each day. Being prepared ahead of time by bringing your workout clothes with you to work and heading directly to the gym after work can eventually become a daily routine and a solid habit that will provide huge lifestyle benefits.

Habit-forming takes time, some experts state that it may take up to 60 days to form a new habit. Commitment and perseverance are needed to stay on track. Remind yourself of the reasons why this new habit is important to you. You may not succeed at sticking to this new habit every single day for the rest of your life, but that’s no reason not to keep trying. The more times you manage to incorporate the desired action into your routine, the more often you will remember to do it in the future.