A water glass on a table.

Are you fighting to make habits stick without much results? Life is full of ups and downs, but there are some simple tweaks that can be made to make habits you want to do a regular basis stick, even when they get dropped once and a while due to life. Today on the blog, I’m sharing how to make habits stick without much effort.

Habit stacking. Have you heard of habit stacking before?

Habit stacking is a strategy you can use to group together small changes into a routine that you follow daily. The key to consistency is to treat a habit stack like a single action instead of a series of individual tasks. (from developinggoodhabits.com).

When I want to add something new into my routine or just plain want to be more consistent with something, I sometimes will lean on this idea of habit stacking. It has a higher chance of sticking if it’s stacked with an already established habit. It’s pretty neat how it works that way.

Here are a few examples that I’ve habit stacked:

  • Every time I go to a bathroom, I drink a glass of water.
  • When I go down for breakfast, I bring down a load of laundry and turn on a wash.
  • When I get ready for the day or for bed, I listen to an audiobook.
  • When my husband comes out from putting the four year old to bed, that’s my exercise time.
  • After I sit down to supper, I ask my children the best thing about their day.

I try to habit stack habits that have been having a hard time sticking and also ones that I want to make priority too. My most recent one was audiobook + getting ready. I’ve been loving doing this so far!

Further reading on this topic:

Atomic Habits An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear

Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness, S. J. Scott

PS if you want to learn more about habit stacking, you may love the freebie my mail list is receiving on Friday - 20 ideas to habit stack + a habit stacking planning sheet. You can receive that for free by emailing me at simplehomemom@gmail.com.

Hi, I’m Kelly! I’m a mother of four children - three boys, one toddler girl - and our family lives on the beautiful east coast of Canada. I’m a past elementary teacher, turned stay at home, work at home mom eight years ago after I had my second child. I’ve found that the busier I’ve become and as my children age, that it’s become even more important to figure out what is most important to me and us as a family. Living a simpler lifestyle has helped us in so many ways in our home life - from better routines to faster tidying up times. It has been through my children that I have been inspired to learn how to effectively manage my time and to simplify in all areas of my home and life. I enjoy helping busy moms simplify home life by teaching flexible planning methods and skills. Enjoyed this blog and think it would be helpful to others? I'd love if you shared it. Thank you!