I signed up for the Australian Writers Centre May Mojo Month. Ironically it’s all about reigniting our creative juices and getting our mojo back and yet I ended the first week with only five of the nine days of activities done. Mojo schmojo apparently.
It’s day ten and I’m now catching up on what I’ve missed. I blame a uni assignment, a few hours of paid work, some book reviews and much procrastination. Anyhoo…
I actually paused on day three first time around* because I really liked a point made about creating habits and I needed to ponder it more. Regular readers may realise I believe stuff will only be absorbed into my psyche if I overthink about it. A lot.
The ‘lesson’ attached to creating habits references habit stacking which is discussed in this reading by James Clear. Although the article references scary stuff like synaptic pruning, neurons, brains and babies (!!), habit stacking appears to simply mean pairing a new (desired) habit with an existing one.
After/Before [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].
Clear’s examples include: After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute. Or, after I finish my meal, I will stack the dishwasher.
Now I’ve read A HEAP of stuff on forming habits and I’ve talked about it here and referenced articles by Leo Babatua (Zen Habits), Mark Manson and even Matt Cutts. They always talk about the time habits take to form and that taking on new habits should be an iterative process for it to be sustainable.
But, in my little world, the idea of attaching a new habit to an existing one is a new thing. It makes sense. As Clear puts it (albeit more eloquently) we’ve cemented existing habits into our brain. We do them like clockwork – brushing our teeth, dressing for work, making breakfast, pouring a wine at the end of the day. And all we need to do is associate that with something new. Before, after or during.
And then there’s the opportunity to go one step further and ditch one habit and replace it with another.
Many of the participants of the AWC course have said instead of scrolling on their phones as they drink their morning coffee or surfing the internet on arriving at their desk, they’ll do the Mojo May task for the day.
I’m still working mine out. I’d like to drink a glass of water when I have my first diet coke of the day. And perhaps brush my teeth and moisturise the dry cracking skin on my face after the second.
Have you heard of habit stacking? What new habit would you add to your existing habits or routines?
* I actually skipped day two and moved to day three because day two involved ‘observing’ people and I didn’t leave the house. So…. 🙄
Photo: @drew_beamer via Unsplash
May 10, 2021
I’ve heard of habit stacking. I’m happy with my current habits and my day is pretty full so I wouldn’t add to my existing habits. What I did recently was to make small changes to my blogging habit to spend less time on blogging. #lifethisweek
May 10, 2021
Oh yes Natalie, you seen to be great at organising yourself and getting things done!
May 10, 2021
I hadn’t heard of habit stacking! Your post has reminded me of when I did “Mindful in May” back in 2018 and there was an interview with BJ Fogg about his ‘Tiny Habits Program’. Tiny habits is about breaking down the habit that you want to adopt to a tiny little habit, finding where it fits naturally in your day (through trial and error) and then attaching it to an existing habit to help anchor it. So there are similarities to what you’ve described here. I do have some habits I need to incorporate into my days so I should revisit this stuff! Also you’re not the first blogger I’ve heard has signed up to May Mojo month (which I’d not heard of before). I’m doing weekly art classes to try and activate my creative side but might try a writing focussed thing like May Mojo month another time. I am easily overwhelmed these days – so easy goes it! lol
May 10, 2021
It’s good that you’re getting into art Min. Do you still take photographs? And yes, the – attaching small habits to large habits – sounds similar and makes sense.
May 10, 2021
A new one for me Deb but it makes a lot of sense. I guess habits become ‘habits’ because we’ve slotted them neatly into our lives, so working around what we already have in place means we’re more likely to fit everything in. I’m a fairly orderly person so it makes a lot of sense to me to do something like this.
May 10, 2021
Absolutely Leanne, we don’t tend to think about our habits. Part of the exercise for the session was to identify our current habits and look at what we want to (or can) add before / after / during. My first thought was that I don’t really do much or at least the same thing every day but then realised ALL of the things we do – repetitively – each day. And of course some of my habits are bad (or at least not-great! Lolling about scrolling mindlessly on my phone comes to mind.).
May 10, 2021
I’ve not heard of this but I haven heard you can unlearn old habits and learn new habits by repetition. I guess this is part of it.
May 10, 2021
Yes it makes sense that stuff is more embedded the more we do it. (We just need to hope it’s the right stuff… 😉 )
May 10, 2021
I’m catching up on a few missed days of MOJO too but the habit stacking was a great activity!
May 11, 2021
It occurred to me that I don’t necessarily think of certain ‘things I do every day’ (or often) as habits.
May 11, 2021
I’ve never heard of habit stacking but it sounds like a good concept! It’s hard to change habits, so attaching a new habit to an existing one should make it easier. I like the idea.
May 11, 2021
Same Susanne. I’m still pondering what I want to work on. (There are so many things!!!)
May 11, 2021
A few years ago, I read that it takes 30 days to form a habit and went through a phase of adopting new habits but I always ditched them at the end of the 30 days! I have never heard of habit stacking until now and I think it’s genius. Logic (or at least my logic) dictates that a habit is more likely to stick if I do it alongside something I’m doing already. I will have to have a think, see what I can stack and report back. Keep us updated! My mind is still blown…
May 11, 2021
Yes Sammie I did the ‘photo-a-day’ thing and tried some other stuff in the hope I could adopt something (mindfulness by doing photo-a-day and living in the present) as I keep hearing about needing 21 days or 30 days to build a habit. I seem to be able to drop things too easily though. The moment it gets hard.
May 11, 2021
Okay, I haven’t heard of this before and where has it been all my life? I’m struggling with letting old habits go, but attaching new ones to old, I can get behind that.
May 11, 2021
I know. I don’t read self-help books read an enormous number of blog posts and articles so was surprised I hadn’t heard of it before. I’m trying to think of ways to replace certain bad habits with good ones via the stacking technique.
May 11, 2021
Thanks for the information on habit stacking. Anne Bogel wrote about it in her Overthinking book. I believe a lot of us do this intuitively. I need to (over)think about it some more.
May 11, 2021
Ha Laurie – I hear you. I’m the same. I haven’t worked out what I want to do yet and it is going to take me a while to process it I think.
May 12, 2021
Interesting when something like this resonates isn’t it? Every morning after breakfast I have always brushed my teeth. One habit. Since I was a kid. Once my cancer surgeries completely changed the inside of my mouth I had to add three new steps to this. New Habit added. Use the waterpik to clean all inside and around the mouth – up & down, use a microbrush to make sure no bits of food are sticking to where the abutments join the new jaw, brush my real teeth well (all 8) and then a quick brush of outside of upper prothesis and partial denture.
Most days I am pretty good with doing it without complaining to myself. Other times, I think, oh this is so tedious. Then I hear the voice of my prosthodontist who spent hours, and days on getting my teeth ready and his voice tells me “Denyse you are doing so well with your routine”….and I keep on keeping on. It’s been 2 and a half years now.
Thanks so much for linking up for Life This Week, reading the post on Knowing by my husband Bernard and for your kind words. He tells me, despite earlier thoughts, that he would like another go at this blog thing sometime this year. Looking forward to seeing your post for Share Your Snaps (optional of course!) next Monday, 17 May 2021. Denyse
May 13, 2021
I’m actually bad now at brushing my teeth in the morning. A dentist told me a few years ago not to brush within 30mins before or after I drink diet coke and because I have diet coke through most of the morning I just leave teeth brushing – unless I’m leaving the house.