How to build a new habit: habit stacking

Last week, we started small - this week I’m going to talk about another one of my favourite techniques for (re)building a habit or music-related habit like practicing. 

Habit stacking. 

This one helped me a lot with different habits I wanted to build into my daily life, but I just had a very hard time getting it to stick. 

Keep in mind, we are continuing small. 

The idea is that we attach the new thing to the end of an already formed habit. In my most recent case, I wanted to start meditating daily, but I just couldn’t get started, or I’d start, and just let it slide because I’d forget, or think “I’m too busy right now, I’ll do it tomorrow” but then tomorrow kept getting pushed back…until tomorrow. 

I started attaching that to my morning workout (another habit that got stacked onto finishing my breakfast and coffee.) After my session and cool-down, I’ll just sit with my guided meditation from my favourite fitness app or just sit for a few minutes and practice box-breathing. I framed it in my mind in a way that meant I wasn’t done working out until I completed this new task. 

With practicing, or doing something creative, pick something in your day that is a constant, and try to do a little after that. Keeping the new task small - see last Tuesday’s post for small ideas to introduce, after a while the original task will become a reminder of the second task when they grow their association with each other. 

So let’s go stack some habits! 

If you’re looking for flute lessons with a focus on nurturing creativity, sparking curiosity, and finding what works for you, drop me a line and we can chat. They’re online, so they can happen anywhere!