Habit stacking is a technique for building new habits by attaching them to existing ones you already do regularly. By pairing a new habit with an established routine, you make the new behavior easier to remember and perform by leveraging the brain’s natural tendency to follow routines. An example is to do 10 pushups after your morning coffee.
What you get is an increased consistency with the existing habit and provides a cue and momentum to initiate the new behavior. Positive reinforcement creates a sense of accomplishment that motivates you to continue.
Begin with small, achievable habits that require minimal effort. Pair it with an existing habit or routine you already have, and see results quickly. Applying this technique to various aspects of business and your personal life is an effective way to build positive behavior and improve activities in your company. Let’s delve into this technique a bit deeper.
Photo by Vlada Karpovich
The following enumerates the various areas in which habit stacking can be done, followed by some examples. Note that this is not a comprehensive list, and you may find many more actions you can use to stack good habits.
Habit Stacking for Building a Growth Mindset
- Challenge Breakdown: Break down a new challenge into smaller steps before starting to make goals more manageable.
- Feedback and Guidance: Actively seek feedback and guidance during learning opportunities to embrace continuous improvement.
- Goal Progress Celebration: Celebrate your progress, big or small, following up on goals to stay motivated and inspired.
- Learn While Commuting: Leverage your commute (train, bus ride) to fuel your professional development by listening to a work-related audiobook or podcast. Linking new, beneficial actions to existing habits helps you incorporate them into your daily life through a potent tool called habit stacking.
For example, some have even finished their social work degrees via the fastest online MSW programs by listening to lectures while commuting. This method maximizes output by making mixing daily chores with education more straightforward.
Students can effectively manage their time and advance across their degrees more rapidly by including courses from the fastest online MSW programs into regular schedules. This approach promotes a growth attitude and shows the need for constant effort and wise preparation.
- Positive Attitude: Maintain an optimistic outlook while facing difficulties to boost resilience and perseverance.
- Setback Analysis: Conduct a setback analysis after experiencing a setback to turn challenges into opportunities.
Habit Stacking for Communication
- Call Follow-Up Thank You Note: Send a quick thank you note following up on calls to express appreciation and solidify connections.
- Conquer Your Inbox: Did you know that 88% of workers procrastinate for more than 60 minutes daily, costing the US economy around $70 billion annually? After checking your email, prioritize and tackle the two most critical responses first. This sets the tone for a productive day.
- Downtime Short Message Response: Utilize downtime productively by responding to short messages while on hold.
- Email Proofreading: Perform email proofreading before sending to reduce errors and maintain professionalism.
- Follow-Up First Thing: After each meeting, solidify key takeaways and action items by sending a quick email summary within the first 10 minutes. This ensures everyone is on the same page.
- Meeting Key Point Summary: Summarize key points after every meeting to reinforce decisions and action items.
- Move Around: Before a virtual meeting, stand up and walk around for a few minutes to boost your energy levels. This helps you enter the meeting feeling more engaged.
- One Note, One Skill Share: When collaborating with colleagues, offer a specific point of praise for their skills or expertise, then share a relevant tip or resource you learned recently. This fosters a culture of knowledge sharing and team development.
- Presentation Visual Aids: Integrate visual aids during presentations to enhance clarity and audience engagement.
Habit Stacking for Customer Service
- Additional Support Resources: Offer additional support resources before ending a call to anticipate customer needs.
- Customer Personalization: Personalize your interactions while greeting customers to build rapport and positive experiences.
- Exclusive Deals: Offer exclusive deals as customer follow-up to foster loyalty and encourage repeat business.
- Product Knowledge Base Review: Review your product knowledge base articles during downtime to stay updated on product features and upgrades.
- Ticket Resolution Satisfaction Survey: Send a satisfaction survey after resolving a ticket to gather valuable feedback for improvement.
Habit Stacking for Health and Well-being
- Hydration Station: Keep a reusable water bottle at your desk and refill it after every bathroom break. Staying hydrated improves focus and overall well-being.
- Lunch and Learn Evolution: During your lunch break, attend a short online webinar or training related to your field.
- Mindful Minute: After finishing a complex task, take a minute to close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and clear your mind. This helps reduce stress and improve focus. Mindfulness for managers is also a thing—it is not just for employees!
- Stretch and Stay Active: Set an alarm to go off every hour as a reminder to do some simple stretches or take a walk around the office. This keeps your blood flowing and helps prevent stiffness.
- Use software for Task Automation: One does not need to do manual tasks if the software can do them more quickly and efficiently. For example, accountants utilize the
best accounting software for bookkeepers instead of doing manual calculations.
Habit Stacking for Innovation and Creativity
- Active Participation: During meetings, encourage active participation from all team members to leverage the collective knowledge of your team.
- Brainstorming Key Ideas and Action Steps: Document key ideas and action steps following up on brainstorming sessions to capture valuable insights and move ideas forward.
- Openness and Diverse Thinking: Encourage openness and diverse thinking before starting a brainstorming session to foster an environment for creative exploration.
- Project Completion Brainstorming: Conduct a brainstorming session after finishing a project to capitalize on momentum and fresh perspectives for future projects.
- Unstructured Thinking: Schedule time for unstructured thinking while working on projects to allow space for unexpected solutions to emerge.
Habit Stacking for Marketing
- Blog Post Sharing: Share your blog post on social media after publishing to increase content reach and engagement.
- Campaign Audience Demographic Analysis: Analyze audience demographics before starting a new campaign to tailor content for optimal impact.
- Financial modeling: Analyze updated spreadsheets every day with scenario analyses and profit and loss forecasts to determine your updated pricing strategies. Coordinate with your finance or accounting departments for best results.
- Marketing Lead Follow-Up: Nurture leads generated through marketing with valuable resources to convert leads into sales.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Focus on search engine optimization (SEO) while creating content to improve organic reach.SEO is very important—did you know that U.S. brands and agencies spent an estimated $79.27 billion on SEO services in 2020?
- Social Media Engagement: Respond to comments and messages during social media engagement to build brand loyalty.
Photo by Startup Stock Photo
Habit Stacking for Project Management
- Gather Your Documents: Before starting a new project, gather all the necessary resources (documents, files) and put them in a dedicated folder (physical or digital). This proactive approach saves time and streamlines your workflow.
- Milestone Follow-Up: Offer recognition and support follow-up on milestones to celebrate achievements and address roadblocks.
- Post-project File and Forget: After finishing a project, ensure all documents and files are properly saved and organized in a designated location. This saves time searching for things later.
- Project Management Tools Utilization: Utilize project management tools while managing tasks to streamline communication and progress tracking.
- Project Scope and Goal Definition: Define clear scope and goals before starting a new project to ensure everyone is on the same page.
- Task Delegation and Deadline Setting: Delegate tasks and set deadlines during team meetings to establish accountability and avoid bottlenecks.
- Team Debrief: Conduct a team debrief after wrapping up a project to identify areas for future optimization.
Habit Stacking for Remote Work
- Dedicated Workspace: Set up a dedicated workspace before starting your day to minimize distractions and create a productive atmosphere.
- Lunch Break Unplugging: Unplug and disconnect while taking lunch breaks to enhance focus and well-being. Listen to a podcast while you eat.
- Response Times: Set clear expectations for response times in following up on work communication; establish boundaries for a healthy work-life balance.
- Short Walk: Take a short walk after completing a focused work session to break up sedentary time and boost energy.
- Tidy Workspace: Before working, take a moment to tidy your desk and jot down 3 essential tasks you absolutely must complete that day. Having a clear workspace and a to-do list helps maintain focus.
- Video calls: Dress professionally and maintain eye contact during video calls to project a polished and engaged image.
Habit Stacking for Sales Performance
- Active Listening: Actively listen to customer needs during sales calls to understand their pain points.
- Daily Sales Goal Review: Conduct a daily sales goal review before starting your day to set clear intentions for success.
- Lead Updates: Update CRM information after every lead interaction to maintain accurate records.
- Proposal Follow-Up: Schedule a call to discuss following up on proposals to increase conversion rates.
- Prospect Company Background Research: Conduct prospect company background research while prospecting to tailor your pitch for better engagement.
Photo by C k
Habit Stacking for Time Management
- Pomodoro Technique: Utilize the Pomodoro Technique which involves working in focused intervals (25 minutes) with short breaks 5 minutes) in between. This approach helps maintain focus and avoid burnout.
- To-Do List: Review your to-do list and prioritize the next day’s tasks after finishing a task to stay organized and focused.
- Schedule Planning: Plan out your schedule before starting work for the day to allocate time for key tasks.
Conclusion
With the above practical tips, stacking new habits with familiar routines will help you develop more positive traits and new productive habits in no time. These will enhance your personal life and improve company productivity as you grow from strength to strength. So, develop new and great habits and watch your future successes multiply!