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[music] -Hi. Thanks for listening to

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the Practicing Connection podcast.

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I'm Jessica. My cohost Coral is here as well.

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Today we'll be talking

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about habit stacking.

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Coral will be sharing a practice with us.

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Hi, Coral. How are you? -Hey, Jessica. I'm doing well.

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It was so nice to have a couple

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of weeks over the holiday break

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to decompress a little bit. I spent a good bit of that time

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catching up with my folks.

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They do live just right

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around the corner from me,

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but that pace of life

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just over the holidays

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is a little bit more relaxed. One thing I particularly enjoyed

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was listening to their conversations.

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They're planning an upcoming trip

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to Alaska for a cruise,

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which is really different from the way

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that they've traveled in the past,

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but it's going to be their

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40th wedding anniversary.

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Again, it's just an interesting thing

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to listen in on.

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I've listened to lots

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of their travel conversations

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over the years, 40 years. My dad, these days

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he navigates some mobility challenges.

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It was a reflective space

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that I was in just thinking about

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how the way they travel has shifted

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over the course of their partnership.

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It was really just beautiful

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to think about the fact

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that they're still

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adventuring together,

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even though it looks different

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in this season of life for them.

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A nutshell takeaway that I'm going

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to bring forward into the new year

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is just looking at things

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in a different way,

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trying things in a different way.

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Even if the previous ways

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of doing those things

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don't align with this current season, is there a different way

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that I can approach things

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or have it look a little bit differently

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that serves me better?

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Being okay with that,

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being joyful in that.

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That's my spark

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for this most recent little bit of life.

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How about you? -How are you? -That's wonderful. Approximately how many houses away?

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Is it around a corner? Is it down the street?

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I'm curious. -It is a 11-minute walk.

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-Oh, 11-minute walk.

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It's a little ways. By contrast, I live,

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it's approximately four houses away

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from my mother-in-law's house,

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but it is also around a corner. It feels like it's a little further,

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but it's really close.

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I wish my parents lived nearby. That's really cool

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that you could witness that. My parents just had their

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50th wedding anniversary.

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Your parents are just right

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around that corner as well.

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How cool. I've actually been, I guess,

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inspired maybe this week by writing

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some nice things about myself and my work.

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It's funny, but as of our recording,

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it's the time of year

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when my organization goes

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through performance management.

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There's a lot that I have to say,

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and there's a lot that I dislike

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about the whole process. I have to say,

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I would say that about the way

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performance management

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is conducted across

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many, many, many organizations,

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but there's one thing

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I like about this time of year,

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because before I meet with my supervisor,

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I reflect on all the things that went well

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and I make sure to notice the things that

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I felt like I knocked out of the park.

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I'll write out all of the things

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that I accomplished,

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whether they were planned accomplishments that are in my

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performance management report

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that I need to report on, or whether they were

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surprise accomplishments.

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I'm always pleasantly surprised

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by how many things

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I've accomplished over the year. It's a nice way to go into the new year.

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Also, it makes me very uncomfortable

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to say nice things about myself

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and it's a good exercise for me

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in general.

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-No, that's such an important practice

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to celebrate our own wins.

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I love that you can find that

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sparkle in something

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that can be a bit

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of an uncomfortable process.

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You do amazing work. I'm really glad that you're able to

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recognize that for yourself, Jess.

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-Oh, thank you. We'd love to hear what's inspiring you.

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Please share what's inspiring you

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Let us know

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what's inspiring you right now.

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[music] Let's learn more about

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habit stacking, Coral.

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Can you tell us

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a little more about the practice

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that you'll be sharing

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and why you chose it?

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-Absolutely. If any of our listeners have read

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the book Atomic Habits by James Clear,

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they're probably already familiar

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with this practice.

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I personally love the practice

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of habit stacking because to me

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it's one of the most approachable ways to find or to begin

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cultivating new habits.

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Oftentimes when we're going about

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new habit formation,

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it can feel like we're just a little bit

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lost about where to begin.

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Habit stacking gives us something

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to anchor those new habits in.

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Behaviorists will refer

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to this as a trigger.

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A trigger is something

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that we recognize that can--

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Perhaps not recognize,

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sometimes it's subconscious.

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In this case, it is conscious. Essentially, a trigger just helps us

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kick off another particular action.

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-I feel like that was a really good teaser. I have questions, but all those questions

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are about how to do it.

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Let's get started with that. Please walk us through

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how to start habit stacking.

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-Sure thing.

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First, I'm just going to break it down

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and then maybe we can walk through

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an example afterwards

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to give it greater context

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and bring it to life.

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To begin habit stacking,

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it's very straightforward.

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First, you just clearly define

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what habit it is

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that you would like to establish. The more clearly you can establish this,

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the better.

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Then next, determine how frequently

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this habit should happen.

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This is really important. Should this be daily, weekly, monthly?

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Also, what time of day

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does this need to occur

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if you really want to drill into it? Next, once you've got those two bits,

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then you can identify a current habit

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that you already have,

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and this will serve

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as the trigger for the new habit.

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The key here is that you want

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the current habit that you have

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to have a similar frequency

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to the new habit.

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For instance, if your new habit is daily,

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you don't want to pick something

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that only happens once a week.

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You want something

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that has the same frequency

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so you can keep it going. -Let's go through an example of this.

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-Sure thing. One practice that I've always hear

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friends and colleagues mention

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as an intention

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each new year is often mindfulness.

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It's always something that can serve us well. Let's just take mindfulness

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for an example.

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A simple mindfulness practice that we can define as a habit

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is one minute of breathing.

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Maybe you want to have

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a mindful minute each day, so daily.

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Maybe you want to begin your day

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with this.

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With all of that in mind,

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so we've got a daily habit.

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It's short and something that needs to happen

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towards the start of the day.

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For me, something that immediately

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comes to mind is coffee.

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No great day ever starts

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in my life without coffee.

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I would probably start off

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by stacking these two habits together.

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To pull all of this together, I would summarize my habit stack

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something like this.

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Again, this is going to sound

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very nuanced,

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but again, the more clearly

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that you can define all of this,

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the better. Here's my habit stack for this instance.

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When I press the start button

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on my morning coffee to begin brewing it,

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I'll set a gentle timer

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on my phone for one minute

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and breathe slowly in my kitchen

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with my eyes closed.

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Then I'll have my coffee. -That's wonderful.

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When you first mentioned coffee,

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I was thinking about that moment

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when you sit down with your hot cup,

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whether that's coffee or tea or whatever,

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when you sit down with that hot cup

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and you pick it up

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and you maybe smell it, it's usually too hot for me

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to drink at first.

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I usually need to wait a minute for it

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to cool down anyway,

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but I love to hold the hot cup.

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I was thinking about that moment being when I might establish a one-minute

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mindfulness breathing exercise.

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It really can be however it works for you, I think, is the point that

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I'm trying to make here.

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-Absolutely. I love that, too,

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you're bringing in other

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sensory aspects into this

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that help you ground in something

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that would be a mindfulness practice.

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I have to do it while I'm brewing my coffee. I have a two-year-old

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and he's usually up and at them

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less than five minutes

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after I wake up without fail.

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It's totally about finding

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how this blends into your life

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and works with the flow rather than

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going against the grain and friction.

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It's all about flow and helping things

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just go into the fold more seamlessly

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than not. -It's a super simple practice.

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I feel like it has so much leeway

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for you to decide

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what's going to work best for you,

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which I think is really important

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because I think there's a lot of advice

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out there about

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how you should set up your mornings,

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how you should set up your evenings,

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all the different things

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that you should incorporate into your day.

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This is really just,

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no, just find one thing

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that you already do

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and tack something small onto it.

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Thank you so much for sharing this.

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-Absolutely. I'd really be curious

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to hear what our listeners,

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if they're employing this,

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what you're using habit stacking for

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to incorporate into your new year.

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-That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining us.

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If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app

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to share it with a friend.

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We'll be back next week with a practice for incorporating

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the one-minute agreement.

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Until then, keep practicing. [music]

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-The Practicing Connection podcast

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is a production of OneOp

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and is supported by the National Institute

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2023-48770-41333.

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[music]