# Habit Stacking The idea behind Habit Stacking is to help habit formation by linking new habits to existing ones. This concept was developed and popularized by [[James Clear]] in [[Atomic Habits (book)]]. By linking new habits to existing ones, you can leverage the existing neural pathways (i.e., your already "natural"/learned behaviors) to integrate those new habits more easily. The nice thing about this approach is that the existing habit is used to act as a trigger, cue or reminder for the new behavior. This approach relies on the brain's tendency to follow established neural pathways. It eliminates the need for additional willpower or motivation by creating triggers that naturally induce the desired behavior, instead of relying on vague intentions. As an example, instead of thinking "I'll exercise once a week" (vague), you can instead think "I'll do 10 push-ups just before my morning shower". Since you shower each morning, you'll think more easily about doing your exercise. Habit stacking makes new habits feel like a natural extension of something you're already doing on autopilot. Note that habit stacking requires paying attention to timing (i.e., don't link a new habit to another that doesn't have enough buffer time around for the new one), to energy (i.e., don't link a new tiresome habit to one that is already tiresome), and logic. When you decide to stack habits, you need to ensure they are both "compatible": both should happen around the same time, with the same frequency, in the right context, ... ## Related - [[Atomic Habits]] - [[Atomic Habits (book)]]