Forming good habits can be just as difficult as breaking bad ones. You know something is good for your health, your mind, or simply makes life easier, yet it's hard to keep the momentum going, or you just keep forgetting. While it can be frustrating, productivity experts and self-help professionals have found a method that can help you stick to a new good habit: stack it onto one you already have.
Life coach and habit builder Shelby Sacco quickly breaks down a simple technique to develop, retain, and maintain good habits dubbed "habit stacking" on her social media. Habit stacking is a technique popularized by author James Clear but founded by behavioral experts BJ Fogg and S.J. Scott that involves taking the habit that you wish to adopt and including it to your established routine. By combining what you have to do with what you get to do, your brain begins to associate the new habit with the one you already have baked in, essentially combining them into a single habit.
@shelbysacco5 HABIT STACKING is a simple, small and easy way to work towards your goals!! Comment one way you are going to habit stack this week and make sure you are following along with my series teaching you how to change your life 🫶🏼 #habitstacking #howtochangeyourlife #fyp #howtoglowup #habits #healthyhabits #howtohabitstack #habitstackingstips #habitstack
Here's an example of habit stacking: Let's say that you want to drink more water each day to meet hydration goals, but you can't seem to drink enough. In this situation, let's say that the first thing you do after your morning shower is brew coffee and fill up your mug. A way to habit stack is to take your mug and fill it up with water, drink it down, and then brew your coffee as you usually do. You won't have to think too much about it, since the elements of your established habit and your new habit are the same: you need water and a mug to make and drink coffee. If you wanted to drink more water, you could create additional habit stacks, like drinking another cup before making a second coffee or having a full glass of water with each meal.
@michellefairburn One of the best ways to build *new* habits is by taking advantage of old ones that we already have 💅 its really simple once you get the hang of it and can really improve your productivity✨ #habits #habit #healthyhabits #habitstacking #habitsofsuccess #habitsthatchangedmylife #dailyhabits #productivity #thehabithug
Many people succeed at habit stacking by incorporating one new habit with an existing one (for example, putting floss next to your toothbrush so you remember to floss before brushing), but that doesn't have to be the case. If you want to read more but can't seem to make time for that and exercise, you could listen to audiobooks while on the treadmill. If you and your partner want another regular date night but chores like laundry get in the way, you could try a "Laundry Date Night" on Wednesdays, going to the laundromat together and stopping by the cafe next door to chat while your clothes tumble dry.
By doubling up like this, you can turn less fun habits into something to look forward to each time. Or, on the opposite end, you can combine two not-so-fun chores to get them done at the same time and earn extra time back, rather than doing them separately.
@momoffmute Habit Stacking Hack #3: While you’re checking the fridge for what you need to meal plan… toss the leftovers. You’re already in there doing the inventory. You’re already pulling things out and making decisions. This tiny habit takes 20 seconds and keeps your fridge from becoming a science fair project you didn’t sign up for. Plus it makes meal planning so much easier because you can actually see what you have — no more planning meals around things that expired two Wednesdays ago. 😅 Tiny habits stacked onto things you’re already doing = a functional home with way less effort. If you want the simple systems that make mom life feel lighter, you should be following me 😘 habit stacking for moms | meal planning hacks | fridge clean out tips | simple home systems | mom off mute | overwhelmed mom help | functional kitchen routine | gentle productivity | cozy chaos mom | weekly reset routine
Like any habit, good or bad, momentum and repetition will cement it into your regular routine. You can then stack additional habits onto it again and again to achieve whatever goals you're working toward. Like anything else, good habits are best maintained when they're added and built over time, without judgment.
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.