"Stacking" your habits- Common Sense for better follow thru

KETOGENICGURL

This is such common sense, yet we need reminding.

Many of us are still learning how best to do LCHF..even after months, and tons of reading and education.

New articles on "stacking habits" may help…for me ESPECIALLY with water consumption.

So to begin this new habit when I take my empty coffee cup back to the kitchen I fill a 16oz glass with water..and carry that with me. Also since I have't counted water cups per day I am filing 2 large containers..and just aiming to drink all by late eve.

Lastly I remember the adage "do a thing for 21 days, and it becomes a habit"…this applies to moving the cat's food dish..takes them 3 weeks to stop going to the old spot..hahaahah SURELY a human can do as well?

http://99u.com/articles/38251/stacking-habits-how-to-finally-stick-to-your-morning-routine
example: “You don’t need to train in flossing all your teeth, you need to train in making it automatic.”

Fogg went on to explain how once one of your new “tiny habits” has become a full-blown habit, you can use this existing habit as a gateway to creating many others; effectively “stacking” one habit on top of another.

they also don't recommend doing more than 1old+1new at a time

pondsbb

Also since I have't counted water cups per day I am filing 2 large containers..and just aiming to drink all by late eve.

thanks for the idea. Ill have to do that too as counting water is beyond my grasp.

KarlaYP

This woe leads to many new habits! I believe too that one at a time works best though. Things can become too overwhelming when we try to tackle too much at once! Thanks for the information!

mlinton_mesapark

Thanks @KETOGENICGURL for sharing this article! I love the idea of stacking habits. Now if I can just figure out how to make myself get up with the alarm in the morning, instead of waiting for my kids to wake me up... must get a handle on this before school starts.

kirkor

The index card technique works well for this too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1x99m6/im_a_piece_of_*kitten*_no_more_games_no_more_lies_no/cf9dz72
(I'd copy-and-paste the post but it's pretty long)

There's a good precedent in the way Benjamin Franklin pursued his 13 Virtues:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/02/24/lessons-in-manliness-benjamin-franklins-pursuit-of-the-virtuous-life/

In order to keep track of his adherence to these virtues, Franklin carried around a small book of 13 charts. The charts consisted of a column for each day of the week and 13 rows marked with the first letter of his 13 virtues. Franklin evaluated himself at the end of each day. He placed a dot next to each virtue each had violated. The goal was to minimize the number of marks, thus indicating a “clean” life free of vice.

Franklin would especially focus on one virtue each week by placing that virtue at the top that week’s chart and including a “short precept” to explain its meaning. Thus, after 13 weeks he had moved through all 13 virtues and would then start the process over again.