Give your habits a time and a space to live in the world.

Here is today’s Game and what’s going on.

Here is what I discovered today in our Dadly Daily Declaration readings from Chapter 5 of Atomic Habits by James Clear.  The title of this chapter is “The Best Way to Start a New Habit.”

Today’s chapter explains a couple ways to start building new habits. Here are a few highlights from today’s readings:

• A simple way to begin a new habit is to make a plan about when and where to act.  This plan is called an implementation intention: how you intend to implement a particular habit.
• The cues that can trigger a habit come in a wide range of forms, but the two most common cues are time and location. Implementation intensions leverage both cues.
• The format fro creating an implementation intention is: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.”
• Once an implementation intention has been set, you do not have to wait for inspiration to strike. When the moment of action occurs, there is no need to make a decision. Simply follow your predetermined plan.
• The simple way to apply this strategy is to fill out this sentence: “I will {BEHAVIOR} at {TIME} in {LOCATION}.
  • Here are a few examples:
    • Meditation: I will meditate for one minute at 7 am in my kitchen
    • Exercise: I will exercise for one hour at 5 pm in my local gym
    • Marriage: I will make my partner a cup of tea at 8 am in the kitchen.

• Being specific about what you want and how you will achieve it helps you say no to things that derail progress, distract your attention, and pull you off course.
• Give your habits a time and a space to live in the world. The goal is to make the time and location so obvious that, with enough repetition, you get an urge to do the right thing at the right time, even if you can’t say why.
• You often decide what to do next based on what you have just finished doing. No behavior happens in isolation. Each action becomes a cue that triggers the next behavior. When it comes to building habits, you can use the connectedness of behavior to your advantage.
• One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This approach of implementation intention is habit stacking.
• The habit stacking formula is: “After {CURRENT HABIT}, I will {NEW HABIT}.
  • Some examples for you:
    • Meditation: After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute.
    • Exercise: After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes.
    • Gratitude: After I Sid down to dinner, I will say one thing I’m grateful for that happened today.
    • Marriage: After I get into bed at night, I will give my partner a kiss.
• The key is to tie your desired behavior into something you already do each day. Once you’ve mastered this basic structure, you can begin to create larger stacks by chaining small habits together. This allows you to take advantage of the natural momentum that comes from one behavior leading into the next.
  • So you’re morning routine habit stack may look like this:
    • After I pour my morning cup of coffee, I will meditate for sixty seconds.
    • After I meditate for sixty seconds, I will write my to-do list for the day.
    • After I write my to-do list for the day, I will immediately begin my first task.
• Habit stacking allows you to create a set of simple rules that guide your future behavior. It’s like you always have a game plan for which action should come next. Once you get comfortable with this approach, you can develop general habit stacks to guide you whenever the situation is appropriate.
• The secret to creating a successful habit stack is selecting the right cue to kick things off. When and where you choose to insert a habit into your daily routine can make a big difference.
• Your cue should also have the same frequency as your desired habit. Habit stacking works best when the cue is highly specific and immediately actionable.

Tweets by JamesClear

Those gems lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:

People who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through. Many people believe they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.

Habits like “read more” and “eat better” are worthy causes, but these goals do not provide instruction on how and when to act. Be specific and clear: After I close the door. After I brush my teeth. After I sit down at the table. The specificity is important. The more tightly bound your new habit is to a specific cue, the better the odds are that you will notice when the time comes to act.