The dirty dishes on your kitchen counter remain there not because you don't have a goal of keeping a clean kitchen. They remain there because a clean kitchen, ready for the next meal, has yet to be integrated into your system.
What's interesting is that your systems interact.
The dirty dishes don't just affect cleanliness. They introduce friction into other routines downstream, such as preparing the next meal to stay healthy.
The question then becomes: Which existing routine can you adjust so that its interaction with your wider system naturally produces a clean kitchen?
This is the essence of habit stacking.
As Atomic Habits author James Clear explains, one of the most effective ways to build a new habit is to identify a habit you already do each day and stack your new habit on top.
You stack a habit you need to do onto a habit you already do.
For example, if you want to exercise more, you might decide to do ten pushups immediately after getting out of bed each morning.
The same principle can be applied to the dishes.
Perhaps you wash them immediately after eating. Perhaps you wash them before making your smoothie. Perhaps you clean them the moment you enter the kitchen and notice them.
The specific slot matters less than finding one that fits naturally into your existing system.
You can treat it as an experiment.
Choose one promising slot and stack the new behaviour onto it. Observe the results. Adjust if necessary. Keep refining until the behaviour fits smoothly within your lifestyle.
Once you've found an arrangement that works, repeat it. Not because you are chasing a clean kitchen, but because you have built a system that produces one.
1. James Clear, Atomic Habits.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for reading this piece on BasicPulse...
Do you have questions, suggestions or comments?
Please leave them in the comment section below.
Be remarkable!