Habit Stacking

The Promise

Install a new habit by attaching it to a current automatic one. No new cue to detect, no new willpower to spend.

How It Works

• Identify a high-frequency anchor habit. Something that already happens daily, at a stable time, in a stable place.
• Write the stack as one explicit sentence. After [anchor], I will [new habit]. Both halves must be concrete enough that an outside observer could verify them.
• Keep the new habit small enough that the anchor's momentum carries it. Scale after the chain is automatic, not before.

In Practice

The cue was never the missing piece. The reliable noticing was. Stacking works because the anchor habit is already reliably noticed, and the new behavior rides on the back of that noticing rather than depending on a fresh signal each day.