Melinda J. Irvine

Habit Stacking: 127 Small Actions That Take Five Minutes or Less by S.J. Scott (2017 edition).
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Habit Stacking is a handy little book to help you make some simple changes in your day that lead to a more effective life.

Basically you start by looking at areas of your life where you want to improve or achieve goals. Things like: playing a musical instrument, writing a novel, getting more clients, having a better quality relationship, lowering your blood pressure.

Next you create a ‘habit stack’ by grouping 2-5 actions together that are easy to do and with daily repetition become a real part of your life. To lower your blood pressure maybe it’s waking up and drinking a glass of water with lemon, meditating for 10 minutes, then going for a 20 minute walk.

Steve Scott the author suggests beginning with 1 or 2 quick actions and gradually add to the ‘stack’ as each action becomes a habit and is done everyday without thinking. Even better stack a habit onto something you already do everyday. A great example is making yourself a cup of coffee every morning, why not add drinking a glass of water?

Habit Stacking is divided into sections on setting goals; the psychology of habits and how they are formed; how to create your own habit stacks; and then a large section at the end with suggested habits and how to implement them.

The suggested habits in the final sections are divided into …

• career habits (planning your day, switching devices to airplane mode)
• finance habits (tracking expenses, reviewing a budget)
• health habits (walking, taking a break between jobs, drinking water)
• leisure habits (reading a book, getting outside)
• organising habits (putting stuff away, unsubscribing to emails)
• relationship habits (networking, date-nights)
• spiritual habits (praying, practicing gratitude)

The book ‘Habit Stacking‘ is quick and easy to read and you can incorporate the ideas and suggestions into your life right away. You’ll probably read it in a few hours and then keep referring back as you build yourself a new and improved way of living.

Habits often get a bad wrap for being unsexy and boring. But what if you developed the simple steady habits of writing everyday as soon as you wakeup, always saying please whenever you ask for something, turning off your cellphone before you go to bed, and drinking a big glass of water first thing every morning? How would your life look?

Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness get’s 5 stars from me because the content is simple and effective, it’s easy to navigate (chapters are easy to understand and click through to sections that interest you) and very easy to read.

© 2018 Melinda J. Irvine

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