Habit Stacking Thread 📚

[Mellmars1185]

Hello BIC! Habit stacking is something I have been doing mindfully for the past few years now and thought it would be fun to discuss and share here. It has helped me save time, be more efficient and have more time for what is important to me (spend time with family/friends, scroll on BIC, read).

What is habit stacking?

Habit stacking is essentially exactly what it sounds like: taking a new habit and adding it to something you already do habitually. Habit stacking works by identifying a habit or a behavior you want to start doing and tacking it onto something you already do regularly.

Example (I do all of these at the same time):

First Habit - Prepping and making a meal in the Instant Pot

Second - Put a load of laundry on while the food is cooking

Third - Putting hair oil on my scalp or put a hair mask in

Forth - Work out (while I am working out, dinner is cooking, laundry is washing and my hair is getting a treatment)

I thought maybe this could be a space where we discuss our habit stacking, share ideas, support, learn and motivate eachother. 

What habit stacking did you do today? 

 

 

Spoiler

I am open for suggestions for this thread. Maybe we can do challenges weekly or monthly?

[Mellmars1185]

@niki172 It sounds like you have your habit stacking down packed. It also sounds like you get a lot done early in the day. That is something I want to work on. I want to start waking up a bit earlier so I can fit some of my daily tasks done in the morning, so I can relax more later in the day. 

[itsfi]

@niki172, your habit stack sounds fantastic. It makes for a super efficient and productive weekend morning.

[niki172]

@itsfi it gets a lot done especially after the build up of things that didn't necessarily get completed during the work week. Now if there were only a button I could press to clean the kitty litter box 😅.

[heartsmyface]

@Mellmars1185  I had to wash 15 beauty blenders tonight so I decided to mask cause I figured it would take a long time.  Sure enough, the 20 minute masking session was done by the time the last sponge was clean.  

Aaaaaand nows a good time to meditate while I do a hand mask to recover from all the sponge squeezing:). Juice Beauty GREEN APPLE™ Peel Sensitive SEPHORA COLLECTION Holiday Mango Hand Mask 

[Mellmars1185]

@heartsmyface This sounds like a wonderful beauty habit stack! Clean Beauty Blenders = Soft hands. Sounds like a win win to me. What kind of meditation do you do? I have been trying some out on a music streaming app.

[itsfi]

Sheet masking + washing beauty blenders or brushes is a great pairing, @heartsmyface. I may have to give that one a try. 

[itsfi]

I have one other habit stack I want to try to incorporate on a regular basis from now until end of May (and hopefully beyond if this works out well for unwinding) @Mellmars1185.  I'll aim to do this 2x per week. 

Current Habit - skincare routine, part 2 - face oil and, if necessary, spot treat with Peace Out Salicylic Acid Acne Healing Dots 

New Habit - Kérastase Nutritive 8H Magic Night Serum Hydrating Treatment for Dry Hair 3.04 oz / 90 ml (one night during the week) and for the other night, an overnight hair mask that can go on dry hair. Put hair up or in a quick braid.

followed by: 

Current Habit - light candle, do light stretching, lay out work clothes for the next day, and try to rest and unwind before bed

New Habit  - restorative yoga (20-40 minutes) to unwind & destress, followed by [putting cell phone in the hallway - this will help with my digital detox], moisturizing feet, applying cuticle oil to nails and hand cream. Lights out and time for bed

[heartsmyface]

@itsfi  This sounds so relaxing.  Laying out clothes for the next day is relatively new to me and gosh has it saved me so much stress in the mornings!   

[itsfi]

@heartsmyface, the restorative yoga by candlelight is something I'm hoping will help me unwind and sleep better. It'll be good to for some extra stretching and relieving soreness and aches. Oh, laying out clothes the night before has saved me many moments of standing in front of my closet, staring, and thinking "I don't have anything to wear" when in reality, I have plenty but can't make up my mind. 😂 

[heartsmyface]

@itsfi  Ha, same, my issue is I have too much to wear and I can’t make up my mind on the spot.  so I have an enjoyable dress up session at night while it’s not urgent and lay everything out neatly from the final product.  

I wish I had a capsule wardrobe at times just for the convenience but I know I’d be bored sick.  

[Mellmars1185]

@heartsmyface I can totally relate to having too much...although, can you ever have too many clothes? I think I just don't have enough space and need more storage/organization systems 😅 @itsfi 

[itsfi]

@heartsmyface, I tried doing the capsule wardrobe a couple of years ago; well, technically, it was probably a capsule wardrobe with a twist. Okay, a lot of twists. Adjusted to what I thought would work for me, which is to say that I gave myself more options than I'm sure what is intended with having a capsule wardrobe. Whoops. Instead of seasonal, I went with a monthly rotating capsule wardrobe (and felt stretched by that, too). I had read somewhere that a basic minimalist wardrobe was around 28 - 42 pieces, excluding accessories. I may try doing it again. We shall see. Roughly 50 pieces (yeah, I'm not even rounding correctly - 42 max, really?) every season seems like it might be most doable for me in the summer months, but summers here have varying temperatures, so maybe not as I say that aloud. Hmmm... could this be a project for the summer?

[Mellmars1185]

@itsfi Ohh I like this addition! Lots of self care/love. I am curious about your restorative yoga routine. My current exercise routine is on my phone so I can't do the digital detox while working out. It is something I want to include in my routine. Thank you for the inspiration. I would love to hear how your new additions work for you 😀

[itsfi]

@Mellmars1185, I found two articles with different poses for restorative yoga - one with 6 poses and the other with 8 poses. I'll start with the 6 pose one first. 😉  And may try the 8 pose one next month, if I'm finding restorative yoga helpful and I'm keeping up with it 2x per week. While I wouldn't have a problem with pulling up the article on my phone or laptop to do restorative yoga, I'm going to print out the pages / photos with the poses and for now, I'll use the timer on my phone until I can find my timer device - it's in one of the boxes for "kitchen tools" that I need to finish unpacking. I'm going to start out the first week with holding each pose for 3 minutes, then 4 the next week and then 5 the next. That'll bring me to 30 minutes with the 6 poses. If I can hold them longer, great, but I figured I should start off small and build my way up to the 5+ minutes per pose.

• from fitsri(dot)com - "6 Best Restorative Yoga Poses for Beginners (and Its Benefits) by Ashish
• from purewow(dot)com - "The 8 Best Restorative Yoga Poses for Stress Relief" by Alexia Dellner

If restorative yoga works out well and I'm sticking with it, I will likely pick up these restorative yoga flash cards I found online that has an illustration of the pose on one side and a description of how to get into that pose and its benefits on the other side. I'm going to hold off on getting the flash cards until I know it's something I can stick with - I have plenty of things I've picked up and then haven't kept up with them that I'm trying to be better about it. 

This may just be me, but I find that if you need your phone for something like your workout, an audio book, or timing yourself, it's fine. It may not be strictly a digital detox but I feel like it's fine under those circumstances.

I'll definitely be back here to post updates on how this habit stack is going, as well as the other ones I've been working on. 

[Mellmars1185]

@itsfi That sounds like a wonderful routine. I have tried beginners yoga on YouTube. I will check out restorative. Holding a pose for a long period of time is not something I have tried yet. I will check out the sites. Thank you!

[itsfi]

@Mellmars1185, long, long ago, there was a yoga studio near my house that offered candlelight restorative yoga a couple of times per week. The purpose is to help your body and mind unwind; also supposed to be good for sleeping better. I never got home in time to attend a session but it sounded so relaxing, but I did have a few 1 on 1 sessions with one of the instructors and had asked her about that restorative class, so she had me do a couple of the poses from the class, holding them longer than usual, and it felt really good. 

[Mellmars1185]

I did a small beauty habit stack today that I thought was worth mentioning. I like to wash my makeup brushes on Sundays. Today I showered and used the K18 Biomimetic Hairscience Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask 1.7 oz/ 50 mL . While it was marinating, I washed my makeup brushed with mybSephora Solid Brush Cleanser. I hope it is not discontinued. I can no longer tag it or find it.

[CynthieLu]

 This is a great thread idea! @Mellmars1185. The whole concept of Habit Stacking is intriguing. I just played catch up on posts  ☕ 🫖

I needed to read through to really get a feel for what this is. I haven't heard of this concept, but after catching up it seems to make sense to me. Though Im still vague on how I can put this into play in my own life. I think I'll need to get inspired to come up with something that will work with my life and way of doing things. 😉

 I'm a little already doing this in my night routine I think.🌙

At the end of the day when I wash my face, I also brush my teeth. And then finish up with my nighttime skincare. I like to do all my bathroom things in one go.

  It's helpful because then I won't be tempted to skip anything. And I try to do this after my dinner, if I let it go to late it's hard to pull my tired self to do anything. 💤

After all that and I'm still in the skin care zone, I try to do my scalp serum ( The Ordinary Multi-Peptide Serum for Hair Density 2 oz/ 60 mL ) and brush my hair and put a little oil on the ends. 

[Mellmars1185]

@CynthieLu That sounds like a great routine. I like that you try to do these steps after dinner. I feel like brushing my teeth after eating dinner would help me avoid any late night snacking!

[Mellmars1185]

My friend got me a hair thingy. I am not sure what it is called. It is a device that you put on top of your and wrap your hair around it to get heatless waves/curls. So I tried it out for the first time the other night before bed so I could wake-up with my hair done...I think I need more practice. She told me to spray Hairspray in my hair next time before wrapping my hair and to do it tighter. I will provide an update if it works. I like idea that I can sleep while ky hair is doing itself. More to come!

[CynthieLu]

What is this hair thingy @Mellmars1185 lol. I'm curious. It's it one of those satin-y rod's, or something else all together?

Definitely, any new hair tool or accessory, just needs a bit of practice attempts. I bet you'll figure it out in no time! 💖