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If you’ve been reading these blogs for a while (and / or have me as friend on Facebook or just know me), you’ll be aware we got a dog towards the end of last year.
Four kids wasn’t enough of a challenge 😉
We realised a few months ago that part of the reason that she was a bit annoying in the early evening was that she was hungry.
We generally intended to give her tea at the same time as we had ours.
But we get frozen cubes of raw dog food delivered.
Which, of course, takes a bit of time to defrost.
If we only remembered at tea time, it would be an hour or two till she got it.
So we set reminders on our phone.
For mid afternoon.
To get them out then so they were ready at tea time.
Invariably though the reminded would go off and we weren’t in a position to sort it.
We were in the park.
Or just in the middle of something else.
And by the time we were next near the freezer we’d forgotten.
So, I decided to follow my own advice.
To piggy-back an existing habit.
Something we always, always do.
That’s near the freezer.
At about the right sort of time.
I picked loading the dishwasher after lunch.
Load the dishwasher, get Jessie’s food out.
A piggybacked habit.
To start with we still had to make an effort to remember.
But it very soon became an automatic process.
It jumps to mind as I’m loading the dishwasher.
Same as it jumps to mind when I lock the back door last thing at night and get her breakfast out to defrost overnight.
Piggybacking habits can be a powerful way to get things done relatively easily.
Take something you consistently do.
A pair it up with something you’re struggling to do sufficiently regularly.
Picking, of course, things that work well together.
Either from a timing, location, duration or whatever else perspective.
Brush teeth –> Moisturise face
Get home –> Do workout
Take clothes off for bed –> Put workout gear out for the morning
Submit weekly work report –> Book GTP sessions for the coming week
Finish favourite programme on a Sunday night –> Online food order
Finishing Saturday lunch – Plan meals for coming days / week
Leave work –> Go to RISE (soon……….)
And so on.
Existing habit –> New habit
A pair that makes sense and works well together.
Starts a bit forced but soon becomes natural.
Second nature.
Let me know what you come up with?
Much love,
Jon ‘Fuse’ Hall
