My daily exercise is a morning trip down the driveway to get the newspaper and a midday trip down to get the mail. About eight weeks ago, I decided to throw in an extra roundtrip each time. It has been surprisingly hard psychologically. But, is so easy to do and so quickly over, that I haven't let myself out of it, and I've only missed once (on a "no mail day"). I've discovered that there is a term for this: Habit-stacking. When you add something to a routine you already have, it is easier to stick with it. I'm going to try throwing in a third trip from time to time. Who knows where this can lead?
CarolVT - Good for you! Seems like all my good habits have fallen by the wayside.
Did you read Gretchen Rubin's new book on habits? That's the first place I ever heard of habit-stacking. It does seem like adding something to a routine already in place would help you stick with a new habit. Good luck.
Carol and Jan, I was really interested when I read Carol's post, but then I realized I had no good habits onto which I could stack new habits. (I only get the newspaper on Thursday and Sunday.) But when I read Jan's post, I went online and found that Rubin's book is in our public library, so I just put a "hold" on it. Thanks for this information.
Jan and Myrtle, thank you for your comments. I did not know about Gretchen Rubin's book. I'll look it up. I do not remember how I heard about habit-stacking. It probably works for bad habits as well, and becoming aware of the effect might make it easier to undo them. Perhaps Rubin covers that too. Or, one could stack a new good habit on a current not-so-good one. Lots of ways to go here. Need the book.
Gee, I've been habit-stacking without knowing it. Since Ron died I had gotten back to going to Curves for exercise 3 days a week. About the first of July I started walking up to the end of my street (about an eighth of a mile) a couple days a week. Then I started adding distance and days to it and now I am up to 2 1/2 miles 4 times a week. I too will look up Gretchen Rubin's book.