There's a book that always caught my eye that loads of people always talk about, and it wasn't until recently that I actually read it that I understood why it was so popular.

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Before I had even gotten halfway through the book, I was already making small changes that significantly improved my life.

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It helped me to shift my mindset and make tasks that I should do every day or at least regularly, into habits so that I do them and don't make excuses.

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But there was one nugget in particular that was shared in the book that really made this thought of habits really stick, and it's what the author calls 'Habit Stacking'.

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How this changed my mindset

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The first way I implemented habit stacking was by changing my habits around getting fit. Instead of making it a habit to not go to the gym (continuously telling myself that I didn't have time), I made it a habit to go to the gym, by stacking that habit on top of an existing habit that I absolutely have to do every day, which is taking the little ones to school/nursery.

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When I look at it like that, it's a no-brainer!

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So for the past month, I've been going to the gym every morning Monday-Friday and it's now just become a habit. And stacking another habit on top of that was to read and respond to my emails or video comments whilst I was on the treadmill.

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Overall, it made opening up my emails or comment notifications less overwhelming because I get so many of each every day. Instead, I gave myself a specific part of the day to do this, and it also made the boring time spent on the treadmill fly by!

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I've also applied habit stacking to my content creation process:

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• As soon as I film my talking head in my studio, I offload the footage and then I edit the talking head straight away. (Eliminating procrastination)

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• When I get home from a shoot I offload my footage, whilst that's doing that, I unpack my gear and put all batteries to charge. (Eliminating the excuse to not film at a later date because my batteries are dead)

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Little by little, day by day I'm adding more small habits and it's just having a really positive impact on my life.

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So, if you've got something that you struggle to do consistently, or there's something that you want to start doing but you've been making every excuse to put it off, give habit stacking a go.

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And, I highly recommend reading the book, Atomic Habits by James Clear. There are so many more nuggets of wisdom and tips in there that I'm sure you'll find as useful as I do.

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Catch you later!

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Tamara 😊

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