I’ve also been working on re-building my morning habit stack now that a few big pieces have shifted in my life, so here’s another set of goals.
It seems like a lot, but they’re all are mini-habits, which means they have crazy low requirements (no more than 1 minute each… with the exception of making a cup of tea). The goal is consistency. And I hope to perform them in the same order, in a single sequence, as often as possible, hoping to get them to stick together as one thing in the habit corners of my brain.
Mini-habits are my favourite for habit-building. Ideally, I want to never miss a day (that’s the whole point of mini-habits) but I don’t want to demand perfection and I want to give my brain a bit of slack to get used to it—but not too much slack—so I’m setting them all to require 80% of what I’d ideally like to be doing. I’m also adding an auto-ratchet that will eliminate any more than 1 day of buffer so that they’re following the “never miss two days in a row” rule.
Morning Habit Stack
- Quick Withings check-in
-
Touching my dissertation as the first thing I do in the day
(I have a morning brain. By 4:00 PM I can’t add 1+1 without a calculator.) - Run my Siri shortcut that sets advance alarms (not quiet notifications) for all of my events for the day
- Toss on my gym clothes
- A mental health exercise
- At least a minute of cardio
- At least a minute of meditation
- A problem-solving exercise
- A small healthy habit
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A couple of skin care goals
(I’ll also stick a shower in here if this is when that makes the most sense that day.) - Getting dressed while trying to leave my closet un-destroyed
- Make a cup of tea
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A quick breathing exercise
(This one) - At least one of my physiotherapy exercises
- Take a supplement to address a deficiency