A Psychological Hack That Will Boost Your Productivity for the Next 30 Minutes

One Step at a Time

Want to get a bunch of small things done daily? Just do them, one after the other. That’s the ultra-compressed summary of a recent ebook by the blogger SJ Scott, titled “Habit Stacking.”

The basic concept behind Scott’s (very brief) book is an old one in psychology: “Habit Chaining.” The idea is to pick something you have no problem motivating yourself to do – brushing your teeth is the classic example – then link it to some habit you want to acquire like flossing.

Habit stacking is just the nuclear-powered version. Make a list of small habits that take no more than five minutes each and 30 minutes in total, Scott advises. Then you’ll need to remember, and find motivation for, only one new piece of behavior: To rattle through the checklist once a day. Before long, you’ll jump from bed to drink a glass of water, eat one of your five-a-day vegetables, answer one long-neglected email, meditate for five minutes, do 10 push-ups, and read your twice-weekly bulletins from Big Picture …