Planks While the Tea Steeps: Pairing to Form Habits

In Gretchen Rubin’s most recent book, Better Than Before, she shares lots of strategies for habit formation.  One of them is the strategy of pairing (see her describe it in this video on her blog).

To use pairing, take an existing habit or part of your routine, and pair it with an unrelated habit you’re trying to form.

One example Gretchen Rubin gave in her book was working on her balance by standing on one leg during her elevator ride.  She knew she wanted to work on her balance, she takes the elevator every day, viola, a successful pairing was born.

I’ve had trouble remembering to do core workouts, so I recently decided to pair them with my tea steeping.  While I’m waiting for the water to boil and the tea to steep, I do planks, squats, etc.  Suddenly I have three to five minutes of dedicated time at least three times a week.  (This works best when the kitchen is clean, because otherwise I end up using the time to empty the dishwasher.)

Pairings don’t need to be things you can do simultaneously, they could be associating two things that will happen in succession, too.  Perhaps you decide that you put a load of laundry in the wash before your favorite Thursday night t.v. show, and switch it to the dryer afterwards.  Maybe you only check your favorite phone app after you brush your teeth, limiting it to a few times a day.

The possibilities of this strategy are pretty exciting.

Some questions to ask as you think about creating habit pairings:

Is the frequency of each activity compatible?

Will it make it easier for you to remember to complete your new habit, or just make you avoid your old routine?

Does this save time, or create a helpful reminder for you?

Will you have enough time to successfully complete the pairing on a regular basis, or is it unrealistic?

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I’ve already done more planks in the past two weeks than I had in the entire two months prior – and it’s a nice reason to sit down with a cup of tea in the evenings when I might otherwise skip the steps of making it.

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