What Makes a Good Anchor

A good anchor habit is one you already do without fail, not one you're aspiring to do consistently. Brushing your teeth, making coffee, sitting down at your desk for the day, plugging in your phone to charge — these happen on autopilot, day in and day out, regardless of how motivated or tired you are.

If the candidate anchor itself is inconsistent — a workout you only manage three days a week, a bedtime that moves around depending on the night — it can't reliably trigger anything, because it isn't reliably happening in the first place. Stacking a new habit onto a shaky one just gives you two unreliable habits instead of one solid chain.

A good test is whether the habit happens at roughly the same time and place, every single day, without you having to think about it or decide to do it. If you have to talk yourself into it some mornings, it's not solid enough yet to carry a new habit on top of it — it's still a candidate for stacking onto something else, not an anchor itself.

What makes a habit a good anchor for stacking a new habit onto it?

Stacking a new habit onto an inconsistent anchor just gives you two ____ habits instead of one solid chain.

A habit you still have to talk yourself into doing some days makes a solid anchor for a new stacked habit.