There are certain days when the things I want to do for myself seem to fall into place. I remember to stretch. I take a few quiet breaths before opening my laptop. I make the tea, take the walk or spend a little time on my yoga mat without having to convince myself to do it. And then there are the other days, when the intention is still there but life gets busy and the small practices I meant to make time for somehow never happen.

For a long time, I thought the answer was to create a better routine. If I wanted to feel calmer in the morning, I needed a morning routine. If I wanted to journal consistently, I needed to set aside time for journaling. If I wanted to stretch more often, I needed to find another place in my day to fit it in. Before long, one small thing I wanted to do for myself had turned into another routine I needed to manage.

Lately, I've become much more interested in starting with what's already happening. Most of us already have rhythms built into our days, even if we don't think of them as routines. We make coffee, brush our teeth, eat lunch, take a walk, finish a workout or put our phones away at night. What if one of those things could simply become the reminder for something else we'd like to do?

That's the idea behind habit stacking, and it may be one of the simplest ways to make a supportive habit easier to remember without reorganizing your life around it.

Habit stacking is the practice of connecting a new behavior to something you already do consistently. The concept was popularized by James Clear in Atomic Habits, but the idea itself is wonderfully simple: instead of trying to remember a new habit on its own, you give it an anchor. As Cleveland Clinic psychologist Lauren Alexander, PhD, explains, an existing habit can serve as the cue for the new behavior, helping connect something you're trying to begin with something that's already familiar.

If you want to spend a few minutes breathing or meditating in the morning, for example, you might connect it to making your coffee. If you'd like to journal more consistently, brushing your teeth at night could become your reminder to write one sentence. If you tend to rush off after yoga, the end of your practice could become your cue to stay on the mat for another two quiet minutes.

The existing habit does some of the remembering for you. Instead of wondering when you'll find time for something new, you're connecting it to a moment that already has a place in your day. That small distinction can make a supportive practice feel less like something else you have to fit in and more like a natural extension of what you're already doing.

Most of us already have dozens of routines we barely think about. We brush our teeth, make coffee or tea, feed the dog, open the laptop, eat lunch, change clothes at the end of the day and plug in the phone before bed. These ordinary moments create natural cues that we can use without adding another reminder, calendar alert or elaborate plan.

There is research behind that idea. In one randomized study of everyday nutrition habits, participants connected a behavior they wanted to build either to an existing daily routine or to a specific time. Both approaches helped the behavior become more automatic over time, with repetition playing an important role in whether the habit formed.

That's one reason habit stacking can feel more manageable than starting an entirely new routine. Instead of asking, When am I going to fit this in?, the answer is already built into the day.

You don't need to try all five of these. In fact, I'd start with one. The goal isn't to build a perfect morning or evening routine. It's simply to see whether one small action becomes easier to remember when it has something familiar to anchor it.

Anchor: Making your morning coffee or tea
New habit: Take three slow breaths and set an intention for the day.

While the coffee brews or the tea steeps, pause for a moment and ask yourself, How do I want to feel today? It takes less than a minute, but it creates a little space between waking up and immediately moving into everything the day is asking of you.

Anchor: Brushing your teeth at night
New habit: Write one sentence in your journal.

This doesn't have to become a twenty-minute journaling practice. Write down one thing you noticed, learned, appreciated or want to remember from the day. One sentence counts.

Anchor: Finishing your regular workout or yoga practice
New habit: Add two quiet minutes before moving on.

If you're practicing yoga, that might mean staying in Legs Up the Wall for another two minutes. After a walk, it might mean taking a moment to stretch before going back inside. Rather than creating another separate movement session, you're simply extending something you're already doing.

Anchor: Putting your phone away for the night
New habit: Take a short body scan.

Notice your jaw, shoulders, hands, belly and legs. Where are you still holding the day? You don't necessarily need to change anything. Simply noticing where you're carrying tension can create a natural transition between the activity of the day and settling down for the night.

Anchor: Sitting down for lunch
New habit: Take your first few bites without a screen.

Give yourself a moment to notice the food and actually arrive at the meal before turning your attention somewhere else. It's a very small practice, but that's exactly why it may be easier to repeat.

Of course, connecting one habit to another doesn't mean we'll suddenly do it forever. Sometimes a new habit works beautifully for a few days and then disappears. That doesn't necessarily mean you've failed at building the habit. It may simply mean the stack needs adjusting.

The goal isn't to force a habit to work. It's to make the supportive choice a little easier to remember.

Choose one thing you already do almost every day. Then think of one small supportive action you'd like to do a little more consistently.

After I ____________________, I will ____________________.

Keep the second part small. It shouldn't require much planning, time or motivation. Try your habit stack for the next week and simply notice what happens. Does the existing habit remind you? Does the new behavior begin to feel more natural? Or would another anchor work better?

Think of it as an experiment rather than another routine you have to get right.

What I like most about habit stacking is that it doesn't begin with the assumption that our routines are wrong or that we need to become more disciplined. It begins by noticing what's already working. There are already rhythms in our days, things we remember without thinking about them and ordinary moments we return to again and again.

Perhaps building a supportive habit doesn't always require adding another system to our lives. It might be one breath after the coffee, one sentence after brushing our teeth or two quiet minutes before rolling up the yoga mat. On their own, those choices can seem almost too small to matter, which may be exactly why they're easier to keep making.

I've spent enough time believing that meaningful change has to begin with a bigger plan. I'm becoming much more interested in what happens when we make one small thing easier to return to. We don't always need to start over. Sometimes we can start with what's already in motion.