Habit Stack Your Non-Existent Free Time
I doubt you’re counting, but because I am, I can tell you this is officially my 100th blog post!!!!!
And obviously a cause for celebration if there ever was one – I’m doing a little happy dance in my seat as I’m writing.
If you’ve been a reader for any period of time longer than a couple weeks, it would seem obvious to you that I’d honor my 100th blog post by writing about HABITS!!
They’re kind of my jam.
Habits, in my opinion, are the lazy way we’ve all been looking for to get in shape. We can outsource the brain power needed to get motivated for a workout and we can automate our days so getting and staying healthy happens automatically.
Habit Stacking
As you can see, I love talking habits – all things habits. But one habit topic in particular is a gem I return to over and over and over again: habit stacking.
It’s the idea of taking a habit you want to do, and stacking it with a habit you already do.
Some examples include:
- Taking vitamins as your morning coffee brews
- Doing 2 push ups after each time you use the restroom
- Completing a pull up each time you get to the top of the stairs
Provided the two habits have the same frequency (a few times/day; once/day; once/week), I’ve found you can stack just about any two habits.
I, myself, use several habit stacks as easy ways to work in more movement throughout my day.
You probably do several habit stacks throughout your day, without even noticing!
Do you have the same morning routine – turn off the alarm, use the restroom, take a shower, brush your teeth, do your hair/makeup, etc.?
Or maybe it looks more like: get woken up by the sounds of one of your kids, use the restroom, go into their room to greet them good morning, take them to the kitchen, sit them in their high chair, and begin preparing their first meal.
Regardless which one of those sounds more familiar, each of those are actually habits stacked on top of each other!
You don’t have to consciously think about it anymore, you just do it on autopilot. THAT’S A HABIT!!!
But When Can I Do Them?
Now that you’ve realized you likely do multiple habit stacks throughout your day, you might also be realizing that your days usually have you going right from one thing to the next, to the next. There is no ‘spare’ time when you’re working and taking care of your kids and managing the house and doing allll the things.
So read on, girl, I got you!
Here are a few ideas of times where you can sneak in some habits that you actually WANT to have… times where you may be mindlessly scrolling IG, but instead could work in some habit stacks of your choosing.
- While you’re brushing your teeth
- While your kids are brushing their teeth
- While your coffee brews
- While you’re waiting on the microwave
- While you’re waiting in the school drop off/pick up line
- While you’re waiting for water to boil for dinner’s pasta
- While you’re waiting for your shower water to heat up
- While you’re waiting for the dog to come back inside
- While you’re waiting for your kids to do… well, aren’t you always waiting for them?? lol
- During commercials of Real Housewives (or any of your favorite Bravo shows)
When you really think about the little pockets of time we have that we could add a couple squats or a calming breath or a sip of water, they really start to add up quickly.
Which means even if your ‘free’ time is non-existent (like most of us), you can still habit stack your way to getting back in shape… the lazy way!
If you want a few things you can do during those ‘in-between’ times I mentioned above, grab Fit In Five below where I give you nine 5-min circuits. You can do the full 5min, or whatever works in the time frame you have.
Either way, you’re turning healthy into a habit, meaning it’ll happen automatically.

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