You probably know it (but you might not know the name) - a marble rolls, hits a seesaw, catapults a ball, pulls a rope, releases a bowling ball, triggers dominoes - all to flip a light switch. Pure magic. You’ve seen it in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Wallace and Gromit, or this epic music video from OK Go.

Here's the thing: despite their wild complexity, they work on one simple principle - each action seamlessly triggers the next. That's exactly how powerful habits form, too.

When you string habits together in your own Monday morning machine, science takes over. Today, let's explore habit stacking and why experts say major life shifts can start with a single trigger.

Habit stacking leverages a phenomenon called neuroplasticity, which is your brain's ability to form new neural connections. Think about it as a hiking trail that someone bush-based in the beginning, but then as more people walked along it, it became more established. When you repeat a behaviour, your brain strengthens the pathways associated with that action through a process called long-term potentiation. Each time you do that action, you need smaller cues to trigger the same response. It becomes less ‘bush-bashy’ and more ‘lovely stroll’.

The technique is fundamentally based on ‘implementation intentions’ - those ‘if-then’ plans that psychologists have found dramatically improve hitting goals. Instead of saying "I want to exercise more," you create a specific plan: "After I brush my teeth, I’ll do ten push-ups."

Ultimately, it all comes back to Pavlov and his dogs - the typical example given to explain ‘classical conditioning’. Just like Pavlov's dogs learned to associate a bell with food, habit stacking creates mental associations between existing habits and new ones. The existing habit becomes the trigger, and the new behaviour becomes the automatic response. If you want to see it in action, this scene from The Office still gets me giggling.

So if we stick with our tooth-brushing-into-push-ups example, you’re able to essentially piggyback on the release of dopamine (the ‘good stuff’ chemical) that happens when you successfully brush your teeth, stack on a new habit, and walk along the same lovely neural pathway. Ain’t that amazing.

But habit stacking isn't a magic bullet. Research indicates that it’s most effective for small, incremental changes rather than dramatic life transformations. I’ve tried habit-stacking my way from tying my shoelaces to holding a one-legged crow pose, but I’m still sans-crow.

Experts say the method also has structural limitations. If your original habit is disrupted, the entire stack can collapse. If you usually stack a ten-minute meditation onto your morning coffee routine, but then you're rushing out for an early meeting, the whole system fails.

The recommendation from behavioural scientists is to start ridiculously small. We're talking about 2-5 minute habits at most. The goal: make it so easy it's hard to say no to.

Choose rock-solid anchor habits - behaviours you do consistently without thinking, and you feel like it's a predictable part of your day. It could be something like brushing your teeth, making coffee, getting into bed, playing a specific game on your phone which is definitely TDA’s Picture This and absolutely not Wordle.

There’s also strong recommendations to focus on one habit to stack on another one at a time - this (hopefully) reduces the chance or overwhelm or that negative feeling you get when you don’t do something, and sets you up for success. Building new neural pathways isn’t fast; experts say it can take anywhere from 60 to 200 days, depending on the complexity of the habits.

My favourite stack recently has been writing my to-do list for my day when I walk the 3-4 minutes from TDA’s office to the cafe. It’s a moment of clarity; I know I need to get it done before I arrive at the cafe, and I'll treat myself to a lovely reward when I reach the endpoint. Yes, sometimes I trip on stuff because I’m looking at my phone. It’s the cost of success.

When I began researching habit stacking for this newsletter, I collected a few key pointers from various articles. Here’s a quick fire three:

As James Clear writes in Atomic Habits, “all big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow.”

Ultimately, in that Rube Goldberg Machine of your day, it’s just about the compound effect of a single, small action, and working smarter, not harder, for change.

Struggling to stay consistent with your wellness routine? You’re not alone.

One simple trick? Habit stacking. It’s the idea of building a new habit - like taking your daily vitamins - by pairing it with something you already do without thinking. Like brushing your teeth, boiling the kettle, or yes, scrolling your morning news.

That’s where Blackmores’ Rapi-Melts range comes in. They dissolve on your tongue in 3 minutes or less - no pills, no water, just a quick, tasty melt you can take wherever, whenever.

Choose the support your body needs:

Make your wellness routine stick – effortlessly and support general health and wellbeing. Try habit stacking with Blackmores Rapi-Melts today.

Always read the label and follow the directions for use.