Habit Stacking Is Nice. Happiness Stacking Is Better.
Stack mood improvement into your consumer’s most annoying daily routines. Hint: you might be one of them
In Atomic Habits, James Clear popularized the idea of “habit stacking”—layering new habits on top of existing ones to help make them stick more easily.
I’m all for it. Personally, I get an outsized thrill from finding more effective ways to get things done with less effort or internal resistance.
But it’s summer.
Most of us are ready for a little less efficiency, and a little more fun.
Earlier this year, I drafted a piece about “happiness stacking”. The story never made it live, but I recently realized there was a great lesson in it for brands.
The idea with happiness stacking is to build new habits on top of existing habits to help make them stick, just like habit stacking—only here you’re stacking small thrills into the routines that irk you most.
