Stacking habits

My friend John Rice's blog post about New Years habits reminded me about the technique of stacking habits, which involves creating a new habit by attaching it to an existing one. 

An example of this could be doing a meditation session every morning after you've brushed your teeth until it becomes embedded as a habit.

This technique really does work.

Even though I'd forgotten what the term stacking habits meant, I realised reading John's post that it is something I have done for the past five years now.

The way I've managed to achieve running a mile each and every day for over five years is by attaching it to my habit of getting out of bed, and although the time I get out of bed has changed (i.e. got a lot earlier) in the past five years, that connection between the two habits has been absolutely vital in me keeping it going.

Does this mean that stacking habits is essential both when you're establishing a new habit and also ongoingly after it has become a firm habit?

I believe that (for me anyway) I would not have got the mile each day habit going if I had not made this attachment, so the answer to the establishing question is a resounding yes.

As far as keeping the habit going, I have kept my running stacked with my getting out of bed now for 1,832 consecutive days, so is it necessary?

I don't actually know because putting the two together has (funnily enough) become a habit in its own right. 

It's now so entrenched that I know it works and that's the way I like it.