Hello all! I’m Rachelle Setsodi, Associate Director of Transfer Admission at Drake University and the Iowa ACAC Transfer Committee Chair.
I attended the Community Colleges for Iowa Convention and Tradeshow in December. In addition to the professional networking and Drake recruiting conversations, I also attended a variety of educational sessions.

One session was by Erin Lee Schneider on topics of work/life balance and stress relief. During that session she encouraged implementing small changes to impact your life moving forward. As I listened, I decided that I was going to do at least a 1-minute plank daily to strengthen my core, balance, and stability. I started back on 12/4/25…so 3+ months and counting. It seems very simple yet rewarding to maintain discipline to keep a streak going!

I’ve also been reading about Habit Stacking in the book Atomic Habits.

“One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.” – James Clear.

I have had fun adding new habits to my old habits to in turn make more habits. For example:

• Whenever I turn on my laptop, I drink a glass of water
• Whenever I interact with students, I add notes to our CRM - Slate
• Whenever I turn cruise on my car, I do 10 ankle pumps to prevent blood clots
• Whenever I hear emergency sirens, I pray for the victims and responders

It is amazing how habit stacking sticks! Want to learn more? Read about how to build new habits by taking advantage of old ones on James Clear’s website https://jamesclear.com/habit-stacking

I’d love to hear about your new habits at [email protected] Happy habit-stacking!