The “if-then” plan: the little sentence that helps you take action

“This week, I'm finally getting started.” You know that sentence, and you also know how it often ends. The problem isn't your motivation: it's that the sentence doesn't say when, where or how. A German psychologist spent years showing that adding a small detail makes a big difference.

Having a goal isn't enough

Peter Gollwitzer, a psychology professor at the University of Konstanz and New York University, starts from a simple observation: there's a gap between wanting and doing. We know what we want, but we forget to start, we get distracted, or we slip back into old habits.

His answer comes down to a sentence structure he calls an implementation intention: “If situation X comes up, then I'll do Y.” Instead of “I'm going to exercise,” you decide: “If it's Tuesday and I'm leaving work, then I'll go straight to the gym.”

The idea is to hand the job of getting started over to the situation rather than to your willpower in the moment. When the cue shows up, the action kicks in almost on its own.

What the studies show

In a 1999 article published in American Psychologist, Gollwitzer reports several striking experiments:

• Before the Christmas break, students had to write a short report on how they spent Christmas Eve within 48 hours of the event. Half of them had written down exactly when and where they would write it. The result: three quarters of them turned it in on time, compared with only a third in the other group.
• For difficult projects the students chose themselves, two thirds of those who had planned when and where to start saw them through, compared with a quarter of the others.
• For exercise, a standard motivational campaign raised the share of students who did at least one 20-minute session of vigorous exercise in the week from 29% to 39%. When a “when and where” plan was added, the share rose to 91%.

In 2006, Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran pooled 94 independent tests in a meta-analysis. Their conclusion: forming this kind of plan has a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals. For such a simple technique, that's remarkable.

Writing your first “if-then” plan

Here's how to go about it, in five steps:

1. Start from a specific goal. “Read more” becomes “read twenty pages a day.”
2. Find the right moment. Look for a situation that comes up reliably: “If I get into bed,” “If I sit down on the train in the morning.”
3. Choose a concrete, short action. “Then I open my book,” not “then I read a lot.”
4. Write out the whole sentence. “If I sit down on the train in the morning, then I open my book before my phone.” Putting it in writing makes it clearer and easier to remember.
5. Try it for a week, then adjust the cue if it doesn't come up as planned.

Plan for obstacles

“If-then” plans aren't just for getting started. They also work well for handling whatever might throw you off track. Think of the two or three obstacles that usually make you give up, and prepare your response in advance:

• “If I get home too tired for the gym, then I'll do ten minutes of stretching at home.”
• “If a coworker interrupts me during my important task, then I'll suggest they come back in half an hour.”
• “If I feel like snacking in front of the TV, then I'll pour myself a big glass of water first.”

A backup plan prevents the “all or nothing” trap. You don't blow your day, you simply switch to the version you planned.

Mistakes to avoid

• A cue that's too vague. “If I have a moment” doesn't trigger anything. The cue has to be recognizable: a place, a time, an action that comes right before.
• Too many plans at once. Start with one or two. You can add more once they're running smoothly.
• An action that's too ambitious. The plan helps you get started, but if the planned action is huge, the resistance comes back when it's time to do it. Make the first step as simple as possible, even if you keep going once you're underway.

With ForgeMe

A task or ritual with a set time and a reminder is a ready-made “if-then” plan: the reminder acts as the cue, and the action is spelled out in black and white. For a bigger goal, break it down into sub-goals and give each one its own moment, so that every step has its trigger.