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If-then plans: the small sentence that makes goals happen

Goals say what you want. If-then plans say when and where you'll act. Research shows this one sentence makes follow-through more likely. Here's how to write one.

By Calibra · · 3 min read

"I want to exercise more." "I should call my parents more often." "I'm going to start writing." These are real intentions, sincerely meant. And most of them quietly dissolve by Thursday.

The gap between wanting and doing is rarely about caring enough. More often, the moment to act arrives and nothing in us recognizes it as the moment. If-then plans fix exactly that.

What an if-then plan is

Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer calls them implementation intentions. A goal says what you want to achieve. An implementation intention links a specific situation to a specific action:

If it's 7:30 a.m. and I've finished my coffee, then I put on my running shoes.

The idea is that by deciding in advance, you hand the decision over to the situation. When 7:30 and the empty cup arrive, the plan is already there. You don't need to summon motivation, because the choice was made earlier, when you were calm.1

What research shows

This is one of the better-supported findings in the psychology of goals. A meta-analysis that pooled close to a hundred studies found that forming if-then plans had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals, compared with having the goal alone.2

Specificity matters. In a field experiment at a large company, employees were mailed a reminder about free on-site flu-shot clinics. Some reminders also prompted them to write down the date they planned to go, and others the date and the time. Among those who got a plain reminder, 33.1% got vaccinated. Writing down just a date added 1.5 percentage points, a difference too small to be reliable. Writing down a date and a time added 4.2 percentage points, a meaningful increase from a single line on a form.3

The lesson: "sometime next week" doesn't work as a plan. "Tuesday at 6, after I close my laptop" does.

How to write a good if-then plan

  1. Start from one goal. Something you genuinely want, not a should. If you're not sure the goal is realistic, try WOOP first.
  2. Find the moment. When and where will the action naturally fit? Anchor it to something that already happens: finishing breakfast, arriving at the office, putting your child to bed.
  3. Name the action, small. Make the first step tiny and physical. "Open the document and write one sentence," not "work on the book."
  4. Write it as one sentence. If [situation], then I will [action]. Say it to yourself once or twice.
  5. Add a plan for the obstacle. Think of what usually derails you and write a second sentence for it: "If I'm too tired to run, then I'll walk for ten minutes instead."

Examples

  • If I sit down on the train home, then I open my notes app and write three lines about my day.
  • If my partner and I finish dinner on Sunday, then we spend fifteen minutes looking at our budget.
  • If I feel the urge to check my phone first thing, then I put it in the drawer and drink a glass of water.
  • If I get to Friday afternoon without having called Mom, then I call her on my walk home.

Why the future self helps

If-then plans are about the next small step. They work best when that step points to something you actually care about. Plans to save more, move more or start a project come easier when the person you're doing it for, your future self, feels real rather than abstract. That's the subject of why your future self can feel like a stranger.

The takeaway

Don't wait for motivation to show up at the right moment. Decide the moment in advance. One sentence with an if and a then, tied to a real time and place, makes it much more likely that you follow through.

Sources

  1. Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493 ↩
  2. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1 ↩
  3. Milkman, K. L., Beshears, J., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D., & Madrian, B. C. (2011). Using implementation intentions prompts to enhance influenza vaccination rates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(26), 10415–10420. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1103170108 ↩