H·01
Habits & Behaviour
The If-Then Plan
A goal becomes an action only when it names a trigger: “When X happens, I will do Y.”
- Evidence
- proven
- Topic
- Habits
- Things to do
- 4
- Read
- 1 min
provenHow strong is the evidence?
Tested again and again, by different people, and it keeps coming out the same. You can lean on this.
- Gollwitzer & Sheeran, meta-analysis of 94 studies, 2006
- d = 0.65in plain terms, a moderate effect — which, in psychology, is a lot
Why it works
An intention stored as “exercise more” has no retrieval cue. Stored as “when I close the laptop at 6, I put my shoes on”, the situation itself triggers the action — the decision has already been made, so willpower is never consulted.
What to do about it
- Rewrite every open intention as: When <specific cue>, I will <specific action>.
- Cue must be something that reliably happens — a time, a place, a finished task — not a mood.
- Add the counter-plan too: “If I am offered a drink, I will ask for soda water.”
- Say it out loud once. Vague plans survive only while unspoken.
Where people go wrong
Writing the plan around how you want to feel (“when I feel motivated”). Feelings are not cues.
Where this fits in your day
Before any ask
Attach a because-clause and a specific cue for when it should happen.
Read next
- Four Hours Is the CeilingNobody sustains more than three to four hours of genuinely hard cognitive work a day. The rest of the day is a different kind of work.solid
- Friction Beats WillpowerTwenty seconds of added effort kills a habit; twenty seconds removed creates one.proven
- Habits Live in Contexts, Not in YouAbout 43% of daily behaviour is repeated in the same context. Change the context and the habit has nothing to hold on to.proven
- Temptation BundlingChain the thing you should do to the thing you want to do, and let the want carry both.solid