Implementation Intentions
The Promise
Willpower decides in the moment, and the moment is rigged against you. Pre-decide the exact when-where-how of an action, and the action runs itself when its trigger fires.
How It Works
- Specify the cue concretely. Not "when I have time" but "when I sit down at my desk after dropping the kids at school." Felt states are unreliable triggers; situational ones are not.
- Specify the behavior concretely. Not "I will do some writing" but "I will open the chapter file and write for 25 minutes."
- Bind the two with if-then language. If [cue], then I will [behavior]. Add a recovery clause for missed triggers.
In Practice
Goals written as if-then plans complete at significantly higher rates than goals stated only as outcomes. Here is why it works: the decision is made once, in advance. When the trigger fires, the behavior runs without deliberation required.
Primary source: Peter M. Gollwitzer, Implementation Intentions: Strong Effects of Simple Plans (1999).
Reading is the easy part
Install it, don’t just read it.
Implementation Intentions is walked from principle to practice in The Identity Install. Get The Achievement Blueprint free, then one framework a week, every Tuesday.
Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Keep going
Ch 9 · The Identity Install
Discipline Now or Regret Later
Pay the small ache now or the compounded one later.
Primary source: Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect.
Ch 8 · The Identity Install
Environment Beats Willpower
Engineer your surroundings until the right behavior is the easy one.
Primary source: James Clear, Atomic Habits.