If-then plans
Tie the action to a moment. "If it is 7am and I have eaten, then I practise for twenty minutes." Deciding once, so you never have to decide again.
For a Habit · Peter Gollwitzer, 1999 · takes ten minutes
How to run it
- Write the goal in one line. Then forget it; the method is about the moments, not the goal.
- List the moments when you could act: a time, a place, something that happens. "After I put my bag down." "When the 3.15 bell goes."
- For each, write one line: "If [moment], then I will [action]." The action is small and specific enough that there is nothing to work out when the moment comes.
- Write one more for the obstacle: "If I feel like skipping it, then I will [do the smallest version]."
- Put the lines where the moments happen: on the bag, by the kettle, in the phone’s lock screen. They are not for remembering the goal. They are for recognising the moment.
- Review once a week. A line that never fired has the wrong moment; change the moment, not the goal.
Where it falls down. Writing the goal again in if-then clothing: "If it is Monday, then I will be more organised" has no moment and no action.
With a pen
The goal, in one lineThen leave it alone
If [moment]A time, a place, something that happens
then I will [action]Small enough that there is nothing to work out
If I feel like skipping it
then I willThe smallest version
Where each line lives, and when I review them