Concept
If-then plans
An if-then plan decides ahead of time when and where you do something, so you don't have to think it over in the moment.
- 1
Set up the habit
One question per step: who do you want to be? When and where will you do it? And what is the smallest thing that still counts, say just two cards?
Set up the habit
One question per step: who do you want to be? When and where will you do it? And what is the smallest thing that still counts, say just two cards?
- 2
Get reminded, check it off
At the time you chose, the reminder arrives with your minimum and your place. One tap on “Yes, done”: every check-off is a vote for the person you want to be.
Get reminded, check it off
At the time you chose, the reminder arrives with your minimum and your place. One tap on “Yes, done”: every check-off is a vote for the person you want to be.
- 3
Keep going
The grid shows every day, the phases show the way: building, forming from 7, established from 30, anchored from 66. Skipping once does not break the streak.
Keep going
The grid shows every day, the phases show the way: building, forming from 7, established from 30, anchored from 66. Skipping once does not break the streak.
“I'll study more” is a wish. “If it is 7 o'clock and I am sitting at the kitchen table, then I study for 10 minutes” is a plan. The difference sounds small. But it is often the difference between meaning to and actually doing.
The psychologist Peter Gollwitzer researched this. In 1999 he summed up many experiments in the journal American Psychologist. In one of them, students set themselves difficult goals for the Christmas break. Those who had decided ahead of time when and where followed through about three times as often. In 2006 Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran analyzed 94 studies together and found a clear effect.
When you picture the moment ahead of time, your head recognizes it right away later. Then you don't have to decide all over again whether you feel like it right now. The moment itself reminds you of your plan, almost like an alarm clock in your head.
In Mnemorya you can say for every habit when and where you do it, for example “at 7 o'clock at the kitchen table”. That way your if-then plan sits right next to the habit.
The research behind it
The studies this method rests on. Each one is verifiable through its DOI — looking them up is very much the point.
Gollwitzer shows that simple plans with a fixed when and where clearly raise the chance that you actually go after a goal.
Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans.. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493-503.
doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493The analysis of 94 studies confirms: if-then plans noticeably help people reach their goals.
Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta-analysis of Effects and Processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119.
doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
Keep watching
See the idea in motion.
Selected videos for going deeper. Each link opens the original creator on YouTube.
