Implementation intentions
Also known as: If-then plans, Implementation intention
Pre-deciding exactly when, where, and how you will act.
What it means
Implementation intentions are concrete self-regulation plans of the form 'if situation X arises, then I will perform response Y,' which specify in advance the cue and the action that links to a person's broader goal. The mechanism, identified by Gollwitzer, is that forming such a plan delegates control of the behavior to the anticipated situational cue: the cue becomes highly accessible and the cued response becomes more automatic, so action is initiated swiftly and efficiently without depending on deliberation or willpower in the moment. This makes them especially effective at bridging the notorious gap between good intentions and actual behavior, and meta-analyses across health, academic, and environmental domains find a reliable medium-to-large benefit over mere goal intentions. Boundary conditions matter: implementation intentions help most when a goal is genuinely held and the obstacle is getting started or remembering, and they work best when the if–then plan is specific, realistic, and self-generated rather than vague. They matter because they are a cheap, scalable behavioral tool, frequently deployed in interventions and pairings such as planning prompts for voting, vaccination, exercise, and follow-through on commitments.
Examples
'After lunch on Mondays, I will change clothes and go straight to the gym' produces far more exercise than the vague resolution 'I'll work out more.'
Flu-jab letters that ask people to write down the exact date and time they will attend get more people vaccinated than identical letters without the blank line.
'When my salary lands on the 25th, £100 moves to savings before anything else' works far better than resolving to save whatever happens to be left at month's end.
First described in Peter Gollwitzer (1999).