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Concept

Implementation Intention

An implementation intention is a plan made in advance that states when and where you will act, usually in the form 'I will [behavior] at [time] in [location]', so that the moment itself becomes the cue for the habit.

The term comes from the psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, whose research showed that people who decide in advance when and where they will act follow through more often than people who only decide that they will. James Clear makes it the first practical tool of the first law in Atomic Habits. His diagnosis is that many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity: 'I will exercise more' leaves the decision open every day, and an open decision tends to lose to whatever is easier. An implementation intention closes it in advance. Once the time and place are named, the day itself delivers the cue, and there is nothing left to decide when the moment arrives. Clear adds that a fresh start, a Monday, the first of the month or a birthday, is a good moment to write one, because people are more willing to act at such turning points. The plan works best when it is specific enough that a stranger could check whether you kept it.

A real-life example

Murat, a teacher in Antalya, had been 'about to start running' since the spring. In September he wrote one line and taped it to the fridge: 'On Tuesday and Thursday at 7 p.m., I will run for twenty minutes on the Konyaaltı seafront.' When the first Tuesday came, the cue arrived on its own and he went. By November he had missed only two runs.

How to use it

  1. 1Choose one habit and write it in the form 'I will [behavior] at [time] in [location]'.
  2. 2Make the sentence specific enough that someone else could check whether you did it.
  3. 3Put the sentence where you will see it at that time, and start on the next fresh start: a Monday or the first of the month.