If-Then Plan (Implementation Intentions): Decide Now What You'll Do When It Happens

About this tool

An implementation intention is an if-then plan that connects a recognizable situation with a specific action you choose in advance. This worksheet helps you turn a goal you keep postponing into a practical response to an everyday cue, such as putting on walking shoes after breakfast. Vague goals leave decisions about starting until the moment you need to act, when you may be tired, distracted, or tempted to postpone. Writing the cue and response together gives you a decision to return to. The plan still needs to fit your circumstances, resources, and reasons for pursuing the goal.

The technique was developed and tested by psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, whose research and later meta-analyses found that forming if-then plans substantially increases the chance people follow through on their goals, across health, work, and everyday behaviors. The effect is strongest when the if part names a concrete, identifiable cue, a time, place, or event, and the then part names a single clear action. This specificity is what makes the plan easy for your mind to recognize and act on without deliberation.

If-then plans are especially powerful for obstacles and temptations. Beyond planning when you will act, you can plan how you will respond when something gets in the way: if I feel the urge to skip my walk, then I will go for just five minutes. By rehearsing the response in advance, you are not relying on willpower in a weak moment, you are following a decision you already made. Pairing a goal intention with a few good implementation intentions is one of the simplest upgrades you can make to any plan.

Gollwitzer and Sheeran's 2006 meta-analysis pooled 94 studies and found implementation intentions produced a medium-to-large effect on goal attainment, with an average effect size of d = 0.65, across domains including health behavior, academic performance, and everyday task completion. That is a large effect for a technique that takes a couple of minutes to write down, which is part of why it shows up so often in behavior-change research.

A common mistake is writing too many if-then plans at once, or writing them for a goal you have not actually decided to pursue yet. The technique works because it removes deliberation from one clear decision, so it works best applied to one or two specific actions rather than an entire routine. It also assumes you already want the goal; it helps you follow through, it does not create motivation that was not there to begin with.

Use your confidence rating in step five as a check, not a grade. A low rating usually means the if is still too vague, the then is not specific enough, or the plan asks for more than you can realistically do on a hard day. Rewriting the plan smaller, such as five minutes instead of thirty, often raises the number more than willpower would.

If-then plans are a self-management skill, not a treatment for what is getting in the way of a goal. When the obstacle is a mental health condition such as depression, an anxiety disorder, or ADHD, follow-through can stay difficult even with a well-written plan, and that pattern is worth discussing with a therapist rather than treating as a planning problem. You can search our therapist directory to find one.

After trying your plan, separate a missed cue from an action that was too demanding. If you never noticed the cue, attach the action to something easier to recognize, such as closing your laptop after work. If you noticed it and could not act, check whether you had the time, equipment, privacy, or support the action required. Treat the result as information about the plan rather than evidence about your character.

For example, a study plan might read: if I set my mug beside my laptop after breakfast, then I will open my notes and write the next question I need to answer. An obstacle plan might read: if the room is too noisy, then I will move to the quiet space I have chosen. These are illustrative choices, not research-tested prescriptions for everyone. Choose an action you can actually begin when the cue occurs.

Use the Goal Setting Worksheet to clarify what matters before choosing a cue, and the Building Habits Worksheet to consider how the action fits your surroundings. A Habit Tracker can record whether the cue appeared and whether you acted, without turning missed attempts into a judgment. The ACT Worksheets Library offers related exercises for connecting actions with personal values.

Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW
Reviewed the if-then structure for fidelity to implementation-intention research.

References

1. Gollwitzer PM. Implementation intentions: strong effects of simple plans. Am Psychol. 1999;54(7):493-503.
2. Gollwitzer PM, Sheeran P. Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes. Adv Exp Soc Psychol. 2006;38:69-119.
3. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Publisher abstract. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065260106380021

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