[For those with weak willpower] A recommendation for If-then planning

Hello everyone, I am Traveler Teacher X.

Today, I would like to write about If-then planning, which many of you may already know.

So, let's get started right away!

The table of contents is as follows.

1. What is If-then planning?

If-then planning is a goal-achievement technique proposed by social psychologist Professor Heidi Grant in her book, 'Nine Things Successful People Do Differently'.

Even though it is a technique for achieving goals, the way to do If-then planning is very simple.

Let me introduce it briefly.

Just decide to 'do B when A happens' and execute it.

That's all there is to it. (lol)

'[if] If A happens, [then] do B'

* If A happens, do B

I suppose it is called If-then planning because it takes this form.

Let me give you an example.

Suppose you want to move your body a little during the day.

Let's say light exercise means doing 10 squats.

The trigger for the action is... let's see.

Since the rate of slacking off while studying is high, let's set it for study time.

If I were to create an If-then plan randomly,

If, A 'while studying, I feel like slacking off and looking at my smartphone' then, B 'do 10 squats' it would be something like that.

In this case,

A is, wanting to slack off and look at your smartphone while studying

B is, doing 10 squats

is what it becomes.

Like this, I perceive it as the image of deciding on a trigger for action I receive it.

(2) The benefits of If-then planning

With If-then planning, you decide in advance, "If I do X, then I will do Y."
Therefore, when the time comes to execute, your body will naturally perform what you have decided.

Even if you want to execute something, if you don't decide on a trigger for execution, it seems your brain won't understand when you should actually get started on it.

If you haven't decided on a trigger, you might want to do it, but you end up in a frustrating state where you can't quite move to execution, and in the end, things like forgetting what you were trying to do end up happening.

Conversely, it can be said that once you decide on a trigger for action, it becomes easier to move to execution.

As I wrote earlier, If-then planning is about deciding on a trigger for a certain action.

By deciding on a trigger for action, the benefit of If-then planning is that you can steadily advance the things you want to do. It seems that can be said.

Also, by deciding on a trigger for action, I think another benefit is that you can execute without relying so much on willpower.

Like, "The time has come!"

Even if you don't try to do it with great enthusiasm, it becomes easier to start when the timing arrives.

I have actually been trying it for a while, and it is effective.

For people like me who are prone to distracting thoughts and have weak willpower, I think this is a method that is particularly effective.

(3) Tips for utilization

I believe the key to If-then planning is to decide on something you want to do and link that action to another action you do frequently.

Roughly speaking, the image is to pair what you want to do with another action.

It might feel like that's all there is to it, but that really is all there is.

However, don't you find that you rarely set rules like "if I do X, then I will do Y"?

At the very least, I didn't really "pair what I wanted to do with another action" very often.

If-then planning can also be turned into a habit if you continue it for a while.

However, it is also effective for small things you want to do.

It means you can also use it for things like "if I do this this month, I will do that".

In any case, I think you can incorporate If-then planning by using the trick of pairing what you want to do with an action you do frequently.

4. Examples of how I use If-then planning

Finally, I would like to introduce three examples of how I am currently using If-then planning.

Below is a part of my If-then planning.

1. When I get into the bathtub, I check my schedule for the next day. 2. When I get into bed, I read a book. 3. When I sit in my chair at my home desk, I do some writing.

For 1, I want to check my schedule for the next day at night. For 2, I want to read. For 3, I want to do some writing.

I paired these things I wanted to do with actions I do frequently at home.

In fact, by deciding on this, I have been able to continue these three things with a high probability.

I should mention that it's not that willpower is completely unnecessary.

In reality, I still often get caught up in distracting thoughts like "I'm sleepy, so I'll just go to sleep."

But I feel that by deciding on triggers for my actions and continuing to execute them, all of them have started to feel like habits.

In fact, I have now been writing for 265 days.

The fact that I, someone who could never stick to anything, have been able to continue for this long is a good example, isn't it?

If you utilize If-then planning, I believe it becomes possible to take action even with just the willpower of 'I guess I'll do it'. becomes possible.

I think it gets complicated if you start too many things at once.

*Greedy as I am, I failed many times because of that.

Therefore, why not try starting by choosing one thing you especially want to put into action and pairing it with an action you do often? how about trying that?

If-then planning is highly recommended.

That concludes my thoughts on If-then planning.

・To those who read this

Thank you for reading until the end.

As I wrote earlier, if there is something you want to do, I think If-then planning is one of the very convenient methods. I think.

If you have never tried it, I think anything is fine, so please give it a try once.

I am sure you will feel the effects. (That was the case for me)

I would be happy if this article was even a little helpful.

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