Implementation Intentions – A Failproof Technique for Forming Good Habits
How many times have you made up your mind to start a new habit but sidetracked after a few days? I’ve done it more times than I can count. For instance, I always wanted to establish a fitness routine, like going for morning walks. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could rarely stick to my decision.
Then something happened.
A colleague of mine suggested something simple - she encouraged me to come up with a concrete plan for exercising. So, instead of saying I am going to exercise tomorrow, She asked me to write “I will go for a walk in the park at 6.30 am tomorrow” on a sticky note and stick it on my fridge and wardrobe.
And it worked wonders! In a matter of a few weeks, morning walks became my routine. If you are wondering how I made this happen, the answer is simple – I attached a specific time and location to the habit I wanted to cultivate. In habit formation theories, this technique has got a name – it’s called an implementation intention.
Want to know how you can successfully form habits by applying this technique? Keep reading.
What Is an Implementation Intention?
It is a strategy used in habit formation where you attach a specific time and location to a new habit. Imagine that you want to cultivate the habit of reading. You can’t make it happen just by saying “I’ll read more from today”. What you need is not wishful thinking, but a concrete plan.
This is where an implementation intention comes to your aid. All you need to do is to specify when and where you are going to read – something like, I’ll read from 10 pm to 11 pm on my bed. In other words, implementation intentions are all about creating a When-Then plan – that is, when the time is 10 pm, I’ll read a book.
How Do Implementation Intentions Work?
According to new studies, habits are formed through four simple stages such as cue, craving, response, and reward. For example, when you return home from work, you see a chai wala near the metro station (cue). You feel like having a cup of hot tea (craving), you buy and drink it (response), and you feel refreshed (reward). When repeated enough times, you form the habit of drinking a cup of tea every evening as soon as you get off the metro.
Since cues trigger cravings, they are extremely crucial in habit formation. The more obvious a cue is, the better your chances of developing a habit. Experts agree that time and location are two important cues in forming routines. Implementation intentions amplify these cues by making them obvious. As a result, you start associating a specific time and location with a specific action.
As a habit formation strategy, implementation intentions have several benefits.
It increases your chances of sticking to a habit:
Often, we fail to stick to a new habit because we don’t have a clear plan about when or where to do it. By attaching a specific time and location to it, you are increasing the odds of performing a habit and following through it.
You don’t have to wait for motivation:
While cultivating habits, most of us make the mistake of waiting for the moment of motivation. The problem with this approach is that if you don’t feel motivated on a certain day, you end up skipping the routine. Once the implementation intention is set, it doesn’t matter if you feel motivated or not. All you need to do is to stick to the plan and act at the time and location you have already fixed.
You learn to say no to distractions:
It goes without saying that distractions come in the way of habits. You might want to establish a sleep routine but often get carried away by things that take you off the course. Having a clear plan about your habit and when and how to perform it will help you say no to such things that upset your plan.
All habits start with deliberate decisions. However, a habit becomes successful only when you start doing it automatically. Implementation intentions help you achieve that – it gives your brain a fixed When-Then formula to follow. Thus, when A happens, then B happens too!
