Clarifying Implementation Intentions: The Key to Achieving Your Goals

Introduction

Hello everyone. Today, I'd like to talk about the importance of "clarifying implementation intentions" for achieving your goals.

In my personal opinion, while people are generally good at identifying and setting goals, they often fail to "clarify their implementation intentions." This is something I frequently overlook myself, and I decided to write this article to organize my thoughts on the matter.

What Does Clarifying Implementation Intentions Mean?

First, let me explain the definition of clarifying implementation intentions. Clarifying implementation intentions means creating a specific action plan and making the actions towards achieving your goals clear. People strive to improve their situations for various reasons and work towards their goals. However, paying attention to specific action plans for achieving goals is often overlooked or planned haphazardly.

For example, it's common to hear people express goals like "I want to eat healthier" or "I want to study more", but these goals are abstract and do not show specific actions. Without a concrete action plan, it becomes unclear what to do, making it difficult to take action. In the case of the goal "to eat healthier," if you don't decide what foods to buy or what dishes to cook, it becomes hard to execute. Similarly, for the goal "to study," it becomes difficult to maintain motivation and take action because it is unclear why you are studying, how much knowledge you want to gain in that field, and by when you want to achieve a certain level of skill.

How to Create a Specific Action Plan

So, what should you do? As a principle, when you know what you need to do, breaking it down into more specific actions makes it easier to achieve.

For example, if you plan to go to a polling station to vote, instead of just writing "go to the polling station" in your schedule, write down the details such as "Go to the polling station by bus at 10 am tomorrow. Leave the house at 9:30 am. It's a 5-minute walk to the bus stop, so finish preparations by 9:25 am." By detailing it this way, you can become more aware of the specific actions, making it easier to execute tasks and clarifying what needs to be done.

Steps for Creating a Specific Action Plan

To make it easier to understand, here are examples of turning previously vague goals into more specific ones.

Examples of Specific Actions for Eating Healthier:

• "Create a weekly grocery list every Sunday, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and protein sources based on specific recipes."
• "Plan to cook dinner three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and list the specific recipes and necessary ingredients."
• "Aim to consume at least three types of vegetables every day."

If you have health-related goals like reducing weight or body fat percentage, you can set those as goals as well. Such specific numerical targets and plans like cooking at home three times a week and consuming three types of vegetables daily mean that your implementation intentions are clear.

Examples of Specific Actions for Studying:

• "Decide on the topic to study each week on Monday and set specific goals. For example, 'This week, I will study database management.'"
• "Secure 20 minutes every day to study using specific materials (like online courses or textbooks)."
• "Review what was learned during the week on the weekend and take a test to check understanding."

In the case of studying, having a score from a qualification exam or language test gives you a benchmark to measure yourself. Therefore, setting a target score and deadline is a specific and clear strategy.

Tools for Setting Implementation Intentions

If you are working on long-term projects, using task management software is convenient. I use tools like Notion, Logseq, and TaskChute for management, but since individual preferences and the nature of the tasks vary, it’s a good idea to research and decide what to use yourself.

Conclusion

The reason I wrote this article is that I recently organized files on my PC and found a hastily written note from about two years ago. The note said:

- Clarify implementation intentions = make actions specific until achieving goals.
  - Those who plan details in advance, like how and when to go to the polling station or whether to take the bus, are more likely to achieve their goals.
  - Bad example: "Let's eat healthier" or "Let's write more" are not specific.

Although I don't remember the exact details, I probably found it difficult to act ambiguously and realized the benefits of meticulous planning and management, or I had some kind of insight. Revisiting this theme and brainstorming while writing this article today, I once again realized the importance of clarifying implementation intentions.

Creating specific action plans makes achieving goals much more realistic. If you are interested, please give it a try!

Thank you for reading :)