How to Actually Do What You Say you’re going to do?

I am sure that every now and then we promise ourselves that we will get something done, maybe we told ourselves that we will finish that essay by the end of the week, maybe we told ourselves that we start hitting the gym this summer

Or maybe we even told ourselves that we will finish the book that one YouTuber suggested we should read.

But often times we find ourselves not doing the things that we set out to do.

That’s not so good.

It's never good when you say something and you contradict it,

It really hurts your self-esteem.

So today we will be talking about exactly

“How to Actually Do What You Say you’re going To Do”

The best way for me is to start by referring to a study which was published in the British journal of health psychology.

This study looked at a group of 250 people who were separated into 3 different groups,

The First Group: was told to follow an exercise routine for the next two weeks.

The Second Group: was told the same thing as the first group and they were also shown videos and clips about the benefits of the exercise.

This group was called the motivated group.

The third and the final group: was told the same thing as the first group also showing the same exact videos as group number 2 but on top of all of that they filled out the following sentence:

I will partake in:

At-least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise
at ------ place
at ------ time.

This concept is called implementation intention (Basically when you write down the conditions of completing a task.)

So let's take a look at the results of this experiment:

Out of the first group: 38% of the people exercised at least once a week for the next two weeks.

Out of the second group which was shown motivational videos:  Only 35% of them exercised at least once a week for the next two weeks.

So it seems motivational videos don't really do much and might actually be counterproductive.

And finally the third group, the group that used implementation intention: Had a whopping 91% of the participants hitting the gym at least once a week for the next two weeks.

That is significantly higher than the other two groups and it goes to show just how effective implementation intention is.

There have been hundreds of studies looking at the effectiveness of implementation intention,

There have been 

Studies on dieting,  

Studies on making reading into a habit,  

Studies on working,

And all of them pointed that implementation intention is extremely effective in terms of getting you To Do The Things You Say You're Going To Do.

Now the question remains WHY!!!

Why does writing down a short little sentence which takes no more than a minute do so much?

Well think of it this way, let’s say for example:

You are someone who wants to start a new exercise habit,

You often find that you wait around for the right moment, the perfect opportunity where you are filled with motivation to go and hit the gym.

And more often than not that moment never comes!

The majority of people are simply not filled with motivation all of the time however when you write down exactly when and where you will exercise, it changes everything.

Now you no longer have to wait for motivation because you've already set an appointment.

Studies have found that in terms of willpower,

It actually takes more willpower to make the decision of going to the gym then the actual workout itself.

It takes more willpower to put on your shoes and step out of door than the actual work out.

To make the decision before hand you save yourself from having to spend willpower on the day off and this makes the process of hitting the gym much easier.

Especially after a long day of work for your levels of willpower are already low.

So for those of you who want to stick to a habit or get something done I suggest you take advantage of implementation intention trick and easily Do The Things You Say You're Going To Do.

And something important to know here is that you should make your implementation intention as reasonable as possible,

If you have a big task like an essay that needs to be done then break it down and instead of saying I’ll complete my essay at the library tomorrow at 5 P.M,  It's more effective to say I’ll  write the first two paragraph of my essay at the library tomorrow starting at 5 P.M

The simpler the task...the lesser the chance you will avoid it.