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
at ------ place
at ------ time.
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.
How to Actually Do What You Say you’re going to do?
Reviewed by Bhoral Bajni
on
February 19, 2018
Rating:

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