​Intentions and Stages of Setting Goals

By Joseph Duong (Team Member)

When it comes to procrastination there are many ways that psychology could help in improving how to set goals and hopefully stick to. The process of making a goal can be daunting but know that goal setting is an essential life skill and is universally transferrable to other aspects such as work and studies. One way of increasing motivation is to be mentally prepared and create an intention.

There can be two intentions to goal setting. A goal intention is knowing when, where and how a goal is to occur. An implementation intention helps goal intentions by pairing behaviours as cues with an environment and serves as a stimulus for the behaviour. By doing implementation intentions you’d find that you won’t have to remind yourself about goals anymore, with more practice it will become an association and in psychology associations equal habits.

Goal intentions are the first step in making goals feel less daunting as well as getting you mentally prepared. Goal intentions should be made with a behaviour, time and location. Some examples can include:

• I will use a guided meditation app and meditate for 30 minutes at 6 am on the floor beside my bed.
• I will work out at 7 am at my local gym.
• I will make myself coffee at 11 am in my kitchen.
• I will study for my upcoming exam at 11:30 am until 1 pm on my study desk in my bedroom.

​Implementation intentions will supplement your goal intentions in supporting concrete behavioural change. Implementation intentions are mostly used for additional behaviours or triggers that would impede your achievements. For these examples I will use “if-then” strategies as it is the most effective form of implementation intention.

• If my mind wanders while I meditate, then I will focus on mindfully breathing.
• If I open my door to get ready for gym, then I will check my pockets to see if I’ve brought my gym card.
• If I turn my coffee machine on, then I will prepare the sugar and cup while the machine heats.
• If I don’t study, then I will clean my desk for 15 min.
• If I don’t want to study, then I will open my calendar and organise events.

There are four stages to goal setting and at each stage goal and implementation intentions can be very effective.

1. Initiating goal action: Goal and implementation intentions can help to cue behaviours as signals with the environment and thus making it easier to establish habit. Additionally, it can help with emotional regulation in getting you better prepared through dealing with uncomfortable emotions as well as prevention from temptation.
2. Staying on track: monitoring for distractions can be difficult and as a student they can start by writing a first essay sentence to then spend the next three hours on Facebook. Implementation intention will help in minimising maladaptive behaviours that lead to temptation and distraction. Implementation intentions have also been shown to be independent of motivation, that is, implementation intention can have effects that are over and above motivation.
3. Disengaging from ineffective strategies: it is important to monitor your own strategies and to stop if they have shown no results. Implementation would help in forming detailed approaches to “if” a negative situation arises “then” a different approach could be taken. This will minimise uncertainty surrounding tasks and help with mental clarity.
4. Keeping willpower strong: this is an important step to self-regulatory management in making sure to not overextend and deplete resources. As Wieber and Gollwitzer identified, willpower is like a muscle, overextending can lead to burning out. Implementation intentions have been shown to bypass burn outs and boost willpower. This is true as it is supported that implementation intentions are independent of motivation. Even on a wet day or a long workday, your implementation intention will get you to still pursue going to the gym. A couple of studies have resulted in a group that have used the implementation intention “If I solve an anagram, then I will immediately start to work on the next one” to solve more anagrams than a control.

Overall, goal and implementation setting are one proven psychological way to fixing the problem of procrastination as well as help us maintain healthy behaviour and reduce problematic procrastinating. There have been many ways to help you achieve. Goal intention has been the most effective way in doing so by specifying behaviour, time and location and drawing associations to habit building. Implementation intention will then assist in difficult tasks by preventing distractions and increasing willpower.
 
References:
Clear, J. (2021, January 6). Achieve your goals: The simple trick that doubles your odds of success. James Clear. https://jamesclear.com/implementation-intentions
Pychyl, T. A. (2010, January 20). Overcoming procrastination: Four potential problems during goal pursuit. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/dont-delay/201001/overcoming-procrastination-four-potential-problems-during-goal-pursuit
Pychyl, T. A. (2010, January 21). Implementation intentions facilitate action control. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/dont-delay/201001/implementation-intentions-facilitate-action-control