In this article, I discuss the two key elements of a tool which will help you keep your New Year’s resolutions–the action plan.
Having an action plan is a fundamental technique to use in achieving goals whether they are set at the beginning of the year or at any other time. The action plan moves your goal from the status of hope to expectation by allowing you to break your goal into specific steps which move you toward your goal. Most people I know who use action plans have this ‘break the goal into actions or steps’ element in their plans.
Unfortunately, these same people are often missing a second critical element in their action plans—scheduling specific days and times to perform each action. Failing to include this second element often results in people not making good progress toward their goals and many times giving up on their goals altogether. In the following sections, I will discuss why having both elements are necessary for success in achieving goals with the use of action plans.
Element 1: Identify specific actions to move you toward your goal
The most basic element of an action plan involves identifying specific actions that will move you toward your goal. For example, if your goal is to complete a term paper for school, your action plan might identify different parts of the paper you will need to complete. The key to this element is to make each action specific so you’ll know what action to take at a given time. Action plans discussed in Mind over Mood by Greenberger and Padesky list the goal at the top of the page and list the actions moving you toward the goal in a column at the left.
Element 2: Schedule days and times to perform each action
One of the simplest elements of an action plan is also one of the most critical—scheduling a day and time to perform each action. The reason this simple step is so important is that people are significantly more likely to perform an action on a given day if it is has been scheduled to be performed that day. Listing an action to be performed without setting a day and time to perform it decreases the likelihood that you will perform it.
The reason this scheduling is so important is that it constitutes a commitment on your part to perform the action. That is, you are more likely to carry out actions on a given day if you’ve committed to doing them on that day. Not performing the action you have committed to perform on that day constitutes breaking a commitment which leads to feelings of guilt. To avoid feeling guilt, people tend to perform the action at the scheduled time. In other words, scheduling a day and time to perform the action allows you to use ‘avoidance of guilt’ as a motivator. On the other hand, with no day or time scheduled to perform the action you would not be breaking a commitment by not doing it on that day. With your lack of fear of guilt ensuing from not performing the action on that day, you are more likely to procrastinate.
Combining the two elements: Make each action you schedule for a given day ‘doable’
You will be more likely to perform the action you’ve scheduled for a given day and time if it is ‘doable’. That is, make the action move you in the direction of the goal without being too large. If the action involves too much time or effort for you to get it done on the assigned day, you will be less likely even to attempt to do it.
So in these cases, split up the too-big action into two or more smaller ones you can perform on separate days. Remember that doing even a small action to move you toward your goal will lead you toward the achievement of your goal if you stay on track by performing actions when they are scheduled. I can vouch for the effectiveness of action plans in achieving my own goals and in helping my clients achieve their goals in my work as a Calgary psychologist and a Cochrane psychologist.
May you use action plans to help you achieve your goals,
-Dr. Pat
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