Coaching practices for Action Planning During a Big Change
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Action Planning During a Big Change, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My plans hold up fine until something throws them off
- I keep throwing action plans and systems at this change and getting nowhere, and I’m starting to suspect I jumped straight to "do it" when I haven’t even really decided yet
- I made a plan a while back, my life has shifted since, and I keep failing the same plan over and over without ever sitting down to actually update it to fit how things are now.
- I’ve got this big goal way out there but no idea what I’m supposed to actually do this week to get closer, so it just sits there as a someday thing and I never move on it.
- I genuinely mean to do it, but the day swallows it every time and “I’ll get to it” never actually turns into doing it
Practices that may help
- Action Planning
Action planning — specifying when, where, and how you will execute a goal-directed behavior — is one of the best-supported techniques for closing the intention-behavior gap. Orbell and Sheeran’s research, along with Peter Gollwitzer’s work on implementation intentions, shows that forming specific plans reliably increases behavior over vague intentions alone, with meta-analytic effect sizes in the small-to-medium range. - Plan for obstacles with coping plans
Anticipate the specific obstacles most likely to block your plan and pre-decide your response to each.
Action Planning - Identify your current stage before choosing a strategy
Diagnose where you actually are in the change cycle before deciding what to do.
The Transtheoretical Model of Change, Made Practical - Review and update action plans at a fixed weekly cadence
An action plan that is not reviewed weekly becomes stale — regular review keeps the plan matched to current reality.
Action Planning - Decompose distal goals into proximal action plans
Break long-term goals into short-term action plans with specific behavioral targets for this week.
Action Planning - Write when, where, and how plans for every behavioral goal
Specify exactly when, where, and how you will act — not just what you intend to do.
Action Planning - Use if–then commitments for predictable barriers
Pre-plan your response to the specific situations most likely to derail the action.
Committed Action, Made Practical - Identify and anticipate upcoming transition windows
Treat approaching life changes as scheduled opportunities for habit installation — plan before the transition, not after.
The Habit Discontinuity Effect - Mentally simulate the planned behavior in its specific context
Rehearse the action plan in your mind — visualizing the cue, the response, and the environment — to prime automatic execution.
Action Planning - Separate the planning session from the execution day
Do your planning in a dedicated session, never on the day you intend to start.
The Planning Fallacy — Why Your Estimates Are Always Wrong
Related concerns
- Action Planning At Work
Action planning — specifying when, where, and how you will execute a goal-directed behavior — is one of the best-supported techniques for closing the intention-behavior gap. Orbell and Sheeran’s research, along with Peter Gollwitzer’s work on implementation intentions, shows that forming specific plans reliably increases behavior over vague intentions alone, with meta-analytic effect sizes in the small-to-medium range.
- Action Planning Behavior Change
Action planning — specifying when, where, and how you will execute a goal-directed behavior — is one of the best-supported techniques for closing the intention-behavior gap. Orbell and Sheeran’s research, along with Peter Gollwitzer’s work on implementation intentions, shows that forming specific plans reliably increases behavior over vague intentions alone, with meta-analytic effect sizes in the small-to-medium range.
- Action Planning As A Caregiver
Anticipate the specific obstacles most likely to block your plan and pre-decide your response to each.
Plan for obstacles with coping plans
- Action Planning Cadence
Action planning — specifying when, where, and how you will execute a goal-directed behavior — is one of the best-supported techniques for closing the intention-behavior gap. Orbell and Sheeran’s research, along with Peter Gollwitzer’s work on implementation intentions, shows that forming specific plans reliably increases behavior over vague intentions alone, with meta-analytic effect sizes in the small-to-medium range.
- Action Planning Confidence
Action planning — specifying when, where, and how you will execute a goal-directed behavior — is one of the best-supported techniques for closing the intention-behavior gap. Orbell and Sheeran’s research, along with Peter Gollwitzer’s work on implementation intentions, shows that forming specific plans reliably increases behavior over vague intentions alone, with meta-analytic effect sizes in the small-to-medium range.
- Action Planning For My Teenager
Decide how you will respond to predictable problems before they happen.
Plan behavior management strategies in advance
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