Coaching practices for If Then 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 If Then 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’ve got a big move (or a new job) coming up in a couple of months, and I can feel it’s a rare chance to start fresh
• There’s one specific thing that wrecks this for me every single time
• I’m about to lock in a plan that feels airtight from the inside
• It’s always the same thing that knocks me off

Practices that may help

1. If–Then Planning, Made Practical
   If–then plans (also called implementation intentions) specify in advance how you will respond to the specific situations that typically derail your goals: "If situation X occurs, then I will do Y." A meta-analysis of 94 studies found a medium-to-large effect on goal attainment — one of the most reliable single techniques in goal-setting research.
2. 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
3. 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
4. Write an if–then plan for your biggest obstacle
   "If [obstacle occurs], then I will [specific response]" — pre-deciding removes the obstacle’s power.
   If–Then Planning, Made Practical
5. Invoke the outside view before committing to any significant plan
   Before finalizing a plan or forecast, ask "How did similar things go?" as the first checkpoint.
   The Outside View
6. 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
7. 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.
8. 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
9. Form an if-then plan linking the obstacle to a specific response
   "If [obstacle occurs], then I will [specific action]" — this plan is what converts mental contrasting into behavior change.
   Mental Contrasting and WOOP
10. Combine mental contrasting with an if–then plan (MCII)
    Fantasize about success, then vividly imagine the key obstacle, then write the if–then — the sequence matters.
    If–Then Planning, Made Practical

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