Coaching practices for Implementation Intention Contract

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Implementation Intention Contract, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I genuinely intend to do the thing
• 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
• My plans always assume a good day, and then the predictable thing happens
• On Sunday I’m completely sure I’ll do it, and by Wednesday the version of me on the couch just shrugs and skips it with zero consequence
• I keep telling myself I’ll get to it "sometime today" and then the day just dissolves and I never do

Practices that may help

1. Commitment Contracts, Made Practical
   A commitment contract binds your future self to a course of action by attaching real costs — financial, social, or reputational — to failure. The evidence from savings programs and behavioral economics is solid for financial commitments; effects on health and habit change are positive but more variable, and contracts work best when you already want to change.
2. Set if-then implementation intentions for goal behaviors
   Specify when, where, and how you’ll act — not just whether you intend to.
   Hyperbolic Discounting — Why Future You Always Gets the Short End
3. 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
4. Precommitment Devices (Ulysses Contracts)
   A precommitment device is a constraint you impose on your future self while you still have the clarity to want the right thing — locking in a choice so the weaker, in-the-moment you cannot undo it. Commitment contracts (including ones with real money or social stakes) have solid experimental support, though they help most for people already motivated to change.
5. Pre-identify your temptations before writing the contract
   Knowing specifically when and how you’ll be tempted lets you write a contract that covers those scenarios.
   Commitment Contracts, Made Practical
6. Commitment contracts with real stakes
   Put money or a consequence on the line so failing the goal costs something concrete.
   Precommitment Devices (Ulysses Contracts)
7. Specify the when and where for every goal action
   "I will do [behavior] at [time] in [location]" — specificity creates an automatic trigger.
   If–Then Planning, Made Practical
8. Use commitment devices to make future behavior harder to avoid
   Pre-commit to the behavior now — when your current self is motivated — to bind your future self.
   Action Planning
9. Write a formal commitment contract with a referee and stakes
   Formalize your goal with a clear metric, a deadline, stakes you’ll lose if you fail, and a referee who enforces it.
   Commitment Contracts, Made Practical
10. Close with a forward-looking resolve
    Choose one concrete intention to carry into tomorrow before closing the review.
    The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review

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