Write every Action Step starting with a verb
An Action Step that begins with a verb is completable; one that doesn’t is usually a wish or a category, not a task.
Why it works
Language structure shapes action readiness. A task phrased as "Website redesign" requires parsing to determine what needs to happen; "Draft website redesign brief by Friday" is immediately actionable. Verb-led phrasing forces specificity: you cannot write "Send" without also identifying to whom and what. This specificity is functionally equivalent to an implementation intention — the research basis for why when-what-who task specification improves follow-through.
How to do it
- Before writing any Action Step, begin with an active verb: Send, Draft, Schedule, Decide, Review, Ask, Call.
- After the verb, identify the object (what) and, where relevant, the recipient (who) and deadline (when).
- If you cannot start with a specific verb, the item is probably a project or a theme — it needs to be broken down further.
Evidence
Implementation intention research (Gollwitzer & Sheeran 2006) demonstrates that specific when-what planning improves follow-through by a medium-to-large effect. Verb-led phrasing is the Action Method’s operationalization of that specificity. (mechanistic)
Implementation-intention research is about when-and-where specificity; verb-led phrasing is the Action Method’s proxy for that specificity. The exact mapping has not been independently tested.
Sources
- Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), implementation intentions and goal achievement, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology About this work
Common mistake
Stacking multiple actions into one verb phrase ("Email John and review the proposal and schedule a call") — each is a separate Action Step and should be written as one.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for The Action Method, Made Practical
- Classify every captured item as an Action Step, Reference, or Backburner
When anything lands in your capture system, immediately sort it into one of three buckets — every item must belong to exactly one.
- Assign one owner to every Action Step
Any Action Step shared by multiple owners effectively has no owner — every step needs exactly one named person responsible.
- Review your Backburner list regularly to surface ideas whose time has come
The Backburner is not a graveyard — schedule a periodic review so good ideas that needed time can become Action Steps.
- Maximize the Action Step ratio in meetings
Judge a meeting’s productivity by the ratio of Action Steps it generates, not by how engaged or interesting it felt.
- Keep each project’s Action Steps physically separate from other projects
Mixing action steps from different projects in a single list increases context-switching cost and makes progress harder to see.
Related concepts
- Getting Things Done (GTD), Made Practical
The five steps, the next-action habit, and the science of offloading your mind
- Essentialism, Made Practical
Less but better — the disciplined pursuit of less, trade-offs, and the mechanisms
- The Ivy Lee Method, Made Practical
Six tasks, ordered by priority, worked in sequence — a 100-year-old system that still runs
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