Implementation intention

An implementation intention is a plan in the form “when situation X arises, I will do Y” — “when I sit down after lunch, I will open the report and write one sentence”; “when the 2:40 alarm rings, I will stand up and put my shoes on.” The term comes from psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, whose research (and a later meta-analysis across nearly a hundred studies) found that this simple format substantially increases follow-through compared to ordinary intentions (“I’ll work on the report today”).

The mechanism: it moves the decision out of the moment. Ordinary intentions require you to notice the opportunity, choose to act, and initiate — three executive-function steps at exactly the time they’re weakest. A when-then plan pre-loads all three; the situation itself triggers the action.

For ADHD brains this is disproportionately valuable, since in-the-moment initiation is the least reliable link. It’s the active ingredient inside first-move planning, leave-alarms, and bedtime lists.