Implementation intentions and effective goal pursuit
Gollwitzer and Brandstaetter report three studies. In a survey, female Munich students named an easy and a difficult project for the Christmas break and said whether they had planned when and where to begin; for difficult projects 22 per cent of students without a plan and 62 per cent with one completed them, and for easy projects the rates were 78 and 84 per cent, not a reliable difference. In an experiment, 86 student volunteers were asked to write a report on Christmas Eve within two days; 39 sent a report and 36 were analysed. Planners chose a time and place, pictured it and committed in writing. Twelve of 17 planners and 6 of 19 controls wrote within the two days; mean writing dates were 2.3 and 7.7 days after Christmas Eve, and 10 of the 12 on-time planners wrote on their chosen day. A laboratory study found that planners began the planned action closer to its marked moment.
Gollwitzer and Brandstaetter report three studies. In a survey, female Munich students named an easy and a difficult project for the Christmas break and said whether they had planned when and where to begin; for difficult projects 22 per cent of students without a plan and 62 per cent with one completed them, and for easy projects the rates were 78 and 84 per cent, not a reliable difference. In an experiment, 86 student volunteers were asked to write a report on Christmas Eve within two days; 39 sent a report and 36 were analysed. Planners chose a time and place, pictured it and committed in writing. Twelve of 17 planners and 6 of 19 controls wrote within the two days; mean writing dates were 2.3 and 7.7 days after Christmas Eve, and 10 of the 12 on-time planners wrote on their chosen day. A laboratory study found that planners began the planned action closer to its marked moment.
Written from the full text, Stanford SPARQ copy of the paper, 2026-11-02.
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Gollwitzer, P. M., & Brandstätter, V. (1997). Implementation intentions and effective goal pursuit. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 186-199. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.73.1.186 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.1.186