Journal of Consumer Research

Are you familiar with creating implementation intentions while pursuing a goal? It’s basically one of the best ways to stay on track by planning out the details of how, when, where, and why a goal will be accomplished.

This strategy appears to be one way to bridge the gap between what you intend to do and what you actually do, which has proven useful for goals like exercising, smoking cessation, and success at school. However, most research done in the past focused on using this strategy to achieve a single goal, which, at least for me, is not how things go. This paper looks at three studies, diving into the science of the multi-goal planning that is life.

Results
You’re more likely to achieve a single goal than if you were working towards several at the same time. Kind of expected to see that, and I guess that means it’s a bad idea to try to learn how to play the guitar while being a full time student who's also attempting to progress his writing beyond an 8th grade level.

The bigger outcome here though was the feedback on how participants were able to execute multiple goals. This includes several nuggets that will each help you maintain commitment in the face of conflict and constraints.

• Frame the multiple goals as manageable. Let’s call this the I got this mentality.
• Think about your goals as a group working together to help fulfill a common purpose. It’s helpful to determine what that purpose is too.
• Make goals concrete, highlighting what achievement looks like.
• Avoid dividing your resources too thin so goals don’t interference with each other
• Try focusing on “why” more than “how”

Takeaway: Planning out the specifics is a good way to successfully complete a single goal. But when you’re trying to reach multiple goals, planning can actually be the reason why commitment is lacking, and commitment is key to success.

Or, just take things one goal at a time.