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Before an action someone intends to take, ask them to name when they will do it — a date and time, an if-then plan, or a start after a meaningful date — and remind them of that plan. It worked for one-off actions; for a repeated habit it did not.
+4.2 ptsFlu-shot uptake at a workplace clinic when the reminder mailer asked employees to write the date and time they planned to go (regression-adjusted; 37.1% vs 33.1% raw). 3,272 employees at one firm, fall 2009 (Milkman et al.).
Built from published experiments and company reports across several products. Nobody has checked the screens on a dated day, so read each number with the caveat printed beside it.
Before an action someone intends to take, ask them to name when they will do it — a date and time, an if-then plan, or a start after a meaningful date — and remind them of that plan. It worked for one-off actions; for a repeated habit it did not.
Many people who intend to act don't; forgetfulness, procrastination and the lack of a concrete plan all contribute to the gap between intentions and actions (Milkman, Beshears, Choi, Laibson and Madrian).
This play is not tied to a full playbook. Use it for this decision alone.
A date-and-time prompt raised flu-shot uptake.
STRONGWhat it does not show A predominantly male sample at a single firm; the authors say it is not representative. Fall 2009 coincided with H1N1 news and vaccine shortages, which may limit generalizability. A one-time action with a fixed window; the plan was not collected and no reminder of it was sent.
Using implementation intentions prompts to enhance influenza vaccination rates Milkman et al. · 2011
Framing a delayed start around a fresh-start date raised savings take-up.
STRONGWhat it does not show The comparison is a plain delayed option, which itself lowered contributions relative to an immediate-only offer (F2). Two of 12 robustness estimates fell to 10% significance under alternative models. A one-time savings election, not a repeated behavior.
Using Fresh Starts to Nudge Increased Retirement Savings Beshears et al.
Reminders of a plan went with more daily goal success.
SUPPORTINGTests reminders of a plan, not the planning prompt itself, because every participant made a plan. Very small cells (5 to 8 participants per cell) and a self-reported outcome; the authors estimate the interaction is likely overstated by a factor of about 1.56. Participant counts in the text and Table 1 do not agree.
Use the play for this decision alone, or combine it with an existing product strategy after checking for conflicts.
Asking users to choose a time adds a decision at the moment of the prompt; Opal reports onboarding tests adding choice lost to an app-set default.
For repeated behaviours, people plan far more than they do, and each missed plan can demotivate.
Measuring only the prompted channel can overstate the effect when the prompt just moves where the action happens.
Presenting research-setting health or savings outcomes as outcomes of an app is a claim the sources do not support.
Plus everything above, as plain text for your coding agent, with a short instruction on top: check the fit, say what the evidence doesn’t support, and adapt it rather than copy it. Paste it and you get an answer, no prompt to write.
Four field and app experiments: flu shots, retirement savings, gym visits, and a 64-person reminder study · evidence reviewed 25 September 2026.
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Browse the playbooks ↗Implementation Intention and Reminder Effects on Behavior Change in a Mobile Health System: A Predictive Cognitive Model Pirolli et al. · 2017
Planning gym visits did not raise gym visits.
STRONGWhat it does not show Read as the NBER working paper; the published Journal of Health Economics version was not read. The control group completed a recall task, so it was not a pure no-contact control. Two weeks only, at one gym; participants were paid 20 dollars for the survey.
The Limits of Simple Implementation Intentions: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Making Plans to Exercise Carrera et al.
Offering a plain “start later” option lowered savings.
STRONGWhat it does not show Read as a 2015 working paper; the published version was not identified or read. Whether a landmark-framed delay beats an immediate-only offer, rather than merely offsetting the loss, is not reported as a separate estimate in the text read.
Save More Later? The Effect of the Option to Choose Delayed Savings Rate Increases on Retirement Wealth Beshears et al.