Glossary
Implementation prompts
What are implementation prompts?
The phrase implementation prompt can refer to prompting someone to make a specific plan, or to reminding them of a plan later. These are different intervention components.
Evidence and use
Prompting a plan
In Milkman and colleagues’ field experiment, a mailing prompted employees to write down when they would attend a flu-vaccination clinic. The date-and-time prompt improved uptake in that workplace. It was delivered before the action and helped form a plan; it was not a notification triggered by arriving at the clinic.
Reminding someone of a plan
A later reminder can instead draw attention to an existing intention. Timing, content, burden, and the opportunity to act all require consideration. Research on forming implementation intentions does not establish that every reminder works best at the exact instant of action.
Applied example
An app could remind someone of an agreed medication routine when they arrive home: “Your pill organizer is on the kitchen counter.” The reminder should fit the prescribed schedule and the person’s actual opportunity to act. This illustrates a later reminder, whereas the vaccination mailing helped people make a plan in advance.
Why it matters
First identify the problem. Does the person need to decide when to act, remember an existing plan, or overcome a barrier that no notification can fix? Sending more reminders is a poor answer to the wrong problem. A prompt helps only if it connects to an action the person can and wants to take.