Intention-Action Gap · also called planning as placebo
why do I feel productive just from making a plan
The intention-action gap is the space between deciding something and doing it, filled with more deciding. Writing the plan gives your brain a small reward that feels identical to progress, so you file it, feel prepared, and never open it again — mistaking the moment you named the goal for the moment you started it.
Naming the goal felt so much like reaching it that you never noticed you hadn’t started.
What to do about it
Skip the document. Do ten minutes of the actual thing before you write another word about the plan for it.
Books that work on this
Each is a 90-day programme. Start with the first — later books assume the work in the earlier ones.
Lifetime Compounding Plan$6.99
The Success BlueprintComing soon
Broke Is DecisionComing soon
The Wealth VoiceComing soon
Build Before SpendComing soon
Discipline With MoneyComing soon
Forty Dollar WandComing soon
The Income FloorComing soonPart of the Success series.
How people say it
Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.
- I have a plan I wrote months ago and never opened again
- why do I feel productive just from making a plan
- I have a whole doc full of goals I never look at
- writing it down feels like I already did it
- I keep planning instead of actually starting
- my strategy document is just sitting there untouched
- I confuse making a decision with actually doing it
- I’ve had the same unfinished plan for over a year
Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.