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Action Plans Help People Complete Tasks
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Posted by Adrian
Mar 4, 2019 at 09:33 PM
“People complete tasks more quickly when they have concrete plans. However, they often fail to create such action plans.”
This is from an interesting research paper from Stanford. They claim that people can have the benefit of a good action plan even if the plan is created by others (recycled action plans).
You can read more details at:
https://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2013/TaskGenies/TaskGenies-ToCHI2013.pdf
This is the intro:
“People complete tasks faster when they develop concrete implementation intentions[Allen 2002; Amabile and Kramer 2011; Gollwitzer 1996; Leventhal et al. 1965;Luszczynska 2006; Milkman et al. 2011]. Several controlled experiments have found that people assigned to make concrete plans follow through more often – from getting flu shots [Milkman et al. 2011] to exercising for heart attack recovery [Luszczynska2006] – than those only required to formulate a high-level theory. This benefit could arise from the availabilityof an action plan (regardless of source) and/or the process of contemplating a plan oneself. This work seeks to disambiguate these possibilities.”
Posted by Paul Korm
Mar 4, 2019 at 10:40 PM
I read the suggested article. I have never heard of (or encountered) a crowd-sourced action plan. I wonder who has. It’s probably an interesting concept—though I would be curious who uses—or wants—a crowd-sourced action plan for “how to clean my kitchen”, or “how to sell something on eBay”.
Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Mar 4, 2019 at 11:52 PM
“This work seeks to disambiguate these possibilities.”
This statement reminds me of the old bumper sticker “Eschew Obfuscation”
Posted by Jeffery Smith
Mar 5, 2019 at 02:17 PM
For me, this was the niche for SheetPlanner. Simple ToDo lists don’t rise to the level of action plans, but apps like OmniPlan are overkill for my needs. SheetPlanner allows me some order that task managers lack. Most importantly for me, many of the actions in the action plan require some sort of action by others, and I often find myself waiting for them to do their part. During these lulls in the action plan, I can knock off the items that I have control over, and the project doesn’t stall so quickly. The drawback for me is that *my* having an action plan does little to increase the productivity of those players who don’t use action plans, and academia is not so deadline driven.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Mar 5, 2019 at 04:28 PM
I too like SheetPlanner. Because it is Mac only, I can’t really fit it into my work. (If only I could talk my boss into switching to Mac).
Jeffery Smith wrote:
For me, this was the niche for SheetPlanner. Simple ToDo lists don’t
>rise to the level of action plans, but apps like OmniPlan are overkill
>for my needs. SheetPlanner allows me some order that task managers lack.
>Most importantly for me, many of the actions in the action plan require
>some sort of action by others, and I often find myself waiting for them
>to do their part. During these lulls in the action plan, I can knock off
>the items that I have control over, and the project doesn’t stall so
>quickly. The drawback for me is that *my* having an action plan does
>little to increase the productivity of those players who don’t use
>action plans, and academia is not so deadline driven.