If-then plans: the simplest tool against porn urges

Why plans beat willpower

At 1am, tired and alone, your judgment is at its worst and the urge is at its loudest. That's the worst possible time to make a decision. An if-then plan makes the decision earlier, when you're calm, so in the moment you only have to follow it.

Researchers call these implementation intentions. A meta-analysis of 94 studies found they had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals compared with simply intending to. The likely reason is that the situation itself starts to trigger the planned response, so following it takes less effort.

The anatomy of a good rule

If names a specific situation you can recognize instantly: a time, a place, a feeling or a first small step.

Then names one concrete action, easy enough to do while tired and tempted.

• Weak: if I feel tempted, then I'll be strong.
• Strong: if I pick up my phone in bed after 11, then I put it on the charger in the kitchen.

Aim at the first link

The best rules interrupt the chain early. By the time a tab is open, the pull is at its strongest. Earlier links are easier to break: the phone going to bed with you, the feed you open "for a minute", the evening with nothing planned. Finding your triggers.

Examples to adapt

• If it's 11pm, then the phone charges outside the bedroom.
• If I'm home alone on a weekend afternoon, then I leave the house for an hour.
• If I catch myself scrolling a feed with nothing in mind, then I close the app and stand up.
• If I feel rejected or lonely, then I message someone before I do anything else.
• If I've had a hard day and think "I've earned it", then I start the wave timer and make tea.
• If I wake at 3am and can't sleep, then I read a paper book in another room.
• If an urge hits, then I name it, change rooms and wait ten breaths before deciding anything.

A new rule after every lapse

Every lapse shows you a gap in the plan. Afterwards, look at the hour, the place, the mood and the first small step, and write one new rule for exactly that moment. Over a few weeks your plan becomes a map of your own old road, with a turnoff at every point where it used to catch you. What to do after a lapse.

Keep it short and visible

Three to five rules you actually remember beat twenty you don't. Read them now and then, especially before your riskiest times, and change the ones that don't work.

How rerute does it

When you first open rerute, a few private questions about how often, when and where, and what sets you off, produce your first rules. They live in the Plan tab and sit beside the wave timer, so when an urge hits, your own words are on the screen. After a lapse, the app helps you turn what you logged into a new rule. See the app.

Questions people ask

What is an if-then plan?

A rule decided in advance that links a situation to an action: if this happens, then I do that. It moves the decision from the hard moment to a calm one.

How many if-then rules should I have?

Start with three to five, one for each of your main triggers. More than that and they're hard to remember. Add one after each lapse, from what the lapse taught you.

What if I break my own rule?

Then the rule needs work, not you. Look at where it failed: was the "if" too vague, the "then" too hard, or did it come too late in the chain? Rewrite it and try again.