Action Triggers

What is the difference between an Action Item and an Action Trigger?

Action Items are nothing new to anyone who has ever attended a meeting.  As the meeting progresses someone jots down those items that must be accomplished before the next meeting.  This list is then provided to anyone with something that they must deliver.

An Action Trigger preloads the decision by having you imagine the time and the place where the action will take place.  Let me provide an example from the book "Switch" by Chip and Dan Heath.

"In one study, they tracked college students who had the option to earn extra credit in a class by writing a paper about how they spent Christmas Eve.  But there was a catch: To earn the credit, they had to submit the paper by December 26th.  Most students had the good intentions of writing the paper, but only 33 percent of them got around to writing and submitting it.  Other students in the class were required to set action triggers - to note, in advance, exactly when and where they intended to write the report.  A whopping 75 percent of those student wrote the report."

Source: Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath.Switch: How to change things when change is hard. New York: Broadway Books, 2010. Print. p.209


An example from my own life is my desire to clear my head each afternoon by talking a walk around my neighborhood.  I added a TO DO to take the walk around 4 each afternoon so I could gear up for the last hour of the day.  I wanted to end strong so I thought a walk would help.


What happened was that the walk almost never happened.  I would make one more call, answer one more email or read one more page.  I needed an action trigger.  I realized that I had the perfect situation for an action trigger, I just wasn't taking advantage of it.


My wife brings my daughter home from school each day and the garage is on the other side of the wall of my home office.  I figured out that a great action trigger would be to get up and go outside for my walk as soon as I heard the garage door rising.  


So today I accomplish what I want by using an action trigger that helps me master the situation.