Now think about the obstacles that would likely stand in your way. These obstacles should be internal (e.g., “I could become distracted” or “I could feel like giving up”) rather than external (e.g., “My roommate will bug me” or “My professor does not teach well”). Identify no more than two obstacles that you know from experience you are most likely to come up against. Visualize yourself experiencing these obstacles, including the emotions that will arise.

Generate a clear, concrete action plan that will help you overcome each obstacle. The plan should be in the form: “If <obstacle>, then <plan>.” For example, “If I don’t understand my professor’s expectations for this assignment, I will email my professor specific questions for clarification.” It’s really important that you construct your plan in this form so that you can mentally instantiate the cause-and-effect relationship. Visualize your plan and repeat it to yourself at least 3 times.

Oettingen cautions that all the steps need to be completed in this exact order for the strategy to be most effective (5). Evidence suggests that WOOP changes students’ goal-directed behavior. For example, Duckworth and colleagues (6) randomly placed a WOOP exercise or a partial WOOP exercise (just the wish and the outcome) within PSAT practice books that 10th-grade students had the opportunity to complete over the summer. Students who fully WOOP-ed about studying for the PSAT completed 60% more practice questions than students who partially WOOP-ed. Although actual performance on the PSAT was not reported, deliberate practice (like doing practice problems) is generally associated with better performance (7), so it is likely that students who completed more practice problems would do better on the later assessment.

I’ve seen my own students make “rookie mistakes” that could decrease the effectiveness of the strategy. Let me make some suggestions:

· Take your time. Rushing through the process undermines its effectiveness. Like any strategy, you need to practice to become proficient. Your initial WOOP sessions may take 5 or more minutes, but subsequent sessions may require only a couple of minutes.

· Confirm that obstacles are internal rather than external. You can’t always effectively address external obstacles, but you do have control over internal obstacles.

· Ensure that your if-then implementation plan incorporates an obstacle and a plan. It’s easy to slip into an if-then statement that reflects the Premack principle where more frequent – and potentially more pleasurable – behaviors reward less frequent behaviors: “If I complete my work, I will give myself 15 minutes on Instagram.” That’s not an implementation intention. You must address an obstacle with a plan: “If I find myself spending too much time on Instagram, I will give my phone to my roommate until I finish my work.”

· Let WOOP help you refine your wishes. If you find yourself getting nowhere despite WOOPing, re-examine your wish. Is your wish really meaningful? It is challenging? It is attainable? Sometimes we are too ambitious in our wishes and WOOP-ing can reveal that. If you wish to read – and understand – three chapters of your textbook in 1 hour, that’s certainly challenging, but it’s not realistic.

Even when you follow the steps, WOOP-ing is not a panacea that cures every case of an unrealized goal. Nevertheless, WOOP-ing is encouraging for several reasons. First, WOOP-ing clearly goes beyond pop-psychology advice to simply “think positive” or “visualize your future”. In fact, “thinking positive” without planning to overcome obstacles is counterproductive: indulging in positive fantasies (without specific action plans) immediately reduces depressive symptoms in college students, but is associated with more depressive symptoms 2 months later (8). Second, Oettingen and her colleagues have demonstrated that WOOP can be effective across multiple contexts including academic performance, healthy eating, physical fitness, and interpersonal relationships. Further, it can be used for short-term or long-term goals.