Ask HN: Other tricks like implementation intention?

If you want to achieve your goals, one of the best way to do so is to use implementation intentions. You can read about those on wikipedia or in this original paper [0], but in a gist it's about setting up a goal behaviour in a sentence format "IF situation X THEN behavior Y". So for example if I want to exercise more, I don't just set up a goal "to exercise more" I say "IF I am getting back from work, THEN I will go straight to the gym"

Mechanism of action is hypothesised to be: When you make implementation behaviour you create a mental image of a future situation and it becomes active in the future, making the target behaviour easier to become reality. In studies, the effect of only forming implementation intention on goal attainment is moderate to large (meta-analysis [1] d = 0.65)

For a list of areas where implemenation intention work, visit [1] page 20. Examples are: eat a low fat diet, use public transport, buy organic food, using for personal goals and other not useful psychological tests to validate the effect.

Implementation Intention seems like a simple trick with a very big payoff. It works for me and I try to use it everywhere I want to change behaviour.

My question: Do you know of any other tricks similar to this one? I feel like implementation intentions are not that well known and I am sure there are other tricks that didn't spread to public knowledge.

[0] http://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/handle/123456789/10101/99Goll_ImpInt.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

[1] https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/handle/123456789/10973/06GollwitzerSheeran_ImplementationIntentionsAndGoalAchievement.pdf?sequence=