navigate around them. Second, the process helps to reduce the likelihood that someone will underestimate the time required by a task. Third, plan creation helps people to remember to act. Lastly, the formation of an action plan serves as a commitment to act. Research shows that breaking commitments generates discomfort. As such, plans are particularly effective when they are made as commitments to another person. Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman, Leslie K. John, and Michael I. Norton (2015) suggest the following situations in which the use of planning prompts is most effective: Empirical support Implementation intentions have been very successful in helping individuals achieve targeted and specific goals over the years, as indicated by a survey of the research. Voting plans Implementation intentions can help to increase voter turnout. A study by David W. Nickerson and Todd Rogers (2010) found that voters in a high-salience election were more likely to vote when they received an implementation intentions phone call facilitating the creation of a voting plan. Voters who were contacted with an implementation intentions phone script were asked three questions to facilitate plan-making: what time they would vote, where they would be going to the voting place from, and what they would be doing immediately prior to voting. Voters who were contacted via this phone script were 4.1 percentage points more likely to vote than those who did not receive a call. Flu shots Planning prompts can also increase the likelihood that individuals will get flu shots. In a study conducted by Katherine L. Milkman, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian (2011), randomly assigned employees at a Midwestern company received a mailing that prompted them to write down the date and time that they would get their flu shot, while the remaining employees received a letter with only the clinic information. Those who received the plan-making letter were 4 percentage points more likely to get a flu shot. Physical health goals Implementation intentions have been found to be particularly effective in unpleasant goal pursuits such as health-promotion (e.g. balanced and nutritious diet) and disease-prevention (e.g. daily exercise) behaviors, where there may be significant immediate costs and only long-term rewards. Of women who set themselves the goal of performing a breast self-examination over the next month, 100% actually did so if they were induced to form an implementation intention, compared to 53% of women who were