Tips for Writing Your Coaching Plan

November 7, 2013

Writing a Coaching Plan takes about as long as writing a good blog post. Let me walk you through it.

Create your plan

Get started at https://lift.do/plans/new.

Decide on your end goal.

What end result will someone get after taking your plan? Choose this goal now.

When people search for plans on Lift or in a search engine, they’re usually looking up words that have to do with the end result. Mention the end result it in your Plan Name and Plan Description to make sure that people looking for a plan like yours find it.

Pick a plan format.

There are many ways to write a plan, so let me share some popular formats that you can use as a template. Click on the plan icon to view that plan’s full instructions.

Simple: Sometimes people just need a quick instruction on how do to something. Plans like 10k squats use one-line instructions to get participants moving.

Progressing Difficulty: In this kind of plan, each workout is harder than the one before. This is common for fitness plans. It’s also common when you’re building a skill that requires understanding of basic principles (like coding, cooking, financial literacy), like the Stop Saying Um plan.

Prompt-based: Some goals are best reached when you practice the same skill regularly. Giving prompts — like what to write, photograph, cook, or play— can make the process more fun and expand the participant’s skill set. This type of coaching also helps people who are stuck in a rut or don’t know how to start doing something like writing in a journal.

Quick tips about the plan creation page

Edit your plan anytime at http://lift.do/plans/admin.
You can reorder your steps after you write them.
Add links in the Plan Description & Instruction Descriptions as long as they include “http://” (i.e. http://lift.do instead of lift.do)

How do I choose a cover image?

Use your own photo or find one licensed under Creative Commons here: http://search.creativecommons.org/ (if so, remember to add an attribution in your Plan Description).

Check your plan’s public link after you save your photo to make sure you’re happy with it!

How many steps should a plan have?

We suggest at least 10 days and no more than 30 days. This is our guess based on research around building habits and how long people like to stick to habits on Lift.

How much time should a step take?

There’s no right answer, but when writing a plan remember that the same principles of behavior change still hold: take small steps, incrementally increase difficulty, repeat the behavior often enough to make it a habit. Here are key things to keep in mind:

Ask the user to do only thing in each step: Smile once, run 4 miles, do 50 squats, free-write for 5 minutes.
The step should be done only once that day (e.g. drink 32 oz of water instead of drink a cup of water every hour).
Make the instruction short. Add details in the Instruction Description.

Should I include rest days?

Sure! We’re thinking of adding features like Skip, Repeat and Pause so people can set their own pace.If rest is important to your plan (e.g. running), feel free to add it as a step. Seriously, the person taking your plan will appreciate the break!

In the current app, you can take a rest day by not checking in (today’s step will show up again tomorrow).