Using MAP for Wellbeing – a quick planning tool to use at work and at home

A lot of us have things we’d like to do a bit differently – eating better, exercising more, sleeping more, the list goes on. But making those changes isn’t always as easy as just wanting to, sometimes we need a bit of help.

This article and the above videos introduce a simple behaviour change planner, using MAP – Motivation, Action and Prompts – to make changes for our health and wellbeing easier to achieve and maintain even when we feel under pressure.

You can download a copy of the MAP Planner here and fill it in. For a bit of inspiration, we’ve got some examples of completed MAPs which you can download here.

How to use the MAP Planner

The MAP Planner is a practical tool to support making sense of, starting and sustaining new behaviours which will benefit our health and wellbeing. It’s quick to complete, you can print it off and keep it with you or just work through it in your head when thinking about any tips and strategies you would like to use to improve your health and wellbeing.

Motivation – remind yourself of your overall aims, what you would like to achieve. What is the reason you would like to do things differently, why is this important to you and to others?
Action – Identify a specific thing (behaviour) you need to do, make a clear action plan (Using the MAP planner).
Prompts – Anticipate potential barriers in advance and solutions to overcome them through ‘if-then’ plans. How will we know if we are being successful? How will we reward ourselves for being successful. This helps us engage the slow reflective part of our brain.

For more help with making changes to improve your wellbeing, have a look at these top tips, put together by NHS Education for Scotland.

If you’re interested in reading more about Behaviour change for health, you can find more information here.