Setting goals helped people move more; daily goals helped more than weekly ones.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   5,912 people took part in 45 studies. They ranged from children to older adults, most were not active enough at the start, and some studies had only women.

2. 02

   What they did

   People set physical activity goals, such as steps a day or minutes of exercise. Many studies also gave feedback, helped people plan how to reach their goals or offered rewards. Programmes ran from one week to a year, and the other groups set no goals.

3. 03

   What happened

   Overall, goal setting helped people do more physical activity than the other groups did. Daily goals helped more than weekly goals, which showed no clear effect. Feedback and rewards made no clear difference, and many studies were unclear about bias.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Across 45 studies, goal setting helped people be more active than groups with no goals.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested

   Pooled analysis of 52 studies with 5,912 people · vs groups with no goals · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. Helped

   Daily goals helped people be more active, but weekly goals showed no clear effect.

   • Rule: Every daytested
   • Action: Set a specific goalused

   Pooled analysis of 28 studies · vs goals set for each week · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

3. No difference

   Feedback on goal progress made no clear difference to how much activity people did.

   • Rule: Get feedback on your progresstested
   • Action: Set a specific goalused

   Pooled analysis of 52 studies · vs goal setting without feedback · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

4. No difference

   Rewards for goal progress made no clear difference to how much activity people did.

   • Rule: Get a reward or payment for doing ittested
   • Action: Set a specific goalused

   Pooled analysis of 52 studies · vs goal setting without rewards · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source