This presentation looks at the planning process through the lens of motivation science, and asks the question of what kind of planning can help people to reach their health goals? I will focus on the strategy of making if-then plans (aka forming implementation intentions) and discuss what kinds of related cognitive performance can be enhanced by if-then planning (e.g., attention control, prospective memory, executive functions, and decision making), and whether if-then planning may also benefit health-related emotion control, behavior change, and social interactions. I will also point to moderators such as the features of the goals and if-then plans themselves, as well as sample characteristics. Finally, the underlying processes of if-then planning effects are delineated in the hope of better understanding what kind of if-then plans might work particularly well when it comes to facilitating flexible but tenacious pursuit of health goals.