The Basic Idea
Imagine you decide you want to get into better shape and you therefore start going to the gym. This is a goal you make in your head, without telling anyone. Although you might have the best intentions, as the days go by, you don’t find yourself making it to the gym. Why did your resolution fail?
One reason is because you had no kind of commitment to going to the gym: you didn’t buy a gym membership; you didn’t tell someone else who could hold you accountable; you didn’t even outline the specific days of the week and times of the day that you would go. Without a prior commitment to an activity, we often fall victim to procrastination. Unfortunately, planning for the future doesn’t come naturally – putting something off until tomorrow, on the other hand, does.
Precommitment is a strategy to ensure we reach the goals we set out for ourselves. It is employed by various businesses to ensure customers and clients follow through on their word; for example, you are asked to sign a lease prior to moving into a new apartment to hold you accountable to that decision.1 It’s unlikely you would back out of your lease after signing it, just as would be less likely to avoid the gym after signing a gym membership.
To precommit is to choose now to limit your options later, preventing yourself from making the wrong choice in the face of temptation. Publicly announcing your goal is a common form of precommitment.
– Nick Winter, blogger and writer, in his 2013 bookThe Motivation Hacker2
