The Power of Precommitment

            Let’s talk about habits. You’ve probably got some bad ones that you’re looking to get rid of and some ideas for good ones that would like to build. In this post I am going to talk about one of the paradigms I’ve used to destroy my bad habits and reinforce creating and keeping my good ones.

            Precommitment.

            You may have heard of precommitment before, but it’s not just simply committing to a certain thing ahead of time. Proper precommitment involves limiting the options you give yourself in the future. A great example of this is meal-prepping. If I go through the process of purchasing, preparing, and portioning a number of meals ahead of time, then I have created a situation in which I am more likely to eat those meals. If I don’t eat my prepped meals, I waste the money and effort I put into it; not following through creates dissonance because I would be deciding to throw out food that I already have ready when I choose to instead go get a Jumbo Jack.

            Now consider how things might go if you went and bought all the same food, put it in your fridge, but didn’t prepare and portion it ahead of time. In this scenario, you’ve pre-committed to eating well to a weaker degree. You’ve got to bust everything out for every meal, cooking the same thing each time until you are out of the ingredients. Sounds more likely to fall off your diet, right?

            Now take it a step further and consider that you only took mental steps – important, absolutely; but you didn’t do anything tangible to commit. You just told yourself, “This week, I am going to buy and cook only healthy meals.” Now the precommitment is to an even weaker degree because each time you need to perform the desired habit, you have an even more laborious process to go through in getting to the store, shopping, then going home and finally cooking and portioning your meal. Even more likely to fall off your diet.

            On the other side of the coin, if I prepare extra meals, then vac-seal them and freeze for a later date, I am practicing precommitment to a degree stronger than the original example. I have stockpiled my good decisions, making it easier on myself at a future date because instead of making four meals for this week, I made eight and froze four so that I also have the four for next week already ready to go. I made the decision to eat well for both weeks right now.

            Think of it like this. When you practice precommitment, you are removing as many future obstacles as possible from your performing the desired action. You want to create an environment in which there are as few deterrents and as many incentives as possible so that when you get to the point where you intend to study, go to the gym, or eat healthy, it’s right there in front of you and it becomes automatic.

            You are trying to ensure that the good decision that you are committing to now is the one you make every day for the rest of the week, month, year, etc. We all know how easy it is to discard that commitment when in the moment of temptation. Remove other options from your table ahead of time. Put yourself in a position where you, as much as you can, force yourself to follow through. Deny yourself the ability to make excuses for not doing those things by ensuring that the means to make excuses don’t exist in the first place.

            Sometimes it’s as structured as meal-prepping ahead of time, other times it can simply be placing your gym bag in the doorway to your room, forcing yourself to move it when you wake up first thing in the morning. I like to put things that I don’t want to forget to do physically in my way. That way, it’s right there staring at me, shaming me if I go back on my word to myself.

            Trying to spend more time reading or studying instead of playing video games? Unplug your keyboard or controller and put it in the closet after every gaming session, and/or put the book you want to read in your computer chair instead.

            Trying to develop a new skill? Set an amount of time you want to spend on it daily, then go buy one of those shitty $5 timers at Walmart. Carry the timer around in your pocket all day until you step aside and satisfy that time well-spent.

            Trying to drink less alcohol? Fill the last bottle of whatever liquor you reach for with water and replace the real bottle with your dummy bottle. Then put the real happy juice in the back of your closet, give it to a friend to ration it back to you, or pour it out.

            Unless it’s Glenfarclas 25-year single malt scotch whiskey. Don’t pour that out. I will find you.

            Also, you can – and should – use psychological barriers on yourself as well. Tell someone you admire, someone whose opinion you value, that you are building a certain habit or trying to achieve a certain goal. Now you’re invested in the word you gave to someone else and you’re not just competing with the BS you may be telling yourself to get out of the crap you no longer want to do. This is extra effective if this person is likely to follow through with checking on your progress.

            In short, you want to increase the barriers to undesired behavior and decrease the barriers to desired behavior. Train yourself ahead of time by deciding ahead of time and telling your ‘future you’ what he is going to do. Promise yourself, then take your excuses away. You know what they are – don’t kid yourself.

            Precommitment is like gutter bumpers for bowlers. Yes, unless you are a small child it’s cheating, but it’s bowling, so nobody cares. Everyone has bowled with those bumpers at some point, even as adults. A strike is a strike, kid – give me my money.

            Case in point, if you intend to start working out but you don’t get out of bed before 9am to get to gym in a structured way before work, then you’ve got several different habits to start forming. An earlier bedtime, an earlier wakeup time, a better morning routine, a proper headspace to support all that, not to mention the act of running itself once you finally get there. No one is watching you build your habits, so put the bumpers in the gutters and get started – there’s no shame in it. Start training your little animal brain with some good old-fashioned Pavlovian conditioning with the help of some precommitment Jedi mind tricks.