Use commitment devices to make future behavior harder to avoid

Pre-commit to the behavior now — when your current self is motivated — to bind your future self.

Why it works

Commitment devices exploit the temporal gap between intention and behavior by using current motivation to constrain future options. Removing the ability to defect later (by paying in advance, removing an exit, making a public commitment) shifts the decision from "do I want to do this now?" to "I have already decided." This bypasses the in-the-moment motivational comparison that causes intentions to fail. Richard Thaler and others have documented the effectiveness of commitment devices for savings, health, and behavior change.

How to do it

1. Identify the future moment when your motivation to defect will be highest — the classic "I’ll start tomorrow" point.
2. Design a constraint: pay for the behavior in advance, make a public commitment with stakes, give authority to a trusted person to hold you to the plan.
3. Keep the constraint proportional — harsh penalties produce anxiety and workarounds rather than compliance.
4. Use commitment devices for behaviors where the benefit is long-term and the temptation to defect is predictable.

Evidence

Commitment devices have RCT support in health behavior contexts, including smoking cessation (savings-linked commitment) and exercise adherence. (rct)

Commitment devices can backfire if they are experienced as controlling rather than autonomy-supporting, reducing intrinsic motivation (consistent with self-determination theory). Use for instrumentally motivated behaviors.

Sources

• Giné, Karlan & Zinman (2010), "Put your money where your butt is: A commitment contract for smoking cessation," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

Common mistake

Designing a commitment device that is easy to circumvent — a commitment that has a low-cost exit is not a commitment; the constraint must be real.