Thomas Rolley 00:00
What is a commitment device? And how can it help you? This is an interesting idea that comes out of psychology.
And as part of chapter 14 in atomic habits, if you haven't read this book, it's well worth getting.
If you're at all interested in having a better body having a better relationship with God, having a better relationship with your partner and kids and getting business results, any of those apply.
This book is well worthwhile.
But chapter 14 is called how to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.
And it gives the story of Ulysses, and He ties himself to the boat so He can hear the siren song but not sail the boat into the rocks.
And this idea is a commitment device that, by making it a making a decision today now, prevents actions from being able to be taken later on.
Now, this is not foolproof.
This is not foolproof.
Typically, it is possible to bypass these commitment devices if you're really keen.
But overall, the idea is that I will take some kind of action now we'll take some kind of action that will block off future actions that we don't want.
The classic for me is the two people that I seem to be the one who sets the alarm the night before and the one who wakes up. These are two very different types.
And I really have to work towards knowing that the time that wakes up in the morning needs to have everything smoothly flowing.
That the unbrick we're in winter right now that there's a boot next the bed, the tea is already ready to go that there's not it doesn't kennel doesn't have to be filled.
These are all ways to get out of bed and actually make that alarm clock count.
The worst habit, potentially one of the worst habits, is to allow that alarm clock to go and snooze because then it becomes very difficult.
Sometimes I listened to one of my sons counting down the exit from the hot shower.
And He got into a little habit of taking during the countdown and not turning it off as like may be very careful with that habit, it's better that you do not count down, then you count down and then don't take the action that was meant to lead to.
That is a very bad habit.
I have personally run into that extensively trying to jump into cold water 321 Don't jump, don't jump. This is bad.
This is a terrible habit to be into.
Nonetheless, coming back to our commitment devices, what are some examples of these.
So one would be a timer that turns off the internet at a set amount of time, leaving the wallet at home so that you're not able to buy something when you're out.
This has become a lot more difficult with the advent of ubiquitous mobile phones. Now that our wallets are in our phones pretty much gotta leave everything at home.
But that also opens up decent difficulties around communication.
Perhaps this has the benefit of the rise of the dumb phones, that literally I can take a communication device that is limited to just being able to make a phone call and plus or minus a text message.
And that's it.
And that allows me to leave my wallet at home, leave my phone at home, so I cannot buy things.
These are all very interesting ideas that by taking that action, having the timer, perhaps even going onto a banned list, James speaks of banned lists, I'm not going to be able to go into the pub, I'm not going to be able to go into the casino, I'm going to put myself on a banned list because I know that there's a couple of different versions of myself one that in that moment will make that bad choice inverted commas bad choice or one that leads to outcomes that I'm not that excited for.
So this is a very interesting idea.
And He goes on to list
Thomas Rolley 04:11
a particularly powerful versions of habits where you can invest a small amount upfront, we can put a small amount of money in and fundamentally change that habit examples would be a better pillow, a better mattress, filtering email, turning off social media accounts, that these habits allow space for the work that we must do to come into our lives.
And James describes that He gave the wonderful example of the author Victor Hugo in the 1800s asking his assistant to lock all of his clothes away and just left him with a shawl.
And over the course of the next six months wrote The Hunchback of Notre DOM, and it's Almost certainly that if He had been allowed access to his clothes, you would not have written that book, but by limiting access couldn't leave the house he's forced into just staying there and writing the book that meant that the book got done alright, that's all I got for you.
Go grab the book go check out James clear site.
Go check out some habits.
If you need some help with systems that are extremely close to habits.
They they just have perhaps more powerful effects if you happen to be running a business, then head over systemio.dev.
Thanks for tuning in today.
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