- a commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future.
- committment devices are usefuly because they enable you to take advantage of good intentions before you can fall victim to temptation
- commitment devices increase the odds that you'll do the right thing in the future by making bad habits difficult in the present.
- the best way to break a bad habit is to make it impractical to do. Increase the friction until you don't even have an option to act.
- each habit that we hand over to the authority of technology frees up time and energy to pour into the next stage of growth.
- Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them."
- The downside of automation is that we can find oursleves jumping from easy task to easy task without making tim for more difficult, but ultimately more rewarding work.
- Once my bad habit became impossible, I discovered that I did actually have the motivation to work on more meaningful tasks.
- By utilizing commitment devices, strategic onetime decisions, and technology, you can create an environment of inevitability--a space where good habits are not just an outcome you hope for, but an outcome that is virtually guaranteed.