Commit is an iPhone application I released in December, 2011. It’s been featured by Lifehacker, TUAW, MacLife, and others. You can learn more about it here. Thousands of people have used it to improve their lives through small commitments. Examples include learning a language, stretching every day, or more regular exercise..
Below are my tips to make the most of it.
- Start with a single commitment.
Once you get the first commitment up to 10-20 days, then add another. Turn a commitment into a habit before you add another. This will help you avoid overcommitting and failing at all of them. - Try to complete your commitment early in the day.
It is easiest for me if I can exercise (my primary commitment) in the morning and get it out of the way. Otherwise 9:30 PM will come around and I still haven’t exercised. - Set your reminder for later at night.
I built up 11 days in a row of exercise before missing a day. The reason? I set my reminder for 4:00 PM. When I received the notification that day I was busy and thought “I’ll exercise after dinner.” Instead I completely forgot about it and broke my chain.If instead you set the reminder time for 10:30 PM (or whenever you are normally starting to think about sleep) you will need to complete the commitment immediately after receiving the notification.Also if you complete the commitment before the notification time Commit won’t bother you until the next day.
- Re-phrase your commitments.
If your commitment isn’t something you want to do every day (such as Run), set the commitment to Exercise or Train instead. Then make sure to do another kind of exercise or stretching on your off days. Then you still meet your goals and maintain a good, consistent commitment.
Commit is available on the App Store for $0.99. I hope you like it.
Leave a Reply