Environment of Inevitability

“If I feel bored for just a fraction of a second, I reach for my phone.” While this is true of, and could have been said by, anyone, in this case it was said by James Clear, in his bestseller Atomic Habits, to illustrate how “commitment devices” work. Which was: because he couldn’t resist the pull of his phone, and found himself habitually checking social media, distracted from the more important task at hand of writing a book on how to overcome bad habits and create good ones, he had an assistant reset his social media passwords each week. The “commitment device” was making it impossible to check his distraction device.

Clear said of the experience: "One of the biggest surprises was how quickly I adapted. Within the first week of locking myself out of social media, I realized that I didn't need to check it nearly as often as I had been, and I certainly didn't need it each day. It had simply been so easy that it had become the default. Once my bad habit became impossible, I discovered that I did actually have the motivation to work on more meaningful tasks. After I removed the mental candy from my environment, it became much easier to eat the healthy stuff."

An oft-cited example of a commitment device comes from Homer's Odysseus, who, as his ship approached the Sirens, ordered his men to tie him tightly to the mast, with explicit instructions not to untie him no matter how much he begged or commanded them to do so if he fell under the influence of the Siren’s songs. Which he did, and they didn't, and so with beeswax in their ears and their captain physically restrained, they survived, overriding the self-destructive impulses of the moment with the help of advanced planning and self-binding commitment.

Clear explains: "When working in your favor, automation can make your good habits inevitable and your bad habits impossible. It is the ultimate way to lock in future behavior rather than relying on willpower in the moment. 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."

The maxim of Atomic Habits is “you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”

This is the fundamental philosophy, the guiding design principle, of Analog. The fundamental insight is this: if you rely on in-the-moment willpower alone to resist the Siren call of your smartphone, it won’t work. As attention-demanding devices, they are too well designed. You need a commitment device – a system that automates your pre-committed intentions. And if you are like me – a middle age adult reading books like Atomic Habits – well, how much more your teenagers need it.