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Deciding in advance what you will do in a specific situation removes in-the-moment temptation.
The most important boundaries are the ones you set with yourself — limits on your own behavior, consumption, and tendencies that would otherwise undermine your goals and values.
Pre-commitment is the strategy of making decisions in advance so that in-the-moment temptation, fatigue, or distraction cannot override your intentions.
Commitment devices are external structures that make it costly or impossible to break a commitment. They work because they shift the decision from the moment of temptation to the moment of design.
Eliminating the tempting option is more reliable than resisting it through willpower.
Relying on willpower for behavior change is like relying on a battery that drains unpredictably.
Deciding in advance eliminates the need for willpower at the moment of action.
Treat willpower like a budget — spend it only on things that cannot be handled by other means.
Reserve willpower for genuine emergencies rather than daily operations.
Removing temptation costs no willpower — resisting it costs a lot.
Small acts of self-control can gradually increase your willpower capacity.
Most people who seem to have strong willpower have actually designed their lives to need less of it.