What does it mean that commitment devices?

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.

Example: You want to write every morning before checking email, but the pull of the inbox wins every time. So you install a site blocker that locks you out of email and Slack until 9 AM. The first morning, you instinctively open your browser, hit the block screen, and — with nothing else to do — open your draft. Within a week the block is irrelevant because the writing habit has formed. The device didn't give you willpower. It removed the need for it.

Try this: Identify one commitment you've repeatedly failed to keep. Write down the specific moment where you break it — the trigger, the context, the emotional state. Now design a commitment device that makes that specific failure mode structurally impossible or costly. It could be financial (give a friend $100 to donate to a cause you oppose if you fail), technological (app blocker, alarm placement, auto-transfers), social (public declaration with a referee), or environmental (remove the thing that tempts you). Install the device today. Not tomorrow.