What is commitment scope?

Commitment scope is a concept in personal epistemology: Commit to small specific actions rather than large vague goals.

Example: You tell yourself 'I'm going to get in shape this year.' Six weeks later, nothing has changed. The commitment was real — you meant it. But it gave your doer self nothing to execute. There was no when, no where, no how much, no definition of done. Now compare: 'I will walk for 20 minutes after lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, starting from the back door of my office.' That commitment has a trigger (after lunch), a behavior (walk), a duration (20 minutes), a frequency (three days), a location (back door), and a start condition (this week). Your planner self has handed your doer self an instruction set instead of an aspiration. One of these survives contact with a busy Tuesday. The other doesn't.

This concept is part of Phase 34 (Commitment Architecture) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for commitment architecture.