4 Tips for Using Pre-Commitment Strategies to Achieve Goals
Achieving personal goals can be a challenging endeavor, but there are proven strategies to increase your chances of success. This article explores effective pre-commitment techniques that can help you stay on track and reach your objectives. Drawing on insights from experts in the field, these strategies offer practical ways to boost accountability, create obstacles to quitting, and eliminate procrastination.
- Leverage Public Accountability for Goal Achievement
- Engineer Friction Against Quitting
- Build Momentum Before Announcing Goals
- Pre-pay to Remove Procrastination Option
Leverage Public Accountability for Goal Achievement
Using a public accountability post to stay consistent with a personal or professional goal.
Example: Public Accountability for Content Creation
Let's say your goal is to post weekly content for your business on LinkedIn — but you keep pushing it off.
To break the cycle, you post:
"Starting next Monday, I'll be sharing one content marketing tip each week for 10 weeks. Hold me to it."
Now:
Your audience expects it.
You've set a clear timeframe.
There's a small reputational cost to quitting — which creates psychological pressure in your favor.
This is a classic pre-commitment strategy: putting something at stake (your credibility) before temptation strikes (skipping posts).
Advice for Using Pre-Commitment:
1. Make your commitment public or social
Tell a friend, community, or your audience what you'll do and by when.
2. Put something on the line
Use apps like StickK or Beeminder, where you lose money if you don't follow through.
3. Pre-schedule obstacles out of your way
Want to work out in the morning? Lay out your clothes and shoes the night before.
4. Set up "if-then" triggers
"If it's 8 AM on Monday, then I sit and write for 30 minutes." This turns goals into routines.
5. Track your progress visibly
Use a calendar or progress tracker to see streaks — it builds momentum.
Engineer Friction Against Quitting
I turn big goals into non-negotiables the same way our clinics lock in medication adherence—by making the commitment visible, measured, and hard to reverse. Before launching a new point-of-care dispensing site, for example, we pre-scheduled barcode-scanning audits with the medical director and posted the timeline on the break-room wall; that public stake kept everyone invested even when workloads spiked. I mirror that personally by booking quarterly "review sessions" with a mentor and paying the fee up front—future me hates wasting money, so I show up prepared. The magic isn't willpower; it's engineering friction around quitting while surrounding success with easy, trackable cues. Point-of-care dispensing streamlines healthcare by delivering medications directly to patients, improving convenience, adherence, and safety—apply that same discipline to your goals: shorten the distance between intention and action, barcode your progress, and watch efficiency (and follow-through) skyrocket.
Build Momentum Before Announcing Goals
When I wanted to stay consistent with posting content for our minibus hire business, I wrote and scheduled a month's worth of posts before telling anyone. Then I announced that we'd be posting twice a week for the next two months. That way, I had already done enough to stay ahead, and going public made it harder to back out. What helped most was treating the schedule like a promise, not just a plan. My advice is to do some of the work first, then make a public commitment. It's easier to stick to your goals when you've already built momentum before announcing them.
Pre-pay to Remove Procrastination Option
One effective example of using a pre-commitment strategy was scheduling and paying in advance for a series of fitness classes. By committing financially and locking in times on my calendar, I removed the option to procrastinate. That upfront investment created both a financial and psychological incentive to follow through—even on days when motivation was low.
Advice for others:
1. Make quitting harder than continuing — Pre-pay, announce your goals publicly, or involve a partner to hold you accountable.
2. Tie your goal to a routine or deadline — The more automatic and time-bound it is, the less willpower you'll need daily.
3. Use commitment tools — Apps like StickK or Beeminder let you pledge money or set consequences for not meeting your goals.
The key is to limit future temptations by making the right choice now—while your motivation is high.
