I’ve never use stickk or beeminder but I have made commitments in life and what I’ve found is that committing myself to do something is a good way to do that thing but that’s about it. For instance, I signed up for a marathon and fear of failure made me go out and train. I did the marathon and then stopped running a lot. If I want to start running a decent number of miles/week again I’ll probably have to sign up for another marathon. Now, some fraction of people will probably sign up for a marathon, start running a lot, realize that they love it, and reorganize the rest of their lives to run a lot. But not most people. I think that is the fallacy of any temporary commitment. Unless you discover that you love doing whatever you committed to doing, you’ll probably just revert to your old behavior once the commitment is over.
I’ve never use stickk or beeminder but I have made commitments in life and what I’ve found is that committing myself to do something is a good way to do that thing but that’s about it. For instance, I signed up for a marathon and fear of failure made me go out and train. I did the marathon and then stopped running a lot. If I want to start running a decent number of miles/week again I’ll probably have to sign up for another marathon. Now, some fraction of people will probably sign up for a marathon, start running a lot, realize that they love it, and reorganize the rest of their lives to run a lot. But not most people. I think that is the fallacy of any temporary commitment. Unless you discover that you love doing whatever you committed to doing, you’ll probably just revert to your old behavior once the commitment is over.