I spend every Sunday morning watching what else…CBS Sunday Morning. My Boxer Otis howls to the opening song and always makes my hubby and I smile. It’s one of the only days I really have to myself but much of the time my brain is screaming out loud at all the tasks put off or not completed from the previous week.

Hmm, what have I let fall through the cracks. Perhaps a blog post?? So interestingly of one of the segments on CBS Sunday Morning was about procrastination. How perfect! A company by the name of stickK has created a website that helps you kick the habit of procrastination. A bit about the site in stickK’s own words:

stickK was formed by combining personal experience and scholarly research. Our story began at Yale University a few years ago when Dean Karlan (Economics Professor at Yale and Co-Founder of stickK) came up with the idea of opening an online ‘Commitment Store’.

He envisioned that people would come to the Commitment Store to sign contracts obliging them to achieve their personal goals such as losing weight or quitting smoking. Dean experimented this concept by making contracts himself. Meanwhile, he also conducted and published research on Commitment Contracts as a tool for helping people save money.

The Commitment Contract concept is based on two well known principles of behavioral economics:
1. People don’t always do what they claim they want to do, and
2. Incentives get people to do things

What I found so interesting is that procrastinators can tell the world what they intend to do, who will check in that they do it, and how much they’ll pay if they fail. What? Pay? Apparently money is a great motivator. During the Commitment creation process, you will have the opportunity to fully customize your Commitment. Choose a start and end date, add a Referee, put money on the line (Stakes), or add Supporters… it’s all up to you!

“If they have money on the line and a referee, we’ve seen success rates in the 70 to 75 percent range,” Goldberg said. “If they don’t, it drops considerably – down to 30-35%.” If users fail, stickk.com will send their money to a charity they hate. “A lot of people write in and say, ‘You know what really motivated me? The thought of giving money to the George Bush library, or the Bill Clinton library, depending on your political views,” Goldberg said.

stickK has many commitment categories including Green Initiatives. Pretty cool! So what are we waiting for?! Let’s tell the world what our commitment is. I think my first will be to make more regular blog posts:)

Tags: CBS Sunday Morning, Green Initiatives, Procrastination, StickK