Curate your environment: If you know you’ll eat chocolate in 24 hours of it being in the house, don’t buy it in the fi rst place


that requires high levels of cognitive energy – you have to invest brainpower to make it happen. However, if you do it enough times, it becomes a habit and doesn’t require the same levels of cognitive investment.


So how can precommitment help get people to the gym regularly enough to form a habit? From an operator perspective, using different pricing schemes can work. Experiments in the US have shown that, if gyms charge people more if they attend less frequently and less if they attend regularly, people come more often. The gyms effectively impose a cost of not working out, which boosts members’ motivation to attend and circumvents the need to rely solely on a member’s willpower. Phone apps could also be used to tap


into the powerful concept of consistency, tracking people’s activity with a daily activity log and offering incentives. If users know they’ll get a reward for doing something every day for a fi xed period, and have this reinforced visually, they’re more likely to precommit to it. The real window of opportunity is


when people sign up, when they’re at their most motivated. Operators could make it a requirement that


July 2014 © Cybertrek 2014


new members have a brief chat with a member of staff who can talk them through the challenges of making yourself regularly attend the gym, as well as offering them some tools. One of those tools should be that


clubs encourage members to make a plan, both when they join and on an ongoing basis. On what days will they exercise? What will they do? How will they get to the gym? Research shows that people are more likely to do what they say if they actually articulate a plan, rather than simply stating an intention to do something. If operators then offer a discount or other fi nancial incentive for sticking to that plan, people’s precommitment will be even stronger. Meanwhile, individuals could implement


a number of ideas. Research conducted by Katy Milkman at the Wharton School in the US has shown the benefi ts of members holding their favourite TV shows ‘hostage’. If they’re a fan of Game of Thrones, for example, they set up their personal viewing systems so they can only watch each new episode at the gym. In this way, they ‘precommit’ to going. They could also buy an extra set of


toiletries and have a gym bag packed at all times, with shampoo, deodorant, a spare set of underwear. The fewer obstacles that can get in the way of


executing an action you’ve precommitted to the better; having a gym bag ready will help you actually get out of the door.


How easy is it to precommit? Technology is already available to help, but today’s devices require some level of self-knowledge – an awareness of your fl aws. However, going forward we’re likely to see new gadgets that track and quantify our behaviour in order to help us identify our weak spots. For example, you might get a text saying: “It’s nearly your bedtime – how about switching off your wifi ?” If the system also told you how many times you’d checked your emails between 2.00am and 6.00am the previous night, you may be more motivated to precommit to a good night’s sleep by disabling the wifi . All that said, particularly when it


comes to things like exercise, there’s no app that can completely replace self- control. There’s a danger with ‘nudge’ theory (see HCM April 14, p44) that people will start to think technology can do everything for them and they won’t have to lift a fi nger, but that isn’t the case. Tools can make the process easier, but the last half a mile will still be down to the individual. That’s important for members to know. They’ll still have to get on the treadmill and sweat.


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 9


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