Pledgehammer

CENSORED

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:20:00 +0200

We had to do some censoring today. The first thought was to delete this seemingly prank pledge but hey there are all kinds of people and aspirations out there. This could be someone who wants to be a good husband someday and forces himself to practice with ladies of the night. We wish him nothing but the best of luck.

Before

After

Ben Huss from 3goodthings gives easy tips for keeping your New...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:45:08 +0200

Ben Huss from 3goodthings gives easy tips for keeping your New Year’s resolution and recommends Pledgehammer. Need I say we concur?

Reblogged from 6senses: The Importance of Public Accountability, and How to Do It

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:40:27 +0200

Leo Babauta is an author, creator of Zen Habits and probably one of the better known bloggers on motivation, inspiration, getting stuff done and other postmodern topics alike. On his 6changes blog he recently wrote about the importance of making your pledges public. He’s left out Pledgehammer as one of the ways to make resolutions public but hey, no-one’s perfect.

Two steps in the 6 Changes method are extremely crucial, even if many people will be tempted to skip them:

Commit as publicly as possible to creating each new habit.

Log your progress daily, and very publicly.

These steps are extremely important — without them, you’re liable to drop your new habit at any time.

I know this from personal experience: my first successful habit change was quitting smoking, and I had failed at this habit 7 times before finding the successful formula. Many times I just told myself that I’d quit the next day, without telling anyone, because … if I failed, no one would know, and it wouldn’t be embarrassing. You can probably guess that I failed because I knew no one would judge me for it.

And so when I committed publicly, I didn’t fail. I told everyone I knew. I joined a smoking cessation forum and told everyone there I was quitting. I made a promise to my wife and oldest daughter. I was all in.

You need to be all in. You need to tell everyone. You need to be completely committed, or you’re wasting your time.

How to Commit Publicly

Some ways to do it:

If you have a blog, that’s perfect. Tell everyone on your blog that you’re going to create this new habit.

Social networks are also great: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.

Email all your friends and family and let them know.

Tell all your coworkers, and even post a sign in a public place in your office.

Write a column for your local newspaper or a blog or magazine.

Join a forum of others doing similar things, and tell them all about your habit change.

There are other ways you might think of, but these are some ideas to start you off.

How to Log Your Progress Publicly

It’s just as important that you not only commit, but stay accountable to the same people you committed to.

So if you committed on your blog, on a social network, or on a forum, post your progress every day to that same place. If you committed via email, send out daily email updates. If you told your coworkers and posted up a sign, let them all know, every day, how you’re doing.

A good alternative is to find a public log, such as FitDay or The Daily Plate or The Daily Mile or Daytum something like that (see my Daytum), or even just create a public Google Docs spreadsheet, and then share the link to your public log with everyone. Don’t let this become a place to hide your progress, though — you need to remind everyone, often, to check your log so that you’ll feel accountable.

However you do it, engineer it so that you can’t back down. Be all in.

Study: making a New Year's resolution improves your chances of accomplishing a positive change tenfold

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:59:06 +0200

There is a great article in Wall Street Journal on New Year’s resolutions. According to a study, led by Dr. Norcross from University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, the majority of New Year’s resolutions do fail but this overshadows an important truth: the simple act of making a New Year’s resolution sharply improves your chances of accomplishing a positive change—by a factor of 10.

Journalist Sue Shellenbarger also gives six tips that will help you keep your resolution, among them announce your intentions to develop positive ‘peer pressure’. We concur 100%.

Quiz that helps you understand how good is your New Year's resolution (by Richard Wiseman)

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:53:22 +0200

I first came across Richard Wiseman in Life On Board project (part 2 here) where he discusses the matters of luck and destiny with Cris Gardener. One point these gentlemen make and that I’ve often thought about later is that ‘luck’ is something you can create yourself. Or rather that luck is something that you don’t wait for passively but rather it comes to those that actively prepare for its arrival.

I now keep an eye on Richard’s blog and Twitter and I was recently glad to discover that his new book is very much related to setting goals and making New Year’s Resolutions. He has identified four tips that greatly increase to odds of sticking to a resolution and has even developed a cool little mini quiz that will help you understand how likely you are to keep it. For example writing a resolution down so that’s it’s clearly measurable and sharing it with people around you help a great deal. May I suggest using Pledgehammer for this?

How to grow your business

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:14:14 +0300

We received this email the other day:

Dear CEO,

We are the department of registration service in China.We formally received an application on Oct 9, 2009, One company which self-styled “Tromite Corporation” are applying to register ” pledgehammer ” as internet brand and Domain names as below :

After our initial examination, we found out that “Tromite Corporation” has no trade mark, brand nor patent even similar to that word.As authorized anti-cybersquatting organization we hereby suspect “Tromite Corporation” to be a domain grabber.Hence we hope to get the affirmation from your company. If your company and this”Tromite Corporation”as the same company,there is no need reply to us,We will accept their application and will register those for them immediately.

If your company has no relationships with that company nor do not authorized,please reply to us within 7 workdays,if we can’t get any information from yours over 7 workdays,we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by “Tromite Corporation”.Thanks for your cooperation.

Wow, we thought. There are Chinese internet workers out there that are actually the good shepherd kind. We thanked them and let them know that Tromite Corporation is up to no good, thinking this sounds too good to be true.

Which it was. Turns out it’s just a very cunning scheme to win new business. Much less annoying than spam though, so my compliments to the guys from Nanzhan corporation. This is the letter that followed:

/…/ we conclude that company is your emulant, or “Tromite Corporation” is most likely to intend preempting registration of Domain names in advance,to speculate and invest in future,Thus their representative in China submitted this application through our body so we can not get in touch with them full-face,this just our conjecture. But as per the open registration principle as”who is the first who is the owner” in China we do not have any right to reject their application.
/…/
Nevertheless this need you and your company cooperate with us.In addition,please inform us your company’s decision of this issue.If your company do need to register those Domains in China, we will transfer an formal Application Form and fill out finished return to us by Fax or via E-mail. Of course we will esteem your any decision also.Thanks for your cooperation.

Health and well-being related resolutions most popular

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:32:00 +0300

It’s almost mid-year, a good time to look back at our New Year’s resolutions and goals of all sorts. (Or make them if you haven’t written your aims down yet.)

At Pledgehammer we looked back at all the pledges made so far. By far the largest category of resolutions, at four in ten, are related to health and well-being. 12% of people resolved to exercise more, 10% pledged to give up smoking or drinking, 9% aimed to lose weight and further 9% wanted to make changes in their diet such as give up sweets or become vegetarian.

Second most popular resolution area was personal development. 11% of people pledged to learn new skills such as a language, read more books or get involved with what’s going on in the world.

At 6%, third in popularity was a category that can be labelled as pledges about relationships. Resolutions ranged from coming home earlier and spend more time with the family to the rather thought provoking resolution to fall in love with someone else now, not person R.

5% of people resolved to do something green(er) or charitable. And another 5% of people made pledges relating to their finances such as pay back credit card debt or have a certain amount of money in their bank account by a certain time.

Then there was 10% of people that used Pledgehammer as a to do list and pledged something pretty mundane such as write two SEO posts per month, find a job or get one’s kitchen organized. And the final 17% can be categorized as ‘other’, with pledges ranging from not spending more than 20 consecutive nights in London and beating Carl at tennis to stop pissing in baptist church foyers or take better care of my tractor. One can safely say this last category of resolutions contained the most humour.

27% of pledges have ended at the time of writing this blog. And of pledges ended to date 27.3% were successful. This is much more than the conventional wisdom of ‘nine out of ten New Year’s resolutions fails’ would suggest. Part of this can be attributed to the stage where Pledgehammer is at - early adopters that have made pledges on the site are not representative of the population on average and total number of pledges is still fairly small. But it may also very well be that Pledgehammer actually helps to keep promises.

Study: men give to charity to impress the opposite sex

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:29:05 +0300

According to the academics at the University of Kent altruism is not the only reason why people, especially men, donate to charity. Rather it’s done to impress the opposite sex. Because of that the academics recommend charities to include ‘mating goals’, such as the face of an attractive woman or man, in fundraising campaigns to increase donations. Read the full story.

We’ve read the story but are not planning to add faces of people to the site, just so you know.

The good news: people make resolutions throughout the year

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:29:46 +0300

One of the questions we had when we launched Pledgehammer was: do people actually make resolutions at times other than the New Year’s Day. The good news is they do, number of pledges has grown steadily. They just don’t do it as much as they do on January 1st. However there are small spikes around Chinese New Year, beginning of Lent and April 1st. (The latter rather related to the fact that a quarter of the year has passed, not so much to April Fool’s Day, I presume.) I’m sure we’ll see more of small spikes like these during the rest of the year.

It’s also good people write about making resolutions and about websites like Pledgehammer throughout the year.

Debra over at The Metamorphosis Cafe wrote we have a cool name for a cool concept. She has a cool name and concept as well. Her blog is about various different topics that help one to transform into a better person.

And Martin write a blog post where he describes us as Small and good. At least I think so, because it’s all in Swedish. If Google Translate is right he also writes: By the way - all web services should be equally funny Terms of Service as Pledgehammer. Cheers, Martin! And if you haven’t yet read our legal small print, you’re very welcome to.

"One of the topics that I have been passionate about for sometime is the need to build successful..."

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:01:33 +0300

“

One of the topics that I have been passionate about for sometime is the need to build successful habits to reach your potential. Dr. Tony Schwartz teaches in the Power of Full Engagement that we have a finite amount of self-discipline and therefore we can only set out to change a limited number of things in our life at a time without running out of energy.

Ever wonder why you are not the only one who has failed at keeping 29 different New Years Resolutions? He says the solution is to build habits. Habits once effectively established no longer take self-discipline to keep going, but rather energy to break.

An important part of building these new habits is being accountable. I recently ran across a website that does just that, helps you be accountable.

”

- Wealth Habit blog (Yes, it’s Pledgehammer they’re talking about)

Two great reviews of Pledgehammer

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:04:52 +0200

Pledgehammer was reviewed by Inventor Spot and Too Lazy To Do It. The former is a website about the latest inventions, innovations and interesting ideas from Obama twittering to a electrical talking bananas. And Too Lazy To Do It is not a procrastination site, but a project aimed at letting business ideas circulate, grow, and become a reality. They write:

Pledgehammer seems to be entirely founded on the honor system, i.e. their is nothing but personal honor requiring people to actually pay up for failing to reach their goal. It seems rather unlikely that someone who habitally breaks promises would choose to keep a pledge to website (and who, having failed to get financial freedom, is going to shell out 5,000 of money they apparently don’t have?). But it is a nice idea, and could catch on.

It is a valid point but we’re not too worried if everyone that fails a pledge doesn’t donate money to charity. We won’t come chasing anyone around. It’s only when absolutely no-one donates that it becomes a bit pointless for us as well as charities. We suppose time will tell.

Interviewed by Happiness Is Better

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:42:00 +0200

Happiness Is Better is a blog about personal finance, real estate investing, early retirement, and being happy. In these economically turbulent times it’s a good source for ideas, commentary and useful links. Dustin recently sent me a few questions about Pledgehammer and published the interview on the blog.

Birthday resolutions - a great idea

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:09:04 +0200

I stumbled upon this ‘birthday resolution” idea by Elise Blaha, or rather a to do list for the year.

Not only is it a great idea but its execution is even better. The substance is having a to do list for a year with length equal to the corresponding age. (And it scales well. It’s shouldn’t be very hard to tick a hundred boxes in the year before your 101st birthday. right?) The form is a beautifully designed diary where every page is different.

We’re proud to have Elise’s pledge to do her best to accomplish her list on Pledgehammer and wish her all the best in that.

Lent is the new New Year’s, at least for resolving to give...

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:20:38 +0200

Lent is the new New Year’s, at least for resolving to give up things. This is a Wordle image of what people have given up for Lent; discovered here.

Resolutions tips from Dr. Josh

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:14:14 +0200

I stumbled upon this blog post by Joshua C. Klapow, Associate Professor at the University of Alabama and author of Living Smart. It’s about New Year’s resolutions but I’m sure readers of blog agree you can make resolutions every day, not just on January first, slightly dizzy from the night before. With his kind permission here’s his post re-published.

A few more ways to make the resolutions stick in 2009

New Years Resolutions; frankly, for many people they are a waste of time. Why? Because so many of us resolve to be different, do things differently, think, feel, and live differently and so many of us wind up making short lived changes that rarely pan out. The result? Resolutions that repeat themselves each year. Think about what a waste that is. You resolve to be different or live differently and you spend a year not achieving the goal. You end up at December 31st ready to “try again”.

As straight forward as the New Years resolution concept is, it’s implementation is what trips people up. Most of us don’t take the resolution seriously enough. We “say” we are going to do something- maybe lose weight, be more social, advance our career, etc.. and the reality is we have no game plan, we have no course of action and we believe that by committing to change, things will fall into place.. Well guess what- as we all have experienced, inspiration alone gets you no where.

Inspiration is the first step but many, many people fall off that cliff because they are only inspired and have nothing else. So this year before you make that resolution take a few minutes and put things in order…

Some simple points to consider:

What specifically do I want to achieve in 08? You have got to make it as detailed as possible– so exercising, losing weight, advancing the career won’t cut it. Going to the gym M,W,F at 6:30am, eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, contacting a head-hunter are all much more specific — being specific will give you a clearer picture of what you actually will need to do.
Do a gut-check– do I really want to do this? Don’t kid yourself– if your heart isn’t in it it’s not going to happen– it’s better to be honest then to fail.
Don’t shoot for the stars- shoot for success. We all have a tendency to bite off more than we can chew… Not a good move… The more successful you are the more likely you are to keep at it. Make the resolutions reasonable. Have short and long term goals. Success will foster success so start small and let that success factor propel you to the next challenge.

None of us wants to waste a year and we all have goals and dreams… Take this year’s Resolution seriously and have a game plan and guess what? Next year won’t be a carbon copy of this one…

Some more of Dr. Josh’s resolutions tips on his blog and in this article in TimeOut Chicago. Or you can ask him anything yourself.

"There is a web site in this great expanse called the internet that is designed to help you stay..."

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:38:07 +0200

“

There is a web site in this great expanse called the internet that is designed to help you stay motivated! And, if you slip up sometime, you’ll also be helping out your favorite charity!

Intrigued? Check it out! It’s called Pledgehammer.com. You can get the details there, but as you read their information, when they say “pledge” you simply insert your goal or a step you are “pledged” to that will move you on to your goal.

”

- Dale E. Stuemke on Launch Your Goals blog. See his book, too.

A picture is a thousand words

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:33:47 +0200

Now you can save your thousand words and add a picture to your profile. This here is mine, for example.

We also fixed several niceness issues and annoyances with this morning’s release. So Pledgehammer should be smoother to use than ever before. Enjoy!

Stairway to resolutions

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:31:07 +0200

If Pledgehammer had an office we’d probably have a similar stairway.

Spotted on Sunset.

Tip: re-do your New Year's resolution

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:27:32 +0200

Inspired by this article by wellness writer Marissa Kristal here’s our tip of the day. If you’ve broken your New Year’s resolutions already why don’t you do it again. Do it again, and this time for 30 days only. (I’ll soon blog more about why the 30-day period.)

Happy New Year!

"Ever since Peter Gabriel’s breakthrough (groan) solo smash (double groan) hit, Sledgehammer – the..."

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:26:22 +0200

“Ever since Peter Gabriel’s breakthrough (groan) solo smash (double groan) hit, Sledgehammer – the one with the mental video that cost 12 squillian dollars to make – punmasters everywhere have been slaving away trying to build a web application, based on public airing of solemn promises, with a hilarious take on the name. And do you know what? They’ve only gone and cracked it.”

- The funniest quote about Pledgehammer on Mason Zimbler blog