StickK.Com: Your Online Commitment Program

Haven't we all wanted to commit to something, particularly around New Year's Eve? At some point, most of us have said, "I'll exercise more," or "I'll stick to a diet." The trouble is that old habits die hard. StickK.com aims to change all that.

StickK.com states that their mission is to "help people achieve their goals and objectives by enabling them to form Commitment Contracts." Dean Karlan, an Economics professor at Yale and co-founder of StickK, devised the concept of an online "Commitment Store"; here people would sign contracts requiring them to reach personal objectives, such as quitting smoking or exercising regularly.

Karlan shared this concept with Barry Nalebuff (a Yale School of Management professor and co-founder of Honest Tea), and Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres. The three collaborated to flesh out the concept of StickK, along with a Yale student named Jordan Goldberg, who loved the idea and agreed to help get the site going.

How Does It Work?

If you join StickK, then you agree to make a commitment to one or more of your goals for a prearranged amount of time. For example, let's say you would like to exercise more often.

You would enter this goal into your StickK profile, and then put in a realistic objective as to how often you'll do it. So you may say that you want to exercise three times a week (or more). In order to help you stick to your goal, the site has you agree to put money at stake for each period that you miss. If you fail to meet that "3x per week" goal, then you have the option of donating said money to a charity, person, or even an "anti-charity."

The first two options may need no explanation; the anti-charity, however, just might. Let's say you are opposed to abortion. An anti-charity might be an organization such as Planned Parenthood. This is entirely optional, of course; but for many, it works as a motivating factor!

In the same vein, if you choose a person as the recipient, it can be a friend or foe. You merely enter that person's e-mail address, and they are designated as your Recipient of Stakes.

If you are successful for the entire period, of course, you won't have to give up one cent!

Put Me In, Coach

In addition to the Stakes principle, StickK also gives you the option of having a Referee, i.e. someone who can keep track of your progress. It can be anyone, from a friend or relative to your significant other or spouse. When you submit a report on the progress you've made, your Referee is asked, by e-mail, to confirm its accuracy.

On the other hand, if you think that you have the self-motivation and initiative to be your own Referee, then you can select the "On Your Honor" option. The site says, of course, that you can still add a Referee later on if you find that you are unable to handle the responsibility.

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

StickK has created what it calls "Communities" to meet like-minded individuals working towards the same or similar goals. For instance, there is a "Quit Smoking" community; a "Weight Loss" community; an "Exercise & Fitness" community; and a "Career" community.

Each of the Communities could be summed up by one of the short quotes on its main page. The Quite Smoking community, for starters, features a quote by the wonderful Mark Twain: "Quitting smoking is easy...I've done it a thousand times."

Like its contemporaries Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, and Twitter, StickK gives you an opportunity to make new friends and share your various interests. As people seem to become ever-busier in this fast-paced world of technology and telecommunication, the online community continues to grow. StickK is quickly becoming a part of that.

Also of note in the "Communities" page is what StickK calls "The Expert Word," with news stories from sources like USA Today, Maxim, wikiHow, and Article99.com. So, while keeping abreast of your own commitments, you can hopefully educate yourself in other areas as well.

In The News

StickK as recently been featured in The New York Times, in a Feb. 4 2009 article entitled "Dieting? Put Your Money Where Your Fat Is." Within the same article is a story about a group of coworkers in SoHo who competed over who could drop the most pounds over a one-month period.

Elizabeth Landau, of CNN, also featured StickK in an article entitled "Putting a price on procrastination," which similarly details the philosophy of the site.

Perhaps, as StickK continues to catch on, we just might see more people fulfilling their New Year's resolutions, or achieving their grandest dreams. Are you one of them?