The Three Pacts: Price, Effort and Identity
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- —
A pact is a precommitment made in advance, and it is the fourth and final step of becoming indistractable — used earlier it backfires. Eyal describes three types. A price pact puts money on the line, exploiting the fact that most 'I can't' statements collapse the moment a price is attached: once you'd do it for $10,000, you've established that you can, and you're only negotiating the price. An effort pact inserts friction between you and the distraction — enough work to create a minute of mindfulness in which you ask whether you really want to go off track. An identity pact, which Eyal considers the most powerful, gives you a noun rather than a verb: research on voter turnout found that asking people whether they are 'a voter' rather than whether they plan to vote made them significantly more likely to turn up.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Complete the first three steps first
Master internal triggers, timebox your values and hack back external triggers before making any pact. If you don't know how to handle 'I don't feel like it', haven't planned the time and haven't removed the triggers, the pact has nothing to hold.
Watch out Eyal is unambiguous: out of order, this absolutely backfires.
- 2
Test the 'I can't' with a price
When you or someone else says 'I have to', 'I must' or 'there's no way', ask what would happen if failing to do the thing cost $10,000. The answer establishes capability; everything after that is negotiating the price.
- 3
Set a price pact
Attach a monetary disincentive to going off track — a bet with a friend, or Eyal's burn-or-burn: a fresh $100 bill taped to a calendar with a lighter on the shelf above, and a daily choice between burning calories or burning the note.
Pro tip You already pay coaches and trainers to hold you accountable — with a pact you keep the money.
- 4
Set an effort pact
Add friction between you and the distraction so that giving in requires deliberate work. Eyal's outlet timer shuts off the household internet router at 10pm every night; he could bypass it, but the effort creates a moment to ask whether he really needs to be online.
Pro tip Physical, household-level friction sets an expectation everyone in the home shares.
- 5
Set an identity pact
Adopt a moniker and act in accordance with it. 'I'm indistractable' functions like 'I'm a vegetarian' — a vegetarian isn't deliberating about a bacon sandwich, it's simply who they are. Use it out loud: I don't respond to notifications every thirty seconds, because I'm indistractable.
Pro tip Adding the label publicly — a bio, a title — can give you permission to act on it.
Watch out Labels cut both ways; only adopt the ones that serve you.
In the wild
Once Eyal had finally worked out how to become indistractable, he had to practise what he preached to actually write the book. He made a commitment pact with his friend Mark Manson while they were both working on their books: if he didn't finish his manuscript by January 1st, he would owe Manson $20,000, and they shook on it. He didn't pay — he finished the manuscript. His point is that we routinely hand money to coaches, trainers and diet programmes for accountability and never get it back, when we can hold ourselves accountable and keep the money.
→ Manuscript delivered on deadline; no money paid out.
Next to Eyal's dresser sits a calendar with a fresh, crisp $100 bill taped to it and a Bic lighter on a small shelf above. Every day he faces one choice: burn some calories — push-ups, a walk around the block, a swim, some form of exercise — or burn the $100 bill. A former clinically obese man who has always disliked exercise, he has run this for five years and has never had to burn the note, because his personal integrity is worth more than $100. He credits it working entirely to having done the first three steps first.
→ Five years of daily exercise at 46, in the best shape of his life, and the $100 bill intact.
Common mistakes
Making the pact before the other steps
If you haven't learned to sit with 'I don't feel like working out right now', haven't planned the time and haven't removed the external triggers, the pact has no foundation and will backfire.
Adopting labels that hurt you
Identity works in both directions. Saying you're addicted, spent, bad at time management or bad at tech makes it true — Eyal notes 'addiction' comes from the Latin addico, meaning slave. Choose monikers that serve you.
Outsourcing all accountability to paid help
Coaches, trainers and diet programmes work by taking money you never see again. A self-made pact provides the same accountability while letting you keep the money when you follow through.
From the transcript
“so we have price packs effort packs and identity packs”
“every day I have a choice to make it's called the burn or burn technique”
“household till this very day every night at 10pm our internet router shuts off”
From the episode
How to Stay Focused and Beat Distraction - Nir Eyal
Nir Eyal