There’s a reason people become vegetarians and set themselves the resolution: I never eat meat. Michael Phelps, one of the most successful swimmers and athletes, trained 6 days a week for 16 years. His vow: “Never miss training, and never give up.” Many paragons of self-control, from Gandhi to Benjamin Franklin, use rules as a way to exert control over their own actions.

Yet the scientific literature on these rules, called personal rules, is surprisingly sparse. With Dr. Angela Duckworth and Dr. Katherine Milkman, I investigated the effect of forming and following a personal rule on exertion of self-control.

Check out my thesis here.