It occurred to me that this might also be another mechanism in the "systems approach" that Scott Adams advocates. For instance, Adams writes:

In this case, my system is that I attempt to exercise five times a week around lunchtime. And I always allow myself the option of driving to the gym then turning around and going home. What I've discovered is that the routine of preparing to exercise usually inspires me to go through with it even if I didn't start out in the mood. This particular day, my body wasn't going to cooperate. No problem. The system of attempting to exercise worked as planned. I didn't have a trace of guilt about driving home. I've used this system for my entire adult life. I see exercise as a lifestyle, not an objective.

This might accomplish the task of moving things from the category of "things I ought to do" to the category of "things I want to do". If your system is that you have to go to the gym every day, but don't need to actually exercise there, then if you do exercise you're much more likely to think that you're doing it because you genuinely want to. Whereas if you did "I have to go to the gym and practice for an hour every day", it'd be much more likely that you experienced the whole thing as something that you were only doing because you had to - and thus you'd be much more likely to quit doing it.