A method for improving the performance of a computer system when it is detected that a process wishes to gain access to and update an object while it is locked for commitment to stable storage. The process wishing to gain access to the object is provided a copy of the existing object, with this copy now being considered as the new primary copy of the object. Updates can be made to this new copy without any impact to the commitment to the stable storage and without a delay to the process making the new updates. Any future searches for the object will return references to this new copy, while the original copy is only maintained for the period required to complete it's commitment to stable storage.