What do you thing of this idea I'm using more and more in my code ?

What do you thing of this idea I'm using more and more in my code ?

instead of writing

if (MyObject <> nil) and (MyObject.Locked) then
Exit;

I write

if MyObject.Locked then
Exit;

with

function TMyObject.Locked: Boolean;
begin
Result := (Self <> nil) and FLocked;
end;

it can also be

function TMyList.Count: Integer;
begin
if Self = nil then
Exit(0);
...
end:

function TMyList.GetItme(Index: Integer): TMyObject;
begin
if Self = nil then
Exit(nil);
...
end;