I’ve realised that “being in the city where I ostensibly live” is something I want to do more of, but chronically fail to do, which is a classic Beeminder scenario. But I’m struggling to articulate what to mind.
Partly I want to beemind being-in-Toronto to cultivate more of a “home” life, since even though “being at home, doing home stuff” doesn’t look as exciting on my calendar it is very satisfying. But mostly I want to beemind it because I have to spend 153 days per calendar year in Ontario in order to maintain my status as a resident (and thus retain my health care!), and I just had to shave two days off my plans for a trip home for American Thanksgiving in order to stay above that minimum.
I’m sure I could set up some kind of autodata integration to give me a point for every day that I spend in Ontario, which would, I suppose… force me to spend a substantial time at home before I earn enough buffer to leave town? But, that doesn’t make “eep” days very informative – I don’t know, off the top of my head, how I’d look at my buffer and know whether I can book a trip or not. It’s not motivating, either, since it’s always going to be cheaper to derail than it is to book an emergency flight back to Toronto.
The “calendar year” part, too, means that I need the amount I can “spend” to come in a much chunkier fashion than Beeminder usually permits. So I’m thinking something where I have a running total, and every time I book travel I deduct from that running total, such that eventually I will be forced to stop making new plans. Right now I am imagining a flat road, at 153, where I input a datapoint of +153 every January 1, and negative datapoints every time I book a trip.
Is there a cleverer way to do this, which would perhaps make it simpler to avoid “splurging” on all my travel at the beginning of the year, so I don’t imprison myself in Toronto unable to see my family for Christmas? Input datapoints of +38 every 4 months and then use negative datapoints as above??
Or am I overthinking this, and I should just beemind “updating my travel spreadsheet” so I am more aware of my countdown over the course of the year?