I know it is a late response but I will say that I have found that fine print can sometimes lead to issues. I have found when I have specific excuses I would over use them. What I have done is for a couple goals there are no excuses. Meaning if I want to skip I have to be sick enough that I am willing to pay the amount. For the rest I have fine print that says I have to get permission from my boss as a service. If they approve the exception I can add a data point if not then I derail. Now usually my boss checks in with my twice a day. However on weekends its once a day.
So a lot of times I dont know for sure if it will actually be approved or not. So a lot of times I end up realizing that I really can actually do it and I am just trying to make an excuse. The only thing that I am okay approving an exception without asking my boss 100% of the time is a migraine as I go partially blind, have a bad headache and throw up a lot. Usually I just email beeminder support at that point once I can see again. But other than that I must ask my boss about it.
I like the idea of this thread a lot - inspiring me to perhaps create one of my own, one day…
I am happy to see that there is another “phone-locker” on this forum. I myself have been locking my iphone for 8+ years, only transitioning to the timed lock boxes about 2-3 years ago.
I particularly find iOS’s “un-rootable” nature as quite annoying… since you can’t block apps digitally. (iOS has something called screentime, where you can set a 4 digit password to block apps, but this can be reset very easily as well as 4 digits being a very short length to try to forget, not to mention that when I tried it, apple would ask me for the screentime password as a “password” for purchases, which seems like something you should be able to toggle on/off. - I’m convinced apple doesn’t want to give users a true powerful way to block apps)
I’m not sure what happened in the last 3 years, but I seemed to lose all self-control in limiting the use of certain apps like youtube and reddit… I think there were certain times in my life where this wasn’t the case. But, nowadays I have to increase the accessibility friction considerably on these apps just to make it through a day productively.
I as well am someone who needs weasel-proofing and no-excuses mode, and recently I figured out that with a locked down android phone (all addictive apps blocked for years) that I can use the camera to take photos to send to my boss-as-a-service to prove the locking of my devices.
So, I created 2 beeminders for this, one to lock my devices in the morning, and one to lock it before bed.
Just chiming in, because I do think for certain people who lack technology self-control, beeminder+phone-locking (with weasel-proofing!) could be that unique holy grail solution ! especially for getting to bed on time, it’s very relieving once all devices are locked up, and it’s a perfect thing to beeminder since it is a low effort, yet can create huge change.