# Beeminder anti-habit-forming

**URL:** <https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminder-anti-habit-forming/6300>\
**Category:** Akrasia\
**Created:** [February 2, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminder-anti-habit-forming/6300 "2020-02-02T19:16:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

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**Author:** ![dreev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/dreev/32/4311_2.png) [@dreev](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/dreev)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/beeminder-anti-habit-forming/6300/13 "2020-04-22T22:59:06Z")

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Hi Grayson! We’ve missed you! What if it were just a subtly different shade of green? That could potentially be easy to sneak in.

I don’t think I want it to be user-settable. ([draft of a mini-screed on that that I intend to turn into a blog post](http://doc.bmndr.com/choices))

If “subtly different green” would be super unsatisfactory, what distinct 5th color might make sense as the “totally safe” color?

Review:

| &nbsp; | &nbsp; |
| --- | --- |
| RED | beemergency, derailing in \<24h |
| ORANGE | derailing tomorrow |
| BLUE | 2 days of safety buffer |
| GREEN | 3 or more days of safety buffer (eg, green on Friday means you’re safe till Monday) |
| ??? | 7 or more days of safety buffer means you’re immune to the akrasia horizon! |

(Immunity to the [akrasia horizon](http://blog.beeminder.com/glossary/#ahorizon "Akrasia is distorted decision-making in the face of immediate consequences and your akrasia horizon quantifies “immediate”. It’s the timeframe within which your short-term impulses outweigh your better judgment — taken by Beeminder to always be one week in the future. You can make arbitrary changes to your goal — the steepness of your yellow brick road — but only outside the akrasia horizon. (You can make your goal harder without waiting for the akrasia horizon; see ratcheting.)") means that if something comes up you can just immediately flatten your road. It takes a week for the flattening to take effect but by the time you run out of safety buffer you’ll have reached the [flat spot](http://blog.beeminder.com/glossary/#flatspot "A period in which your yellow brick road is paused, requiring no work. You may want to add a flat spot for a vacation, for example. You do so by dialing down your road with the road dial. When you start a new goal or rerail, Beeminder by default starts you with a flat spot so you can build up an initial safety buffer.").)

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