Hello,
I’ve been thinking about why I fall off Beeminder occasionally, and came up with the following chart after thinking hard about how to classify different Beeminder user behaviors…
It’s a hypothesis in a quadrant format about where Beeminder works best, rated from 1-4 - 1 being best, 4 being the worst. I figure I might have posted this before, or that someone else has already done it, but wanted to reiterate in case I haven’t.
| Can Do Task | Can’t Do Task | |
|---|---|---|
| Motivated to do the task | 2 - Less need for beeminder, but helpful to keep on track. | 3 - Legit and Non-Legit Derails |
| Not Motivated to do the task | 1 - Platonic ideal for Beeminder - bringing future consequences to the present. | 4 - Non-legit Derails (that feel bad, like Legit Derails) |
I’ve been wondering about whether I could be kinder to myself if I were to write up my personal End of Day summaries with a tag for which of these quadrants I’m falling under this day.
Days where I’m in Zone 1 I am right to beat myself up about what I was not able to accomplish the previous day. There’s room for improvement here because I could have done the task, but didn’t.
Zone 2 days, I (usually) get a lot done, so the extra push isn’t as necessary, but Beeminder is still useful as it tells you on future days if you’ve made enough progress on your Zone 1 / Zone 2 days so that when zone 3 / 4 days come up, they don’t end up being catastrophic. It also lets you efficiently figure out what would be best to work on at any given moment for rate based goals, which is very important!
Zone 3 days feel bad, because I want to do the tasks and have the energy to do so, but am unable to for one reason for another - most of the time, being work. Here, it’s hard to feel too bad because I was motivated to do it. Days that fall onto Zone 3 where I derail feel good because either I had set the goal too aggressively and the derail safety buffer provides room to dial it in correctly, or it’s a non-legit derailment you feel comfortable pinging to support as legit.
Zone 4 derails / days lead to psych spirals that trigger the same thought process that used to hurt me when I would panic eat.
Let me lay out the (possible) positive feedback loop of Zone 4 days.
A) Trigger - Derailment triggers when I am not motivated to do the task, and I cannot do the task.
B) Thought - I failed the task, because I am unmotivated to do the task. (not because I am unable to do the task. That doesn’t come to mind.)
C) Action - to deal with the hurt to emotions / ego because of inability to do the task due to blaming self for external circumstances, I do some kind of action that is meant to make me feel better
D) Consequence - I derail on the goal. I feel guilty about taking self-care instead of completing the task (even though I was not able to). This guilt / negative emotionality makes me less capable of both completing the task in the future and decreases my motivation to do the task due to the hit in self-estimation of ability.
When you’re in Zone 4, the systems that help you to achieve your goals in Zone 1-3 can turn into something that pushes you further into not being successful (if you have the wrong mindset.)
I realized this is the same thought process of when I would overeat…
A) Trigger - I have a bad emotion / negative emotionality.
B) Thought - If I eat something, even though I am not hungry, it will make me feel better in the short term.
C) Action - I eat food, even though I am not hungry.
D) Consequence - The short term emotional boost of the hunger is gone, and I am left with guilt about not meeting my eating food goals, which triggers…
A) Trigger - I have a bad emotion / negative emotionality from eating food, (…)
And that it’s important to know the difference between Zone 1-3 legit / non-legitimate derails, and Zone 4 derails to break down that thought process that leads to negative consequences.
Writing out the trigger thought action consequence chains, you can see we can break both cycles by interrupting the process after the trigger by forcing ourselves to use an alternative line of thought.
B) Thought - I failed the task, not because I am unmotivated, which is the case, but because I was literally unable to do so.
C) Action - I will take self-care, so that I am more mentally prepared to be in a Zone 1-3 kind of space in the future for my beeminder goals.
D) Consequence - I relax without guilt, and regain some strength for when I return to doing my goals.
I was able to deprogram my panic eating with Noom’s cbt guidance in the same way…
B) Thought - If I eat something, it would make me temporarily happy, but make me more unhappy less than twenty minutes later. Also, unless my I’m hungry, I probably should listen to it and eat when she tells me she’s hankering for food.
C) Action - I eat food if I’m hungry, I don’t eat food if I’m not hungry.
D) Consequence - If I am not hungry, I avoid incurring further guilt, further reducing my mental state. If I am hungry, I replenish my energy levels and ensure I am not undereating, plus feel a little good. Win win win across the board!
And for new / experienced users, I think it’s important to step back and consider what zone mindset our derailments are happening in so that we can better use Beeminder to achieve our goals.