Beeminding order from numbness

Heh, yes, exactly. It’s enraging. :slight_smile: You probably already know this, but just in case, always use ‘===’ rather than ‘==’ (or ‘!==’ not ‘!=’). Brief reference: Which equals operator (== vs ===) should be used in JavaScript comparisons? - Stack Overflow

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Don’t know how deep you guys intend to go with js, but typescript + eslint can do wonders for your sanity when working with js.

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Yeah, I plan on jumping to typescript sooner rather than later as far as my journey here goes. Although it’s not a big priority

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For my journal review, a set up this toggl goal. It’s only for 6 minutes a day, which isn’t nearly enough.

I do find it a very rewarding activity, though. It’s just painful to do. It’s hard to watch yourself struggle, and my journal tends toward documenting that process.

Ideally,

  • it would be due first thing in the morningm before all other goals
  • I would otherwise have the same toggl + beeminder workflow

But we don’t have those options :frowning:

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I’ve struggled a lot with coming up with a mental health workflow, because there are a bunch of things I should be doing, but this ends up creating a lot overhead in the setup because they need be:

  • time-based
  • due early
  • tracked in toggl

So I need to end up looping in third party automations that I can’t really afford right now.

Custom deadlines for toggl autodata could just make my life sooo much better.

Although I guess if a single beeminder autodata integration could have that much of an impact, then it’s worth it to pay for the third party stuff.

But it’s a pain and it’s not flexible, so I end up in this dependency loop of upfront time investment into this process that I never end up making. Why? Because I’m doing all the painful reflections necessary at like 11:30pm!

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I want to try incoporating this tool on task prioritization to help deal with some of this prioritizing.

It should be easy to pull task from a bookmarklet, no?

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OMG I totally missed this happening - custom deadlines for toggl!!! I am so so so happy to see this :smiley: Like, I’ll have to double check that I’m not hallucinating from lack of sleep

Thank you beeminder team! :heart_eyes:

image

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Glad you like it! Let us know if you see anything wonky…

(Did you notice that refreshing Toggl is faster than it used to be, too?)

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Yep! It does seem to have been sped up a bit.

My first Monday with earlier toggl deadlines has been great so far - I feel much better knowing that I can get a lot of dreaded activities done earlier without having to struggle with my brain about it late into the evening

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It’s only day 2, it’s close to midnight and I don’t have any beemergencies to dispatch. I had a couple more to set. Now the latest toggl goal I have set (exercise) is due at 10pm.

All basically all mental health goals are due at the beginning of the day. Reviewing my journal, writing about my values, etc.

Now, I had a light schedule beeminder-wise for these past couple days. So I’m due for a rude awakening soon as much of my routine shifts forward like 6-10 hours. I’m sure there will be a lot of hiccups, I’ve rather haphazardly set deadlines throughout the day

This is what I’ve wanted beeminder to be for me since the beginning: something that actually cares when I do things because I sorely lack anybody in that role.

TaskRachet/Complice stakes are good for tasks, but half the time I use those features it’s just to get me to spend time doing stuff earlier than I otherwise would

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This adjustment has actually been easier than I thought it would be. And since I’ve staggered them, It’s easier to get started on other things. I moved some goals up a couple of hours today

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So it’s been a while since I posted, and the reason was that I was unemployed for long and so broke that beeminder ceased to be a credible threat since I was ultimately borrowing money from my parents.

But on the bright side, I got a job!

I think I was able to keep it together since I got super involved in some state and local political stuff that had a sense of community and urgency.

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Congrats on the job! Are you still using one-off goals?

In a stride of destiny, I happen to run into your topic as I’m procrastinating on the important tasks of my day.

Manic bee-user ramblings

I do the same as you; do small tasks to feel productive, but don’t do the one that is important because of an irrational fear that makes things harder over time.

It can spiral out into a similar numbness; I stop interacting with the whatever as a vague connection with the task and wait for a breakthrough to save me (which happens after a few months, but now, it’s a bit late - sometimes it turns out for the task to be quite effortless).

Sometimes, I even take psychostimulants, but I can’t still do the task.
So, I end up being very efficient at doing my Beeminder tasks, cleaning the house, surfing the web.

Everything, except working on the thing I should, even though I have enough time.
It’s not about executive dysfunction anymore; I could stick with the task if I choose to.
I’ve now realized that the issue lies deeper. Is it what people describe as Akrasia?

Here’s the fix I’ll try:

  • create a Beeminder goal called “stake money”. It will force me to stake money on my day. Ideally, I won’t be affected by Akrasia, so I will pick the task that needs it the most.
  • actually stake some money every day using Complice

It would be nice if I could stake money to do a task in the future; e.g. stake $10 to come here and give an update. Maybe I should take a look at TaskRatchet?

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do it right now and post the screenshot, I already asked Malcom to set up a complice stakes beeminder integration so you don’t have to!

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Haha, so this feature exists because of you!

Thank you for the push, boss. Here are the proofs

(and thanks, @malcolm, for your awesome app; of course)

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Hell yeah! Excellent work. Sometimes it just takes a little push to get through analysis paralysis.

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Exactly! By the way, this setup works quite nicely.

Some info about my setup

I stake three times a day:

  1. End my morning routine (I give myself 1h30)
  2. Stop working (allows myself to fully start resting and working on admin task)
  3. Do my evening routine (at 11pm, and I usually feel sleepy afterwards, so I get to sleep earlier - if not, I take Melatonin and watch videos)

It gives the same feeling of urgency than Beeminder at the scale of a single day.
Would highly recommend! Though some days, it doesn’t work. Raw executive power is king, but this setup multiplies it.

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Hi all,

Thanks for reading my post, if you have. I’ve been struggling to stick to my therapy take-home exercises and my habit of using Beeminder to keep track of my progress. I recently got a new job, but it hasn’t helped me establish a better routine. In fact, some of my old habits have only gotten worse as the responsibilities have.

I’m looking for advice on how to set up goals in Beeminder that specifically target my mental health and address my anxiety. I struggle with anxiety before doing anything, especially before doing my therapy take-home exercises. It’s a vicious cycle that I’m finding hard to break.

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That’s a tough one. Currently I have two therapy related beeminder goals–one for reframing my thoughts, and one for texting my therapist. (Of course it depends on your therapist whether they appreciate you texting them or not.)

I’m also pretty bad at homework, though. Without going into too much detail, what are the general types of homework you’re finding it difficult to stay on top of?

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Here are some ideas for you:

  1. sleep hygiene
    • waking up early in the morning and taking a walk in the sunlight
    • use goals with deadlline for other hygiene goals so that you’re ready to sleep at 11pm: shower, teeth brushing, stop doing homework, answer all SMS, turn off phone
  2. anxiety before doing homework/work/chores: create a beeminder goal to do 30 seconds of it. You can continue or not; your choice.
  3. micro-habit to do a leisure task that is good for your mental health but difficult to do with “anxiety paralysis”: making music, knitting, working on a side-project, learning from your favorite subject

Isn’t your old setup working anymore? E.g. TaskRatchet + Complice stakes to do the important stuff?

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