Hello all! I was inspired by the tocks post on the beeminder blog to create a modification to the chrome extension I’ve been using to do pomodoros (Strict workflow: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/strict-workflow/cgmnfnmlficgeijcalkgnnkigkefkbhd?hl=en). The strict-workflow-beeminder repo can be found here: https://github.com/maggiedelano/Strict-Workflow-Beeminder. If you’re interested, check it out and let me know what you think.
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I was also intrigued with the Pomodoro approach after reading the blog, this plugin has been a simple way to try it out.
Thanks!
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For those uncomfortable with GitHub (like myself) here is a link to the README with excellent instructions on how to install the extension. Don’t be put off by the cloning jargon. You can just download the zip file from the right panel on this page and unzip it.
@maggied Thanks for whipping this up and sharing it! I’ve been waiting a long time for a way to Beemind pomodoros easily and I’ve got this working! It would be awesome if the pomodoro could be logged to a specific goal based on what you were working on. So if I put #cleaning as my comment, the pomodoro would log to https://www.beeminder.com/username/goals/cleaning and #project1 would log to https://www.beeminder.com/username/goals/project1
Is it clever enough to just send completed pomodoros to Beeminder or does it send a datapoint every time one is started?
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This is perfect-- I was already using Strict Workflow for my occasional halfhearted pomodoros, and was longing for a way for Beeminder to know automatically that I was doing them. I’ve cheerfully set it up!
This has taken care of half of my pomodoro dream, but the other big thing I’ve really wanted to have was an automatic way to tweet at the end of a pomodoro what I was working on. (I have a very boring “data” twitter that feeds into the iPhone app Momento, and posting stuff there for posterity is the absolute best way to keep myself accountable.) I think I can make this extension send its comments to twitter at the same time that it sends them to beeminder, but… I am currently making a lot of guesses.
My guesses:
- This program is written in JavaScript.
- I should put the “tweet now” bit of code as a second
jQueryffffunction (?) withinif (this.mostRecentMode == 'work') { - I should use the twitter API to figure out what to put there? Or… this codebird library?
- I need to find one thing to log me in to twitter, and one thing to actually post the tweet? Maybe since this file lives locally I’ll manually enter my twitter username and password? And maybe the tweeting will be a function I write one place and then call within the
ifstatement?
Unfortunately, this is as far as my English degree can get me. I’d really appreciate any pointers anyone can give me!
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Thanks, MaggieD! I am installing GitHub now to try and make these edits. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I am determined to figure this out!
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Glad to hear the README instructions are reasonably clear 
I updated them to be more clear about how to clone a repository.
@peppertoni right now it doesn’t work with tags, but I will definitely consider adding something like that in the future. I created a github “issue” for it as a reminder.
The extension is clever enough to only send completed pomodoros at the end of a pomodoro work session.
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Hi @oulfis, I’ll take a stab at some of your questions:
- Yes.
- The “tweet now” code should go within the same
ifstatement as the post-to-beeminder code. Not sure if it should be a jquery call or not. - I haven’t used the twitter API before, so my answers to 3/4 might be wrong, but I’d guess using a javascript library like the codebird one would be a good idea.
- It looks like you can use this method to get an access token and secret that you then plug in to codebird as it describes in its readme. I think you also need to create an app in order to get a “consumer” key. It looks like that readme also shows the code for posting a tweet, which you could just put right below the pomodoro code.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks a lot! I find this all very confusing…this helps a lot… I am totally unfamiliar with coding or any of this jargon… just looking for a sophisticated way to track my pomodoros… learning slowly…just downloaded github 
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Hi again, all. I just updated the github repo. You can now configure your beeminder username, auth token, and goal name right from the Strict Workflow options page. You can also include a hashtag at the end of your comment to log to a different beeminder goal than your default goal. (Note that the hashtag must be at the end, as anything after the hashtag will be ignored.)
If you find any bugs let me know!
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Oh score! I had cobbled together my own version of the choose-a-goal thing locally but it seemed too hacky too make a pull request for. I like the hashtag idea a lot!
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Updated this again (github repo). This time I added a little dialog to the popup that tells you how many pomodoros you’ve done today. It should use the default goal if there is no hashtag in the comment and use the hashtag goal if there is one. So now you can easily see how much you’ve done on a given goal each day.
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Hi there, I set a goal of four tocks a day. Not more because the tock only counts for items on the todo list. I need 20 tocks a week. Since I do not work on weekends I find myself in the situation of friday and still two or three tocks to go…
The other thing is when I have to travel tocks are not feasible any more. Any solution to this?
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The general solution, of course, is to plan ahead if you can. Some people beemind a weekly look-ahead review for exactly this purpose.
If you’ve got a week’s notice, then you can use the take-a-break feature to schedule a pause (or a slacking) in your road. Not just travel but also conferences, workshops, long weekends, etc.
Conversely, if travel and uncertainty are the norm, you can set a travel-friendly slope overall and use the so-called take-a-break feature to schedule periods of more intense work.
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