I’ve been wanting to spend more time in focused-work-mode, which I’ve tracked with Toggl for about twenty months. I’ve tried various Toggl-Beeminder goals. I’ve found that I require strong buy-in from myself in order to not quit when the going gets tough.
My most successful Toggl goal was a goal in which I non-negotiably felt that I wanted to reach a cumulative target. I knew that not doing the time on one day would mean just spreading it out among a future, finite set of days. The derails slowly ramped up the amount I was doing each day. (I failed the exam I was studying for, but I spent two months feeling awesome about life due to the great work-life balance and productivity induced by the daily ritual of study several hours to make red → orange.)
This time, I’ve made an all-project goal so that I don’t need to think especially hard about what projects I’m going to prioritize. I truly, generically, just want to work more (c.f. I can track time, but what about efficiency?). To get more buy-in from myself, I’ve made the goal cumulative and promised myself an enticing reward once I hit the target. Which is … a new plant[1]! So, introducing: my toggl-for-plant goal.
The integrity I have around Beeminder makes this self-promise feel wayyy more official than a post-it or a Google doc. Since it feels more official, it has more weight to me. Does anybody else Beemind to an end-reward?
[1] More specifically, 2 small plants or 1 fancy/expensive/will grow large plant
