I have exactly the same experience like yours. And even more. My variability due to serendipity will be sometimes for more than a few hours delay, to the extent that I have to increase a task time into twice or three times what is Beeminder asking me to do in a day, but then I have to omit other tasks which of course Beeminder will not allow me to do.
Today for example, I had the energy to do the most boring/important task twice the time for what is allocated by my daily schedule. I cannot do that usually, unless I get super good mood and energy. I am super happy to throw away less important tasks today and do this twice. The problem is I cannot predict my mood and energy unless I start with the task.
Now how can a person like me who is super variable in his daily schedule to use Beeminder? The solution is: I have invented a bank where I can exchange this currency with that. I put in the bank +4 hours for task 1 (since I did 4 hours extra of task1 ) and put -4 hours of task 2 in the bank (since I did 4 hours less from task2). Beeminder will not know all of this and task 1 and 2 will be Beeminded just like any other day. Because, if I enter the data correctly in beeminder, I will be punished because I did super well today, much more better than my usual daily routine.
Now, is this cheating? Certainly I don’t feel it like that. On the contrary, I am super happy that I got the energy today to do more from task1 even on the expense of deleting the less important task 2 from today. There will be a day in the future where I feel very low in energy, that I need the favor that I have done for myself today. And what I had put in the bank (the +4hr of task1), I will borrow it and will not do task1 and do more from the easier task2 by +4hr, and return to equilibrium.
Actually, this is the only way that Beeminder worked for me. For such users with variable, unpredictable daily routine, it is impossible to use Beeminder. I speculate that such people will be turned off once they know the rules of Beeminder and never return back.
I wished if there is way to make Beeminder better for all users. To be flexible in the settings to make it work for people like us. Normal users with fixed daily schedule can turn off such settings and we can use that flexibility. This is a very conscious choice. It is not akrasia. It is the contract from the beginning, just like when I choose the pledge amount and the daily amount of the task when I create the goal settings.
Probably this is a related idea that @chelsea and I strongly support. And to my surprise, now I have opened the thread, and saw @byorgey the 1st one replied “that is a great idea”.
It is not a coincidence the same users are asking for such remedies to Beeminder in a way or another. We feel Beeminder should be able to attract such personalities as well. This is not cheating. It is just rearranging tasks in a very conscious way for people where tasks are depending on serendipity and energy.
P.S.:
Just a note for anybody thinks that using the bank method means that I cannot be derailed in any of my tasks.
That is not the case. I have been derailed many times. Actually, I cannot put in the bank a -4 hours unless I put +4 hours in another task in the same day. The total sum should be >= 0. So this will be instead of rearranging tasks within the same day (Beeminder allows same day arrangements if “waterfalls” are not used), it will be rearranging within a week or within a month which I need to do, due to serendipity (which I am happy to embrace and catch the opportunity if it happens).
This is a major issue for people like me. Any suggestion/comment is highly appreciated.
I have been for years trying to find a better way, and feeling the pain of those who would love to use a commitment device like Beeminder, but because of their flexible daily schedule they cannot be here.
Any idea what features to add to Beeminder to attract such users?