# Earning carrots in Beeminder: Using both positive and negative data points in a single goal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Akrasia\ **Created:** [November 30, 2015, 9:18am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/earning-carrots-in-beeminder-using-both-positive-and-negative-data-points-in-a-single-goal/1680 "2015-11-30T09:18:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davitenio](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/davitenio/32/62_2.png) [@davitenio](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/davitenio)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 9:18am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/earning-carrots-in-beeminder-using-both-positive-and-negative-data-points-in-a-single-goal/1680/1 "2015-11-30T09:18:05Z")
Has anyone tried using both positive and negative data points in the same goal? For instance, I was thinking of creating a Beeminder goal where I get a +1 for each pomodoro I do, and a -4 for each cat video I watch on YouTube. The idea is to earn a carrot (permission to watch a cat video) for each four pomodoros. I think this could be set up with a “do more” goal with a rate of zero. As you do pomodoros, you get above the flat line; as you watch cat videos, you eat up your pomodoro data points. To not derail, you need to do more pomodoros than you watch cat videos, with a ratio of 4:1. Has anyone tried something along those lines? ---
**Author:** ![nepomuk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/nepomuk/32/878_2.png) [@nepomuk](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/nepomuk)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 12:43pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/earning-carrots-in-beeminder-using-both-positive-and-negative-data-points-in-a-single-goal/1680/2 "2015-11-30T12:43:24Z")
Yep, I have a goal like this! I get a point every time I go to a non-fancy grocery store and subtract a point every time I go to an expensive grocery store. It’s actually helped a lot. Before I used to get everything, even staples, at the froofroo store up the hill, every time I needed to pick up a single specialty item. Mainly I was lazy, but also I got way too excited about shopping at the fancy places, and would take any excuse to go there and browse. Now I go to the cheaper store nearby first, get everything I can find on my shopping list, and then just go to the fancy store for the one or two things I couldn’t find at the first place. One positive plus one negative means I break even! Right now I’ve got a flat road, so that even one more trip to the cheap place gets me into the green, but at some point I’ll probably dial the difficulty up a bit, so that I have to go to the cheap places significantly more often than the fancy places just to stay on the road. ---
**Author:** ![philip](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/philip/32/1505_2.png) [@philip](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/philip)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/earning-carrots-in-beeminder-using-both-positive-and-negative-data-points-in-a-single-goal/1680/3 "2015-11-30T20:09:38Z")
Our [tocks](https://github.com/dreeves/tocks "like pomodoros, but longer") script subtracts two points every time that you declare yourself to have been distracted during a tock. Tocks are like pomodoros, periods of task focus, so giving yourself a ‘smack’ is equivalent to needing to do two more tocks. ---
**Author:** ![scarabaea](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/scarabaea/32/5475_2.png) [@scarabaea](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/scarabaea)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/earning-carrots-in-beeminder-using-both-positive-and-negative-data-points-in-a-single-goal/1680/4 "2015-12-01T06:41:21Z")
I use such a graph in order to measure being late/coming in time. It even has a negative slope so that I need to be in time more often that otherwise… Some backlogs are also more manageable if I enter +x, -y each time I add something to the pile / process something from the pile - rather than this being an odometer/whittle down goal.