I’ve found that, for quite a few of my goals, just recording a one or a zero for “success” or “failure” works better for me. For instance, I used to beemind how many hours before midnight I went to bed, but I’ve found it easier and more effective to instead beemind a 1 if I go to bed before my target bedtime, and a 0 if I don’t.
The problem with this approach is that it puts the weight of the goal onto my fine print, where, in that case, my target bedtime is defined. The problem with this is that Beeminder doesn’t enforce an akrasia horizon on fine print changes, so it would be pretty easy for me to change the definition of my goal on the spur of the moment.
So far, this problem has been only theoretical, but I’m still interested in hearing how other people deal with this before it does become a problem.
Thanks!