# I can't quite understand the Beeminder chart. Can someone ELI5? **URL:** \ **Category:** Newbee\ **Created:** [October 2, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/i-cant-quite-understand-the-beeminder-chart-can-someone-eli5/12841 "2026-10-02T00:35:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![callmegoggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@callmegoggins](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/callmegoggins)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/i-cant-quite-understand-the-beeminder-chart-can-someone-eli5/12841/1 "2026-10-02T00:35:56Z")
This is my chart. I set out to do 1.428 Upwork sessions per day, which is impossible (one can only do 1 or 2) so I gave myself 7 days to complete the goal. If that’s the case, why is it saying +2 | 5 total due in 6d (I began a feel days ago)? I don’t understand the graph at all, whether I’m on a good track or how many sessions I need to keep on track. ---
**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:** [October 5, 2026, 1:16pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/i-cant-quite-understand-the-beeminder-chart-can-someone-eli5/12841/2 "2026-10-05T13:16:22Z")
Hello and welcome! This is probably not quite ELI5, but here goes. As you say, it’s impossible to do 1.428 upwork/focusmate sessions per day, which is of course why the graph says you’ll need a certain whole number sessions to get ahead of the slope. The graph still thinks of it as 1.428 per day though, not 10 per week, and it expects you to stay above the line day after day after day. When you do 2 or more sessions, the excess builds up a safety buffer, pushing out that 6d deadline. The current deadline for those sessions is a projection of what will happen if you don’t do any focusmate between now and then. Beeminder is effectively drawing out an imaginary/invisible horizontal line from today and checking when that intersects with the bright red line. On that beemergency day, that imaginary horizontal line crosses over between 0.001 to 1.428 sessions below the line, requiring you to do 1-2 sessions to get back above the line. Importantly, because your committed slope is 1.428 sessions per day, Beeminder will never expect you to do more than 2 focusmate sessions in a day. Every time you do some sessions, that day when the imaginary horizontal line crosses the bright red line gets pushed further into the future. If you stick with your 10/week intention, it’ll stay at 6 days for a long time. If you have some days with 3 sessions, that’s what we call building safety buffer, which lets you have the occasional day with just 1 session – while maintaining your 10/week average! When you set up the goal and asked for a week’s leeway, the graph started with 7 days of safety buffer, which reduced a bit every time you only did one session a day. Now that you’re doing 2 sessions per day, it should be holding steady or building slightly. If you only do sessions on weekdays, you’ll see this rhythm happening naturally. Safety buffer will build up Monday-Friday (2 sessions/day), then reduce on Saturday and Sunday (0 sessions/day). The slope will continue at 1.428, but your safety buffer will ebb and flow. > **[How do I interpret the graph? - Beeminder Help](https://help.beeminder.com/article/118-how-do-i-interpret-the-graph)** > > Understanding the bright red line What about the colors of datapoints? Can I change where the graph starts, or make the end-point of my goal visible? Can I tell