I need long-term accountability for my short-term accountability

I might suggest, if you don’t have it already, to have a clear, written meta-process for changing goals. This issue reminds me, in a way, of my post-derailment checklist, which is meta to beeminder itself. It seems like a goal change journal and/or goal change checklist could also be useful.

I’m like you in a way… Oh look! Something shiny and new! I want to do THAT! Part of MY problem is simply remembering, on a long-term scale, why something was so important to my past-self, and being able to maintain that memory at both at an intellectual and emotional/energy level in order sustain something for the long term. I use recurring tasks and Anki to help with actively and periodically remembering why things are important to me. There’s a clear basis in neuroscience here, that such a sustained effort would help one to remember what’s important (and why it’s important) at that one critical moment when one sees that shiney thing and has an impulse to change. That’s the precise moment that one needs to slow down and reflect.

This also reminds me of Opinion: Goal Creation Friction Is Good. It’s a similar kind of value to slowing down during goal creation/changing, but at a higher, more advanced level than what was discussed in that thread. You could indicate a longer term akratic horizon in the fine print:

Akratic horizon is 2 weeks. To make a change, add a journal entry and notate this in my calendar one week ahead. I can then make the change in beeminder in one week, which will go into effect the following week.

That would add in some potentially helpful friction into the process. A journal requirement gives some pause and reflection, which is the process needed to gain wisdom in the matter. I think a journal is the best method for one to make, defend, support, or reject arguments between your past, present and future self. And perhaps a checklist or flow diagram could be culled and updated from that wisdom.

This topic is helping me think about this! I can see that this would eventually be something that I (or anyone, really) would have to deal with.

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