Is there any way to easily reset data for beeminders?

The past few weeks have been insane for me, and I want to just reset my data and “start over” but with the same goals/etc … Is that possible?

Ah, sounds like you want an uncle button (incipient spec at doc.bmndr.co/uncle or there’s an old forum thread discussing it), or perhaps a mega uncle button that applies to all goals at once… :thinking:

We thought we were close on this feature and then got a bit bogged down. :grimacing:

Hmm, I assumed the request was less for an uncle button and more for a reset – emptying out the goals and starting over completely (and possibly resetting the commitments rather than having them be in the red?). Which is not something we have, and not something that seems super-compatible with Beeminder’s general philosophy. Deleting all the data would derail you a bunch of times, and make the graph look really weird.

But if that’s more the drift of it, then [whips workerbee hat off] generally I find that even though everything feels a bit out of control, it can be surprisingly easy to rein things back in. In that situation, I generally immediately put in at least a week’s break on all goals (using the mass breaks tool for ease), no matter what they are. Two weeks’ break, even, or more; whatever I think I need to get back on an even keel. Then I apply myself to just doing whatever the bare minimum is to stop the goals derailing until the breaks kick in (or sometimes allow stuff to derail and pay for it, just to get a break sooner).

I think if you need a fresh start feeling, then once your breaks kick in, you could also then set the x-min for each goal to hide all the old datapoints.

It’s a bit more long-winded as a prospect, and it’s not the instant relief of “whew, off the hook and I have breaks”, but it’s more consistent with the fact that Beeminder’s a commitment tool. Allowing yourself to derail can be quite good for that too (which is where the uncle button would be even handier; you don’t just have to wait for it, you can make it happen now) – I definitely personally embrace the idea of letting myself derail just to buy the respite. I find it very worth it.

(This may be easier when you have your pledges set at levels where you’re comfortable with derailing now and again. It can be a bit of a perspective change, from “set the pledge at levels you find scary” to “set the pledge at levels you find inconvenient, but are willing to pay”; perhaps the two ways of using Beeminder aren’t entirely compatible.)

1 Like