At the end of 2024 I started using Beeminder consistently for the first time, though I didn’t know it would be consistent at the time of course! After some trials in the past I had known about the platform but it never really stuck for me. For whatever reasons, this time it did and I have been a consistent user for about 4 months now. After reading through some other’s journals and poking around the site and Discord recently I decided it would be fun to start a threa to reflect in the open about my journey with the platform - and building habits in general. I also posted an introduction over here if you want to read more about me 
For my initial start here i’ll post about my goals that have been going for a while, and will post intermittently about how they things are working - or not working for me. Generally I am working on getting better about reflecting on what I am spending my time doing, so this also aligns with that goal.
Kyle’s Meditation Goal: In late 2024 I started off with my first goal - to meditate for 15 minutes every day. So far I have I have not missed a day and its become easier and easiser to sit for for that amount of time every day. This is a huge success for me since I have meditated on and off for years, but this is the most consistent practice I have ever had. I use a shortcut on my Apple watch that sets a 15 minute timer & sends 15 minutes of meditation time to my Apple health data - then Beeminder picks it up from there.
Kyle’s Journaling Goal: Next up was journaling which I had sporatically done as well. I initially started off with 500 words a day but found that it was a struggle to fill that sometimes, so I dropped it to 300 which has felt more natural. I generally just journal stream of conciousness and have been finding it helpful - though I rarely look back at what I write. Recently I have been pondering adding a bit more structure like ‘What went well today, what could have gone better, etc’. I use an Obsidian plugin to send my wordcount to Beeminder.
Kyles FreeCodeCamp Goal: I work as a Product Manager and have wanted to learn to code for a while - not strictly necessary in my role but I know it will be very helpful to at least have some literacy in code to help understand what the devs on my team are working on and how big of a lift different pathways are that we could take. I picked up FCC a few months ago and have stuck with it - i’m currently in the Javascript module and making steady progress with some spikes of activity here and there. Something else that has been very helpful is that FCC launched a new beta course at the beginning of the year with more videos and more focused on projects which my ADHD brain has found very engaging. I’m really enjoying the learning process so far! The FCC automatic tracking in Beeminder is excellent.
Kyle’s Piano Goal: Another long time want has been to pick up the Piano which I have had starts and stops with. This goal is actually an iteration on a previous one so my learning path goes back a few more months. I manually track sessions no matter how long they are, but I try to play for at least 10 minutes at a time and that often baloons into 30 minutes to an hour when I get hooked on something. I have been using Piano Marvel to learn but have found it to be lacking in music theory instruction once you get a few stages in. I am now taking an online music theory course that I am digging and I’m going to take a trial in-peron lesson with a local teacher next week!
Kyles Books Goal: One more i’m really proud of - a goal to read a book a week that I have been keeping up with! I’m really enjoying putting a lot more time into reading than I ever have before and am finding it to be very fulfilling. If anyone else uses Storygraph I would love to connect!
That wraps up the goals i’ll go into detail about for now. Others i’m working on include: A daily steps goal, tracking a big cooking course i’m taking online, and a new one to post on this forum more!.
You can view all my goals here: kyle – dashboard – beeminder
So far this has been the most producitve year…ever for me! Hopefully it stays that way - my unstable ADHD mind always wonders if things will fall apart 
So far though there is no evidence of that, and I look forward to posting more about my journey as I go along. 