I have a goal called frogs which is similar: I have to check off 4 a day from my to-do list. What I’ve noticed is that there’s a lot more friction for some tasks than others, either in terms of time spent, aversion to doing the task, or both. So I’ve added in a point system: each task gets from 1 (put on a load of laundry) to 3 (do my husband’s business bookkeeping). So far that’s been really helping me take on the things that I would otherwise push out until they became a problem.
The other thing I’ve noticed about using Beeminder in general is that it works much, much better for me if data is automatically sent to my goal from elsewhere, instead of me having to enter it manually. For this goal, I set up an applet at IFTTT to add data to frogs when I check an item off a list in iOS Reminders. (I had the list of tasks there already, and I was checking them off there already. Bonus Beeminder input!)
To incorporate the 1–3 point scale, I write each to-do item in Reminders as “1 laundry” or “3 bookkeeping” and then use NUM[] in the IFTTT applet to extract that number. I can imagine that at this point you’re looking at me like I’ve just written down the wave equation for pink elephants appearing over Miami. I’ll just put this screenshot here, and if you’d like more wordage, let me know.
