December is drawing to a close, and so is 2024’s Ride or Die resolution thread. That means it’s time to be thinking about resolutions for 2025!
Last year, the aim was to go all year without derailing at all. But that’s not really actually the Beeminder way, and it’s discouraging once you fail – that’s one of the reasons that Beeminder doesn’t implement something like streaks.
So the format is a little different this year! This year explicitly allows for failure, changing your rate, setting breaks for when you’re on a cruise, etc. What you can’t do is call non-legit on a derailment or end your goal.
Rules:
You can join whenever you like; it’s never too late. Sure, the idea is all about taking advantage of the psychological value of the Gregorian New Year… but I’m not averse to helping you capitalise on the psychological value of starting right now instead. That said, people will only be eligible for the Hall of Fame prize if they join before October 1st 2024.
Pick or create one goal. Yes, just one! The aim here is to pick something that you might find it hard to stick with, and might be tempted to quit without the extra social accountability provided by this thread.
Preferably, turn on No Excuses Mode. However, if you want to say “I can call non-legit if I forgot to add data, but completed the goal”, that’s an acceptable modification.
To get listed in the Hall of Fame, post here about your goal. You don’t have to share the link if you don’t want to; it’s okay to be very vague about what your goal even is, if you like!
Post to the thread if you derail on your goal to chat a bit about what’s going on for you that led to the derailment. Alternatively, if it’s going great, post about that!
You are a member of the Hall of Fame unless you call non-legit on a derailment. If you do have to do that, you can move to the Hall of Recognition.
This is all self-reported: I’m not checking up on you. Don’t forget to let me know if you need to move into the Hall of Recognition instead!
If someone hasn’t checked in for a while, it’s worth asking how they’re getting along! We’re trying to support each other here.
No browbeating. It’s about accountability, but it’s a supportive kind of accountability.
Short version:
Pick one goal, tell us what it is, preferably enable No Excuses Mode, and go for it throughout 2025, picking yourself up each and every time you stumble. Roll with the punches, but keep. on. going.
Winners:
Everyone who participates, for the grit to keep sticking to their goals no matter what!
People who join before October 1st 2025 and remain in the Hall of Fame until the end, December 31st 2025, and who have posted within the last month at that point, will be entered into a draw for either £30 via PayPal or the equivalent amount in an Amazon voucher. (I’ve narrowed the prize options this year for simplicity.)
People who end up in the Hall of Recognition at the end of December 31st 2025, or join the Hall of Fame after October 1st 2025, and who have posted within the last month at that point, will be entered into a draw for £15 via PayPal or Amazon voucher.
Please note: these rewards are from my own funds and are not prizes administered by Beeminder or by me in an official capacity as Beeminder’s support czar. It’s just a personal gift from me to participants, chosen randomly from the active members in each list.
Hall of Fame:
The participants who are in the running without calling non-legit:
Participants who have pulled out of the race for any reason, i.e. by choosing to call non-legit on a derailment for reasons other than data entry issues. We started the journey together and we’re proud of everything we did manage to achieve!
I’m pretty sure I’m going to make this a reading goal, for reading books I already owned prior to the start of 2025. I’m hesitating a little about how to set it up, because I don’t really have good data on how many books I read met the equivalent condition in 2024. But I’ll be back!
I want to continue with a version of what I did this year, as it was so tremendously helpful for my project progress, but I also want to try something more lightweight and fun. So, I’m still on the fence. Will be back with a final decision soon
I will continue with focused_work_early (and try out the other fun things in the monthly thread), because this goal with the extra accountability was the single most important thing that helped me move forward with the project during 2024. Ground rules:
I have upped the daily rate to 35 points. (pings before 2pm give 3 points, between 2pm and 6pm - 2 points, after 6pm - 1 point).
Weekends off but can work to gain buffer for other days.
Flat spots are allowed for vacations (6 weeks total) and travel to academic events like conferences (2-3 weeks) where things are happening according to a schedule. Plans will be announced in monthly updates.
Non-legit derailment can only be for data entry/connectivity issues (as suggested in the rules post). (I am expecting to travel to Ukraine at some point; if I can’t submit the datapoints because of a power outage but did the work = acceptable, if I didn’t do the work for the same reason = the challenge is failed)
Okay, I’ve committed! shanaqui/2025backlog is the goal, and it’s currently set so that a quarter of my reading goal this year should be from my existing TBR pile. I’ve taken note of the “newest” qualifying book as per StoryGraph, so anything added to my list after that book won’t count for this goal. (I’ll update that note if I read that book, of course, so I know which book is counting as my new “bookmark” in the list.)
I’d like to take the goal up to half of the books I read in 2025 being from my backlog, but I don’t know if that’s wildly overambitious based on current habits, so I’m definitely staying alert for adjusting this goal.
I’ve been inspired by the reading related goals ever since! So here we go.
My goal is 12-important-books.
I’m committing to reading 12 books that I’ve very actively chosen—books I believe might become a part of me and feel important to read now rather than later. This goal is about intentionality: I’m in a period of ramping up my reading back to its previous intensity, and while I’m happy to read anything that catches my interest, this goal ensures I’m also prioritizing books that truly matter to me.
Setup:
• I’ll Beemind this goal fractionally using the Storygraph percentage of one book per month.
• The rate is set to 1 book per month, but the goal will flatline until February to give me a head start.
• I’ll report the name of the book I’m focusing on each month here in this thread.
Okay, I failed the challenge yesterday. Just like that, a week into the year. I was planning to finally get on a plane by 4pm and dive into reading stuff that I need for my project, but instead of that, the flight was first delayed and then cancelled. So, instead of cozy (as cozy as it can only get in a middle seat in the middle 4-seat section on a trans-Atlantic flight) reading, I was running all around the airport and standing in lines to get rebooked, obtain vouchers, etc. When I realized I am losing the time I should have been spending on the project reading, I tried to squeeze in some of it into the standing-in-lines, but the pings would all come at wrong moments. And when we finally settled in the hotel and finished the dinner that our vouchers got us - I guess I technically could take the chance to get all necessary pings if I worked until midnight (32.16% chance, statistically), but my goal is about conscious work, not about blindly staring at a page.
Takeaway lesson: don’t enter the periods of unpredictability like this without some buffer?
I know this is not “failing the challenge” as per the original rules, but I stipulated an additional rule for myself (because I considered it important not to think I can let myself derail for some non-essential reasons), so I am honoring it now. This also highlights to myself how remarkable it is that I made it through the previous year without derailments. @shanaqui, could you please move me to the “recognition” part?
But you guys will still have to scroll past my monthly updates, sorry about that.
