Non-tech savvy, but hoping to figure this out

Hello, just taking a moment to introduce myself. I’ve been looking into Beeminder and quantified self-related things for some months now and I really am intrigued, especially recently as I’ve settled down after the military moving me around for some years. As of now I’m basically starting at zero with the goals I want to achieve. Being honest up-front, I really am not great with computer/techie stuff, and being able to figure everything out has given me as much apprehension as I have about having to actually be accountable for the things I (don’t?) do. Needless to say in my professional life I’m accustomed to structure and receiving instruction. I’m apprehensive about adding that into my private life as well but I do feel it really is necessary for me at this point if I’m to make progress. I’ve always had a tendency to allow distractions to dictate my private schedule, often into an endless circle of chasing desires without results, and my hope is that Beeminder will teach me how to change that.

I have a Garmin Instinct (a not quite related purchase that I initially wanted for navigation that I hope will be additionally helpful with achieving some of my fitness related goals). I’ve been working to figure out the Connect app. I have an alternating daily strength-based workout schedule that I want an incentive to keep, as well as add to and improve over time as I prove to myself that I can at least handle the long-term consistency aspect.

Before I hop into this with both feet, I’m hoping someone would be able to give me or link to an explanation of how I should go about experimenting and getting comfortable with Beeminder and integrating my Instinct and Garmin Connect into the process but in a way that’s easier to understand (I’m under 30 but I’ve earned the nickname Grampa at work for my proclivity toward simpler things and generally bad relationship with modern technology). A lot of the stuff I’ve read is so far into the weeds I’m not even sure where to start. Thanks to you all for what appears to be a supportive, ethical and well-thought out platform.

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The best thing to do is just start by creating one goal, say for exercise, and get some practice using Beeminder by entering data for that one goal. I’d wait on integrating the devices for now.

Check out this video on the front page: https://www.beeminder.com/home

Entering data is easy - you just click a few buttons on your phone or computer, and it doesn’t require any tech-savviness. Don’t worry, you can do it!

Start by clicking “New Goal,” set a rate of however many days you want to exercise, and let us know if you run into any problems creating the goal.

Are you planning to use your computer, android, or iphone mostly?

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Thanks for asking this, and thanks to @zedmango for the encouragement and valuable advice!

We also really want Garmin to be nice and easy to integrate with Beeminder. If you go to https://www.beeminder.com/garmin and just follow the steps it should all be obvious and if not we’ll be extremely grateful to know where you get stuck / confused. That honestly helps us a ton, even if you suspect it’s your fault!

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