Restarting goals at $5

Heya! I was a slacker and let one of my goals (practice four pages of Cued
Speech transliteration per week) get to $90 before I finally started taking
things seriously instead of going “Eh, I don’t feel like it. I’ll just pay
the money.” After I reached that point, I managed to get through the rest
of the year without screwing up, and finally reached my goal date. It was
nice to see that smiling “Fin” icon on my chart, but I hated the idea of
putting that $90 sword of Damocles back into play, so I just let it sit
there for several months without restarting – and without doing any Cued
Speech practice either. If it were possible to step the penalty amount back
down to $5 after successfully reaching a goal, I’d be all into it, but at
this point I’m waffling between deleting that chart and setting up a new
Cued Speech goal from scratch or just scrapping it altogether and putting
something else there in its place. The $90 penalty was enough to get me
white knuckling through the rest of the year, but the thought of having it
hanging over me for the rest of time is just too painful; I’d rather avoid
the whole thing.

Is this Beeminder working as it should and me just being a coward? Or do
y’all agree with me that achieved goals should offer the chance to step
back down to the lowest penalty?


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Hmmm can’t you choose to downgrade a pledge amount? I think it takes a week
to set in, but you could fake-restart the goal and not actually begin
collecting data until the week has gone by (so you’re guaranteed not to
derail while it is still at $90).

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Mirabai Knight askeladden@gmail.com
wrote:

Heya! I was a slacker and let one of my goals (practice four pages of Cued
Speech transliteration per week) get to $90 before I finally started taking
things seriously instead of going “Eh, I don’t feel like it. I’ll just pay
the money.” After I reached that point, I managed to get through the rest
of the year without screwing up, and finally reached my goal date. It was
nice to see that smiling “Fin” icon on my chart, but I hated the idea of
putting that $90 sword of Damocles back into play, so I just let it sit
there for several months without restarting – and without doing any Cued
Speech practice either. If it were possible to step the penalty amount back
down to $5 after successfully reaching a goal, I’d be all into it, but at
this point I’m waffling between deleting that chart and setting up a new
Cued Speech goal from scratch or just scrapping it altogether and putting
something else there in its place. The $90 penalty was enough to get me
white knuckling through the rest of the year, but the thought of having it
hanging over me for the rest of time is just too painful; I’d rather avoid
the whole thing.

Is this Beeminder working as it should and me just being a coward? Or do
y’all agree with me that achieved goals should offer the chance to step
back down to the lowest penalty?


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“Akratics Anonymous” group.
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You can reduce the amount you have pledged, just one band at a time and it
takes a week to take effect. Would that be sufficient for you or is the
initial stressful period still too much?
On 19 Aug 2014 18:47, “Mirabai Knight” askeladden@gmail.com wrote:

Heya! I was a slacker and let one of my goals (practice four pages of Cued
Speech transliteration per week) get to $90 before I finally started taking
things seriously instead of going “Eh, I don’t feel like it. I’ll just pay
the money.” After I reached that point, I managed to get through the rest
of the year without screwing up, and finally reached my goal date. It was
nice to see that smiling “Fin” icon on my chart, but I hated the idea of
putting that $90 sword of Damocles back into play, so I just let it sit
there for several months without restarting – and without doing any Cued
Speech practice either. If it were possible to step the penalty amount back
down to $5 after successfully reaching a goal, I’d be all into it, but at
this point I’m waffling between deleting that chart and setting up a new
Cued Speech goal from scratch or just scrapping it altogether and putting
something else there in its place. The $90 penalty was enough to get me
white knuckling through the rest of the year, but the thought of having it
hanging over me for the rest of time is just too painful; I’d rather avoid
the whole thing.

Is this Beeminder working as it should and me just being a coward? Or do
y’all agree with me that achieved goals should offer the chance to step
back down to the lowest penalty?


You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
“Akratics Anonymous” group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


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Great question, Mirabai! As Sean and David said, you can drop to $30
in a week, then $10, then $5. The fact that that wasn’t obvious is
really good feedback for us. I’m sure many people are daunted when the
pledge creeps up and they don’t realize they can drop it down (with a
week delay). Or if even a week at $90 is daunting, I’m interested to
know that too. (Of course you can restart with the initial week flat
so no danger of derailing, as Sean suggests, though I wouldn’t
characterize that as fake-restarting!)

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Sean Fellows oaks64@gmail.com wrote:

Hmmm can’t you choose to downgrade a pledge amount? I think it takes a week
to set in, but you could fake-restart the goal and not actually begin
collecting data until the week has gone by (so you’re guaranteed not to
derail while it is still at $90).

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Mirabai Knight askeladden@gmail.com
wrote:

Heya! I was a slacker and let one of my goals (practice four pages of Cued
Speech transliteration per week) get to $90 before I finally started taking
things seriously instead of going “Eh, I don’t feel like it. I’ll just pay
the money.” After I reached that point, I managed to get through the rest of
the year without screwing up, and finally reached my goal date. It was nice
to see that smiling “Fin” icon on my chart, but I hated the idea of putting
that $90 sword of Damocles back into play, so I just let it sit there for
several months without restarting – and without doing any Cued Speech
practice either. If it were possible to step the penalty amount back down to
$5 after successfully reaching a goal, I’d be all into it, but at this point
I’m waffling between deleting that chart and setting up a new Cued Speech
goal from scratch or just scrapping it altogether and putting something else
there in its place. The $90 penalty was enough to get me white knuckling
through the rest of the year, but the thought of having it hanging over me
for the rest of time is just too painful; I’d rather avoid the whole thing.

Is this Beeminder working as it should and me just being a coward? Or do
y’all agree with me that achieved goals should offer the chance to step back
down to the lowest penalty?


You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
“Akratics Anonymous” group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


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http://dreev.es – search://“Daniel Reeves”
Goal tracking + Commitment contracts == http://beeminder.com

Oh, I didn’t know that un-archived goals are eligible for a free flat week.
In that case you can restart for real!

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:57 AM, Daniel Reeves dreeves@beeminder.com
wrote:

Great question, Mirabai! As Sean and David said, you can drop to $30
in a week, then $10, then $5. The fact that that wasn’t obvious is
really good feedback for us. I’m sure many people are daunted when the
pledge creeps up and they don’t realize they can drop it down (with a
week delay). Or if even a week at $90 is daunting, I’m interested to
know that too. (Of course you can restart with the initial week flat
so no danger of derailing, as Sean suggests, though I wouldn’t
characterize that as fake-restarting!)

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Sean Fellows oaks64@gmail.com wrote:

Hmmm can’t you choose to downgrade a pledge amount? I think it takes a
week
to set in, but you could fake-restart the goal and not actually begin
collecting data until the week has gone by (so you’re guaranteed not to
derail while it is still at $90).

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Mirabai Knight askeladden@gmail.com
wrote:

Heya! I was a slacker and let one of my goals (practice four pages of
Cued
Speech transliteration per week) get to $90 before I finally started
taking
things seriously instead of going “Eh, I don’t feel like it. I’ll just
pay
the money.” After I reached that point, I managed to get through the
rest of
the year without screwing up, and finally reached my goal date. It was
nice
to see that smiling “Fin” icon on my chart, but I hated the idea of
putting
that $90 sword of Damocles back into play, so I just let it sit there
for
several months without restarting – and without doing any Cued Speech
practice either. If it were possible to step the penalty amount back
down to
$5 after successfully reaching a goal, I’d be all into it, but at this
point
I’m waffling between deleting that chart and setting up a new Cued
Speech
goal from scratch or just scrapping it altogether and putting something
else
there in its place. The $90 penalty was enough to get me white knuckling
through the rest of the year, but the thought of having it hanging over
me
for the rest of time is just too painful; I’d rather avoid the whole
thing.

Is this Beeminder working as it should and me just being a coward? Or do
y’all agree with me that achieved goals should offer the chance to step
back
down to the lowest penalty?


You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups
“Akratics Anonymous” group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
an
email to akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


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“Akratics Anonymous” group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


http://dreev.es – search://“Daniel Reeves”
Goal tracking + Commitment contracts == http://beeminder.com


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“Akratics Anonymous” group.
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For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


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