title. Thanks for taking time out of your day to do this!
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My tip would be: don’t make it too complicated.
Sometimes simple goals are absolutely the best, whether that means simple implementation (a steps goal linked to a service you’re already using, for example) or a very simple metric (even when that doesn’t directly measure your progress, e.g. tracking time spent on something rather than worrying about how to quantify units completed).
My other tip is… well, my favourite goals have all been highly specific to me, rather than general habits that “everyone” ought to instill. As an example, my stopbyseven goal, which is meant to nudge me to be done with all my Beeminder goals (including work-related goals) by 7pm, so I have my evening free for whatever I want. It doesn’t have a strict 1/day rate, so there’s flexibility to “do overtime”, but it’s a strong steer towards having my evenings free for anything I want, and it’s worked really well over the years to help keep my stress down and curb my tendency to overwork myself. It’s easy as well to take a derailment as a warning to myself, rather than a punishment or being forced to march to the beat of someone else’s drum.
Which is not to say that general good habits can’t be usefully tracked via Beeminder – but it’s harder to mentally invest in them, and it can take a while and feel like a bit of a bumpier process. I had a weird problem with forgetting to brush my teeth in the morning, and I had a breakthrough while using Beeminder (chronicled in the linked blog post), but it took me some time to get there because at first I was doing it because I felt I “should” solve this problem, not that it was the problem I wanted to solve right now. Those goals can be very very worth it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not where I’d start. I’d start with a problem you very actively want to solve but just have trouble prioritising. That way, Beeminder adds more weight behind something you already want to do.
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I aspire to get to the point where my biggest worry is overworking lol, thanks for the tips! : )
I can’t say I’m immune to procrastinating or anything, sadly – part of the goal’s purpose is also to nudge me to bunch stuff up during the day rather than let it slide until later, too! I have a terrible habit of being a bit lazy in the middle of the day and then ending up working all evening to catch up, so this goal helps with that too.
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I am not sure I have much clever to say but I did want to second the idea that it really does help when you already feel excited to solve a problem or do something, and beeminder is just helping you maintain that commitment, rather than trying to force yourself to do something you feel you “should” do but don’t feel excited to do. For me personally, anyway.
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