Successful completion of goal

I had a backlog of shredding to do, so I created a goal to shred 1 bag a day. It seemed like a mountain of paper and I didn’t know how long it would take to complete. 10 days later, I’m done. Woohoo! Now what? Perhaps I didn’t create the goal the way I should have, but I don’t know how to tell Beeminder that I succeeded. Do I delete the whole thing? Try to archive it? I don’t want it to act as though I derailed, when in fact I accomplished what I set out to do. Any suggestions? Many thanks!

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Yeah this can be kind of strange sometimes.

If you know exactly how much work there is to do at the beginning, you can create it as a Whittle Down goal (e.g. starting at 10 with a rate of -1 going towards 0). But if you don’t know in advance, you have to make it a Do More goal (which it sounds like you did). So when you get to the end of the project, you hit Archive and enter a big fake data point so you don’t derail in the meantime. Alternatively you could email support and ask them to Archive it instantly.

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Many thanks!

Much sadness.

Any solution that involves fake data is wrong, and I say that without being QS-obsessive. It’s like getting the affordances wrong in physical design; e.g. doors with pull-handles shouldn’t be push-to-open.

This example is tied to the whole world of how Beeminder (currently) fails to celebrate success. Seems closely related to the uncle button, in functionality if not intent.


Happily, @rebeccayoung wasn’t shy about emailing support. :slight_smile:

Also, sometimes it’s nice to leave a completed goal in your trophy case for a while. Now, there’s a #UVI idea to replace back-burnering! Like feature-my-goal, but personal.

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I so agree about your trophy case idea. This shredding backlog was getting worse and worse for months, was a daily source of guilt, and certainly wasn’t good feng shui for my home office. I am thrilled that it is done! I couldn’t bear the thought of entering fake data when I legitimately succeeded. And it would be lovely to have it pop up in some way as a reminder that I can clear even long-term, onerous backlogs, and it doesn’t have to take forever.

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