# Thoughts on Beeminder **URL:** \ **Category:** uncategorized\ **Created:** [September 24, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/thoughts-on-beeminder/1453 "2013-09-24T20:33:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![Noah\_Wilde](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/noah_wilde/32/691_2.png) [@Noah\_Wilde](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/Noah_Wilde)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/thoughts-on-beeminder/1453/7 "2013-09-25T16:30:49Z")
I would also like some categorisation or organisation system. Even something light weight would do. The below the fold, above the fold stuff is okay. But it’s a very blunt tool. I have three major contexts: personal, open source, and work. And often I only care about one context at a particular point in time. (Though logging on in the morning to see what is red, yellow, etc, gives me a good idea of what I need to work on during the day.) But I also imagine that it would be useful to add more than one category to a goal. For example, within those contexts, I have binary success goals (1 or 0 for the day) and time based goals. So the ability to perhaps tag goals would be useful, and then an easy way to filter or sort or group based on tag. Perhaps something like OS X’s smart search (in Mail.app, Finder.app, any lots of other places) so you could create a smart search for "all goals tagged with ‘personal’ and ‘time’ and under seven days safety buffer’ and then save that as “Priority (Personal)” or whatever, and have that saved search come up in a list on the dashboard. And then you can just flip between searches. Could even do something like that with JS on the client side. Anyway, just spitballin here. But yes, “one big inbox” can be cumbersome. (I track over 30 goals!) On 25 September 2013 17:19, Rob Felty [robfelty@gmail.com](mailto:robfelty@gmail.com) wrote: > Thanks for the tip Katherine! I didn’t know about that feature. And now > that I have played with it, I think I like the beeminder defaults better! > Thanks for knowing what I _actually_ wanted Danny! > > On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 9:12 AM, Katherine Baxter \< > [baxter.katherine@gmail.com](mailto:baxter.katherine@gmail.com)\> wrote: > > > For your weight graph, set vmin to 0 in the advanced options. > > > > On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 10:52 AM, Rob Felty [robfelty@gmail.com](mailto:robfelty@gmail.com) wrote: > > > > > I think that interactive graphs would solve the graph readability > > > problem. I > > > personally would also like the ability to set the y-axis on the graph. > > > If > > > you look at my weight graph, it looks like I have made some big > > > changes, but > > > if you made the y-axis start at 0, it would look very flat (which is > > > closer > > > to the truth in my opinion) > > > > > > [weight – rob – beeminder](https://www.beeminder.com/rob/weight) > > > > > > Rob > > > > > > On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 8:42 AM, Reto Stamm [reto@retostamm.com](mailto:reto@retostamm.com) wrote: > > > > > > > I think I agree with each of these points, really. Especially the > > > > cluttered inbox state. I made a new account just for that, and I start > > > > cluttering it up again. It seems that goals are not forever. > > > > > > > > I have moved daily habits to lift.d, which has a nice checklist > > > > interface, > > > > and community cheering, which was somewhat nice. Since there’s no long > > > > term > > > > tracking, I’ve done that for all of a week, then stopped. What I plan > > > > on > > > > doing is to add lift.do to Beeminder - it has a Ruby gem that pulls > > > > from it, > > > > and a csv interface also. The lift.do guys were friendly but not very > > > > helpful when I chatted with them. > > > > I plan to add a “% of habits done/day” tracker (or # of habits), so I > > > > can > > > > set up a “do more” goal for these as a whole thing. > > > > > > > > The “Urgent, extremely demanding project” is a very real thing. Getting > > > > back into the groove afterwards is hard, too. > > > > > > > > Graph readability with many datapoints may be improved if it only shows > > > > the next week and the last month or so. But then it of course looks > > > > less > > > > impressive. > > > > > > > > Reto > > > > > > > > On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 1:33 PM, Brian Fabian Crain \<[crainbf@gmail.com](mailto:crainbf@gmail.com) > > > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > Hi Everyone, > > > > > > > > > > I’ve been a very active user of Beeminder for over a year and wanted > > > > > to > > > > > share some of my thoughts on it. > > > > > > > > > > First things first, the past year has been the most productive of my > > > > > life > > > > > and Beeminder played a significant role in this. I learned about it > > > > > in Nick > > > > > Winter’s (excellent) book and I’m very glad I did. My interactions > > > > > with the > > > > > Beeminder team in various support emails have also been outstanding > > > > > and I > > > > > feel a more personal connection to Beeminder than to any other > > > > > company I can > > > > > think of right now. > > > > > > > > > > Yet, over the past months I have gradually been moving away from > > > > > Beeminder. I’ll describe the reasons why. > > > > > > > > > > Akrasia Horizon > > > > > In August I worked extremely hard on finishing my Master’s thesis and > > > > > I > > > > > derailed on various goals during that time. I wasn’t procrastinating > > > > > about > > > > > them. It was simply that I had one project that was more important > > > > > and more > > > > > urgent and I made the decision to neglect everything else. I tried to > > > > > anticipate these by adjusting the road beforehand but I was not very > > > > > good at > > > > > that. > > > > > > > > > > I know this was my fault, but I couldn’t help feeling somewhat > > > > > resentful > > > > > about it. More broadly, I often felt that the short-term rigidity of > > > > > Beeminder often meant that the ‘punishment’ of derailing was not > > > > > really > > > > > aligned with my bouts of laziness. > > > > > > > > > > Graphs > > > > > Initially, I found the graphs and staying above the road very > > > > > motivating. > > > > > But over time this effect disappeared entirely. With hundreds of data > > > > > points > > > > > the graphs had become very difficult to read. I might have felt some > > > > > satisfaction looking at how far up I had come but they just stopped > > > > > working > > > > > for me as a motivational tool. > > > > > > > > > > Clutter > > > > > I have tracked 24 things overall on Beeminder and at the height of it > > > > > I > > > > > was probably tracking around 17 things simultaneously. This became > > > > > difficult > > > > > as they pertained to completely different areas of my life. Some were > > > > > things > > > > > I wanted to do daily. Some were logs of things I do occasionally > > > > > anyway and > > > > > just wanted logged somewhere. Some were automatically pulled from > > > > > other > > > > > applications. Over time, this just started to feel very confusing and > > > > > I > > > > > didn’t like that the only effective organization to this was how many > > > > > days I > > > > > had left until derailment. > > > > > > > > > > Behavioral/Project Alignment > > > > > Following up on the Clutter point: The broader problem, for me, has > > > > > been > > > > > that Beeminder doesn’t really align (anymore) with overarching goals > > > > > or with > > > > > the structure of my day. > > > > > > > > > > One solution to this, I think, would be to allow categorization of > > > > > goals. > > > > > e.g. Beeminder might have partially kept its usefulness if I had been > > > > > able > > > > > to group goals by ‘Morning Routine’ or ‘Learning’ or ‘Weekly’. Then I > > > > > could > > > > > have looked at the relevant place and it would have provided a clear > > > > > overview of where I’m at in this area. Instead, coming to Beeminder > > > > > feels > > > > > like coming to a cluttered inbox with (now) a jumble of relevant now, > > > > > relevant some other time, not relevant anymore, and or in undefined > > > > > limbo-state. > > > > > It’s not pleasant and there are ten things that take away your > > > > > attention > > > > > when only a small subset is relevant at that moment. > > > > > > > > > > Minor: No Derailment/Expenses Tracking > > > > > A very minor misgiving I have is that I can’t see anywhere how often I > > > > > derailed, when, on which goal and how much money I have spent on > > > > > these > > > > > derailments. I find that a bit against the spirit of a self-tracking > > > > > service, particularly one of the high ethical standard that Beeminder > > > > > has. > > > > > > > > > > Going Forward > > > > > I am not quite sure what I will do going forward. > > > > > > > > > > I will most likely continue using Beeminder particularly for sporadic > > > > > activities. For example, I log how many books I read and put author, > > > > > rating > > > > > and title in the comment. This works fine for me and I like that I can > > > > > export the data and analyze it at some point if I want to. There are > > > > > a few > > > > > more similar trackers and I’ll also keep up things like the fitbit > > > > > integration as it is frictionless. > > > > > > > > > > But when it comes to my daily habits, the thought of restarting some > > > > > of > > > > > the habits makes me feel as if I’m about to take on some unwieldy, > > > > > untameable octopus. The only thing I can imagine is using something > > > > > else to > > > > > give me structure and use Beeminder to keep a data log. But then that > > > > > would > > > > > be Beeminder without its core behavior change functionality… > > > > > > > > > > I know these are my personal experiences and feelings right now and > > > > > that > > > > > a lot of you are getting a great deal out of Beeminder. That’s great > > > > > and I > > > > > really hope the Beeminder and its great team will have a very > > > > > successful > > > > > future. I might also change my mind and restart with Beeminder > > > > > somehow. > > > > > > > > > > But I wanted to share these thoughts as I hope they might be useful > > > > > for > > > > > Beeminder itself and because I would love to get some reactions from > > > > > the > > > > > knowledgeable folks of this list. > > > > > > > > > > Have some of you had similar issues and dealt with them successfully? > > > > > Should I have adopted a different approach somewhere that would have > > > > > avoided > > > > > this? > > > > > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > > Brian > > > > > > > > > > – > > > > > Go get my PGP Public Key, then use Mailvelope to encrypt your webmail. > > > > > > > > > > – > > > > > 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](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > > > > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). > > > > > > > > – > > > > 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](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > > > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). > > > > > > – > > > 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](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). > > > > – > > 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](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). > > – > 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](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/thoughts-on-beeminder/1453)._