Hi! I’ve been using Beeminder for quite a while now but haven’t really gotten into using the forums much. I have found a lot of great information here lately, so I’d like to get more involved in the community!
I’ve found that data points which are automatically added (such as step counts from my Fitbit) are the only ones that are effective for me. Ever since connecting my Fitbit to Beeminder, I’ve consistently met my step goal, only derailing twice in over a year, if I remember correctly. I’m a student on a limited budget, so the threat of losing money is extremely motivating to me. I’ll be honest though, if datapoints are left up to me to enter, I’ll put in whatever makes me not derail. This is why I’m only interested in setting up new goals where data is automatically added.
I have two terms left before graduation, and they’re both pretty intense. I know that in order to maintain both my grades and my sanity I need to study consistently, and I’m fortunate enough to have the time available to dedicate to school full-time. I just have to stick to studying when I’m supposed to.
I also need to wake up on time consistently, which is something I’ve never been able to do. I’ve read a lot of great suggestions here for using Beeminder for waking up on time, but none I couldn’t cheat my way out of. I wish I had more self-control, and hopefully I will someday (I’m reading the bookclub books!), but right now I know that my sleepy brain cheats whatever system I set up and goes back to bed.
So my plan is to use Tasker to auto-log the time that I’m in the buildings where my courses are or the library. I’ve set up a 40-hour per week Do More goal to track those hours.
For waking up, I set up a Do More goal and put an NFC tag in another room. The tag will log a 1 if I activate it between 5 and 8am, a window which I’ll ideally narrow over time to 5 and 6am. Outside of that window, it won’t log anything. After I try it out for a few more days to make sure there are no unexpected issues, I’ll set the max safe days so that I can’t have “cheat days” which throw off my schedule. (I also have a Do Less goal set up to log the time I spend on my phone when I should be asleep to limit the late nights which contribute to sleeping in).
So to get it to work, I have an alarm on my watch, and to get the Beeminder “point,” I have to wake up with my alarm, go to the other room, and tap the tag. The time window makes sure that I don’t just stay up past midnight and log the “wake-up time” then, or log it when I finally get out of bed at noon. 
My next concern, knowing my tendency to cheat, is how to penalize myself for turning off the Tasker profiles, ha. Ideally, I’d love to fully automate this, since that’s cheap and consistent, and I’ve thought about creating a Tasker profile which logs a data point anytime I disable the other necessary profiles and setting that to Weaselproof, but I don’t want to get charged for any technical glitches my doctor obviously can’t write a note for, haha. My alternative plan is some kind of accountability buddy who would be notified instead and require a legitimate explanation/proof. If they don’t consider the explanation good enough, they could send an email/text with a specific code which triggers an immediate Beeminder charge through IFTTT.
If you got through that whole thing, thanks for reading! I’d love to know what you think and if you can spot any potential loopholes.
