I recently joined BeeMinder and its awesome!! My question might be a stupid one so I apologize in advance. I have been motivated to learn a new language and have linked Duolingo with my BeeMinder account. I have set the goal to 10 points per day as I want to get through at least one section every day. However, some days I get more motivated and complete three sections in which case , I derail of the track but it’s for the better as I am learning more. My question is why does it show +8.00 due in 6 days ? How do I make it such that it only charges me when I fall down the track rather than upwards ? Another question would be how it is 703.00 in total ? Thanks
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Hi!
It is OK to be above the road. That is part of what those yellow lines
mean. Let’s make sure not to say derail for being on the good side or
things will get confusing fast 
It says +8 in six days because you have worked ahead. This means it is OK
(in Beeminders eyes) to skip a few days. You have to get 8 more points in
6 days or you will be on the bad side.
It says you need 703 in total as another way of saying +8. If you are
wondering why it says 703 vs 700 or 710… I am not sure.
If you want to set it up so that Beeminder doesn’t let you save up safety
buffer, so you have to do at least 10 points everyday, even if you worked
ahead, you do that by setting Max Safe Days to zero. That means every
night it will throw away your safety so you have to do 10 every day.
(Note that if you do this, you probably won’t notice until the next
morning.)
Buena Suerte!
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Hi @darshj
It does, at least with this type of goal, it only charges you if you are down the track.
What this “+8.00 due in 6 days” means is that you have learned a little bit more than your necessary minimum over the past several days, so you can let yourself take some rest - you can do nothing for 5 whole days and then do just 8 more points on the 6th day, and you’ll be still okay. This does not mean you have to take this pause. You can still do your planned minimum or more every day. If you do more than your minimum regularly, this number of days in “+X.00 in Y days” will increase little by little. This is called accumulating your buffer for this goal. At some point, you might want to use this buffer (a trip without much internet connection to access duolingo?), or you might want to adjust your committment, if you realise you in fact want to do more every day.
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