# Understanding hard cap numbers for do less goals **URL:** \ **Category:** Bugabee\ **Created:** [March 19, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618 "2015-03-19T21:03:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chriswaterguy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/chriswaterguy/32/294_2.png) [@chriswaterguy](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/chriswaterguy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/1 "2015-03-19T21:03:11Z")
For a do less goal, what precisely does each number mean? E.g. The orange number - if I exceeded that, would that mean I’m in the red and will therefore (this being a do less goal) lose today? (That’s my guess, but that interpretation wasn’t clear to me until I started writing out this question.) ---
**Author:** ![chelsea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@chelsea](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/chelsea)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/2 "2015-03-19T21:13:17Z")
correct! and the green/blue numbers indicate your cap before exiting each of those areas of the road. (the green/blue “lanes” are a little irrelevant, though, unless you have PPRs on - the PPRs are designed to move you “up” by width of one lane per day. so blue -\> orange -\> red in 2 datapoints. it’s tricky cause you could really derail _any_ day on most do-less goals, if you do enough of the thing.) ---
**Author:** ![drtall](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/drtall/32/1341_2.png) [@drtall](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/drtall)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/3 "2015-03-19T21:24:17Z")
Er, but you won’t actually derail for going into the red if you’re into the red by less than your daily limit. But you can’t use this cheat on two days in a row. See [Please don’t let me cheat on “do less” goals!](http://forum.beeminder.com/t/please-dont-let-me-cheat-on-do-less-goals/606) for details. ---
**Author:** ![gudamor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@gudamor](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/gudamor)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/4 "2015-03-19T22:35:37Z")
> [@Please don't let me cheat on "do less" goals!](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/please-dont-let-me-cheat-on-do-less-goals/606/2): > > You probably did not want to know that. (Like, literally, awareness of this loophole can harm your beeminding, exactly as you describe. Memetic hazard!) The loophole makes a lot of sense, when you think about how it works, but spreading this knowledge might not be helping people ---
**Author:** ![drtall](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/drtall/32/1341_2.png) [@drtall](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/drtall)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/5 "2015-03-20T00:54:40Z")
Maybe, but I also feel that if Beeminder is set up such that knowing how it works prevents you from using it best, it is broken and needs fixing. :-/ ---
**Author:** ![dreev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/dreev/32/4311_2.png) [@dreev](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/dreev)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 6:07am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/6 "2015-03-20T06:07:54Z")
Yes, definitely; this needs to be fixed! Just have to do it in a way that doesn’t screw over people who are used to it (myself included)… ---
**Author:** ![drtall](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/drtall/32/1341_2.png) [@drtall](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/drtall)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/7 "2015-03-20T06:12:23Z")
Of course. I didn’t mean to suggest the fix was trivial. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tomjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@tomjen](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/tomjen)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/understanding-hard-cap-numbers-for-do-less-goals/618/8 "2015-03-20T19:11:51Z")
Can’t you look at when the goal is created? Then at least all the new goals get the right behaviour?