Visualizing beeminder data

Tech
1

Hey,

I wanted to share my tiny project. It visualizes Beeminder data on a calendar, just like GitHub visualizes commits: Beeminder visualization tools / szymonkorytnicki / Observable. You should be able to fork this project. Then, set two Secrets (BEEMINDER_USER and BEEMINDER_AUTHTOKEN in ObservableHQ settings.

Here’s my progress in reading:

image
image1526×490 18.6 KB

It would’ve been much more interesting if I had reported pages read, not days I read something.

Is there some previous art of alternatives to Beeminder’s default graph?

13 Likes
2

In one of the blogposts, I think “what to beemind” there’s a notion that it’s good to beemind things that produce beautiful graphs. I think that’s true unless you can outsource graph creation. E.g. GitHub produces nice graph, Anki has plenty of graphs and plugins, there are repos that allow you to visualize your Goodreads progress.

Nonetheless, there’s must be some intrinsic value of having a graph - some tangible, immediately available output of your efforts. You won’t become smarter after reading one or two books, you’ll become smarter after reading a hundred (or thousand?); it’s discouraging to see that nothing has changed when the book is done or a commit is pushed. This is where graphs step in, giving you instant dopamine (not sure about chemistry behind motivation though) shot. And beeminder gives you that, and goes beyond, centralizing all your efforts via available integrations and APIs.

Here’s my Duolingo progress:

image
image2460×850 113 KB

In other words, can I keep the benefits of beeminder if I have simply one data lake on AWS + graphs on Observable/Redash/Jupyer? :thinking:

3 Likes
3

My creative time is the evening:

image
image1466×322 15.9 KB

Not that I’m not a creative at my job! :slight_smile:
On weekends I read a day, on weekdays at night:

image
image1398×274 15.5 KB

And duolingo is my coffee time activity:

image
image1428×290 17.7 KB

I found it very difficult to have establish some patterns of physical activity. Beeminder helped there a ton; I found Beeminder, when a friend of mine told me that I apparently lack external motivation and instant push. I need to bring long term consequences of “not-running” near, I thought :wink:

image
image1530×282 14.8 KB

My Anki queue got short thanks to beeminder, so often it’s the first thing I do when I wake up. The chart is skewed because I report Anki data using my own integration. I don’t start cron earlier than at 9 to minimise my carbon footprint because it’s pointless; I sleep at night:

image
image1514×276 16.7 KB

5 Likes
4

Thanks for making this! I just tried it; Observable is pretty cool.

Here’s my work time. Looks legit – I can spot the week we went hiking in Yosemite, for example.

image
image744×238 8.15 KB

How are you getting the time-of-day version?

PS: It wasn’t obvious to me how to add the Secrets until I googled and read some instructions.

4 Likes
5

There you go; I made it in my private notebook first.
I know this Secret thing add a bit of overhead, but I wanted to make sure people won’t publish their auth tokens by mistake.

tip: Note it’s pretty easy to change it from hours to months or week days.

4 Likes
6

Canonical way to show this data would be to use bar chart:

3 Likes
7

This is brilliant!
Would love for a native view like this in Beeminder as it visualises the “dont miss a two days in a row” mentality.

1 Like
8

Yeah, it will be interesting to see where it ends up!

The end game for me could be to prepare my own native view. Beeminder would serve only as an API - and it does great job of guaranteeing API stability for integrations like strava for merely 8$ a month. Integrations are annoying to develop, while making charts is pure fun.

With tools like Observable you can create your own dashboard even if you are not a programmer (a bit of copy&paste, a bit of trial and error).

I need obviously high level overview to know what’s due today:

image
image1060×382 18.2 KB

Horizontal bar chart is fine for now, however it’s possible to reproduce the Beeminder’s core chart in Observable. Note that red bar is set to 40px, it would’ve been 0px if I hadn’t adjusted it. Colors are taken from Beeminder’s API.

3 Likes
9

Tip: to tidy up a little bit, when done experimenting, you can move all code to the bottom, so that you have only title + chart. Here’s how it looks in my private dashboard:

image
image1722×1364 155 KB

4 Likes
10

Thank you so much for this!

I value the graphs that Strava offers for sports, and I’m thrilled to have it in Beeminder. I’ll test it right away!

1 Like
11

Yes, strava charts are indeed excellent!
Share your results and let me know if you got stuck, I will help you build your dashboard.

Nothing new from my end, I think I have charts I needed and nothing interesting came to my mind.
My only issue now is that Observable is very slow on mobile. I am sitting on the fence between debugging Observable and putting up my own app. I dont want to give up flexibility and configurability Observable gives us.

12

Uh, very nice. I thought about implementing something like that, so I am glad someone did it!

These are the days on which I went for a walk. For multi-hour walks (aka hikes) I gave myself two-points. As you said for your reading goal, it would be cooler if I had tracked minutes.

image
image756×232 3.87 KB

Speaking of reading goals, I have one, but only since the beginning of the year.

image

I am looking forward to looking at that graph in a couple of months.

As a side note, I tried Observeable in a private Firefox tab first, and the script didn’t run. I think it’s similar to many react, vue, whatever js framework based apps nowadays, that they don’t run in Firefox private tabs. I don’t know what the reason for this is, but it’s a thing.

2 Likes
13

Nice charts! Thanks for sharing.

My idea is to start reporting pages read in “comments” section as let’s say stringified JSON - this way I don’t have to create a new goal and I still track the same thing. Adds a bit of overhead though for folks that report via beeminder UI.

Interesting point about observable and private mode. Yet another reason to migrate to custom made app. If we gather more momentum I’ll consider building such thingy.

14

Inspired by @djahandarie’s reading gallery, here’s my reading record that shows pages read and books.

Loving the visualisations, thanks for sharing!

Edit:

I wrote a little script to populate the comment with the isbn and pages read. That then gets sucked out and converted to JSON to give the colourful graph. Downside is that I can’t add data via the UI but have to wait until I’m back at my laptop.

3 Likes
15

Relevant thread: Why Beeminder likes cumulative graphs

Though I sometimes think it’d be nice to be able to toggle between those two views.

16

I wrote a little script to populate the comment with the isbn and pages read.

Nice one. I use Goodreads integration I wrote some time ago: GitHub - szymonkorytnicki/beeminder-integrations
I use cron to run script that checks regularly if I read something and mark day as done. I can easily get book details and page count.
Another option is to have another goal where one can report page count :slight_smile:

Relevant thread

Ah yes, I like the default cumulative chart a lot; I was talking about hourly distribution chart, where horizontal bar chart works fine.

Nonetheless you are correct that my charts don’t have the cumulative appeal yet. I need to think about it. Calendar view I shared in the first post works fine for things that happen often (duolingo, reading, hours worked…).
In this dataviz we can embrace another factor that plays huge role - time. I imagine we could do something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_02QGsHzEQ where we show how our attention moved from one activity to another and how, over time, we grow leaves of our tree or trees.
Speaking of trees: https://www.forestapp.cc/ this idea could give some sense of accomplishment.

1 Like
17

I looked at Ant’s G2Plot library and they did a great job of continuous calendar view:

18

I could imagine one day I might need a goal-centric dashboard, I always liked these gauges, they look cool

1 Like
19

I’m loving these! They only seem to work in Chrome for me, but that’s stopping me wasting time looking at them all the time since that’s not my regular browser, so I think that’s probably good.

I think the default code is setup to expect the datapoints returned by Beeminder to be one point a day though? I have goals that add various datapoints through the day and would like to see the sum of everything on one day on the graph. At the moment I think each point on the graph overwrites any already set for that day?

My Javascript is very rusty so would anyone be able to whip up a map function that can take the datapoints and normalise them to a one per day sum format? Huge thanks to anyone who can!

Some (truncated) real data

datapoints = Array(1728) [
0: Object {timestamp: 1643113905, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 12:31pm on 01/25/2022: Yay, another point gained!”, id: “61efedb155c1330821d8e27c”, updated_at: 1643113905, requestid: null, canonical: “25 1 “Gained a point at 12:31pm on 01/25/2022: Yay, another point gained!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-25 entered at 12:31 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220125”}
1: Object {timestamp: 1643109248, value: 1, comment: "Gained a point at 11:14am on 01/25/2022: One point! Keep going. ", id: “61efdb803b53bf44acb67e13”, updated_at: 1643109248, requestid: null, canonical: "25 1 "Gained a point at 11:14am on 01/25/2022: One point! Keep going. “”, fulltext: “2022-Jan-25 entered at 11:14 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220125”}
2: Object {timestamp: 1643045280, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 5:27pm on 01/24/2022: High five! And relax.”, id: “61eee1a03b53bf44acb67ab5”, updated_at: 1643045280, requestid: null, canonical: “24 1 “Gained a point at 5:27pm on 01/24/2022: High five! And relax.””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-24 entered at 17:28 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220124”}
3: Object {timestamp: 1643040570, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 4:09pm on 01/24/2022: Fourth point of the day, well done!”, id: “61eecf3a3b53bf7d38ab7c49”, updated_at: 1643040570, requestid: null, canonical: “24 1 “Gained a point at 4:09pm on 01/24/2022: Fourth point of the day, well done!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-24 entered at 16:09 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220124”}
4: Object {timestamp: 1643032003, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 1:45pm on 01/24/2022: That’s a third point for today!”, id: “61eeadc33b53bf44acb67a23”, updated_at: 1643032003, requestid: null, canonical: “24 1 “Gained a point at 1:45pm on 01/24/2022: That’s a third point for today!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-24 entered at 13:46 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220124”}
5: Object {timestamp: 1643023853, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 11:30am on 01/24/2022: Yay, another point gained!”, id: “61ee8ded3b53bf441fb69d95”, updated_at: 1643023853, requestid: null, canonical: “24 1 “Gained a point at 11:30am on 01/24/2022: Yay, another point gained!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-24 entered at 11:30 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220124”}
6: Object {timestamp: 1643017778, value: 1, comment: "Gained a point at 9:48am on 01/24/2022: One point! Keep going. ", id: “61ee763255c1330821d8dabb”, updated_at: 1643017778, requestid: null, canonical: "24 1 "Gained a point at 9:48am on 01/24/2022: One point! Keep going. “”, fulltext: “2022-Jan-24 entered at 09:49 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220124”}
7: Object {timestamp: 1642953141, value: 1, comment: "Gained a point at 3:51pm on 01/23/2022: One point! Keep going. ", id: “61ed79b53b53bf4506b66bdc”, updated_at: 1642953141, requestid: null, canonical: "23 1 "Gained a point at 3:51pm on 01/23/2022: One point! Keep going. “”, fulltext: “2022-Jan-23 entered at 15:52 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220123”}
8: Object {timestamp: 1642878917, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 7:14pm on 01/22/2022: Yay, another point gained!”, id: “61ec57c555c1330821d8d08c”, updated_at: 1642878917, requestid: null, canonical: “22 1 “Gained a point at 7:14pm on 01/22/2022: Yay, another point gained!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-22 entered at 19:15 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220122”}
9: Object {timestamp: 1642874960, value: 1, comment: "Gained a point at 6:08pm on 01/22/2022: One point! Keep going. ", id: “61ec485055c1330821d8cfde”, updated_at: 1642874960, requestid: null, canonical: "22 1 "Gained a point at 6:08pm on 01/22/2022: One point! Keep going. “”, fulltext: “2022-Jan-22 entered at 18:09 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220122”}
10: Object {timestamp: 1642790419, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 6:40pm on 01/21/2022: That’s a third point for today!”, id: “61eafe1355c1330821d8ca0b”, updated_at: 1642790419, requestid: null, canonical: “21 1 “Gained a point at 6:40pm on 01/21/2022: That’s a third point for today!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-21 entered at 18:40 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220121”}
11: Object {timestamp: 1642783226, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 4:40pm on 01/21/2022: Yay, another point gained!”, id: “61eae1fa3b53bf441fb6825a”, updated_at: 1642783226, requestid: null, canonical: “21 1 “Gained a point at 4:40pm on 01/21/2022: Yay, another point gained!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-21 entered at 16:40 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220121”}
12: Object {timestamp: 1642762032, value: 1, comment: "Gained a point at 10:46am on 01/21/2022: One point! Keep going. ", id: “61ea8f303b53bf4506b66965”, updated_at: 1642762032, requestid: null, canonical: "21 1 "Gained a point at 10:46am on 01/21/2022: One point! Keep going. “”, fulltext: “2022-Jan-21 entered at 10:47 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220121”}
13: Object {timestamp: 1642690138, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 2:47pm on 01/20/2022: That’s a third point for today!”, id: “61e9765a55c1330821d8c267”, updated_at: 1642690138, requestid: null, canonical: “20 1 “Gained a point at 2:47pm on 01/20/2022: That’s a third point for today!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-20 entered at 14:48 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220120”}
14: Object {timestamp: 1642682389, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 12:38pm on 01/20/2022: Yay, another point gained!”, id: “61e9581555c13308cad8bd2d”, updated_at: 1642682389, requestid: null, canonical: “20 1 “Gained a point at 12:38pm on 01/20/2022: Yay, another point gained!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-20 entered at 12:39 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220120”}
15: Object {timestamp: 1642672816, value: 1, comment: "Gained a point at 9:59am on 01/20/2022: One point! Keep going. ", id: “61e932b055c1330821d8c17e”, updated_at: 1642672816, requestid: null, canonical: "20 1 "Gained a point at 9:59am on 01/20/2022: One point! Keep going. “”, fulltext: “2022-Jan-20 entered at 10:00 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220120”}
16: Object {timestamp: 1642604725, value: 1, comment: “Gained a point at 3:05pm on 01/19/2022: Yay, another point gained!”, id: “61e828b555c1330935d8b750”, updated_at: 1642604725, requestid: null, canonical: “19 1 “Gained a point at 3:05pm on 01/19/2022: Yay, another point gained!””, fulltext: “2022-Jan-19 entered at 15:05 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220119”}
17: Object {timestamp: 1642591781, value: 1, comment: "Gained a point at 11:28am on 01/19/2022: One point! Keep going. ", id: “61e7f6253b53bf441fb66caa”, updated_at: 1642591781, requestid: null, canonical: "19 1 "Gained a point at 11:28am on 01/19/2022: One point! Keep going. “”, fulltext: “2022-Jan-19 entered at 11:29 via ifttt”, origin: “ifttt”, daystamp: “20220119”}
]

1 Like
20

Off the top of my head, assuming that aggday is sum, you could do this:

datapoints.reduce((acc, {daystamp, value}) => {
  acc[daystamp] ??= 0
  acc[daystamp] += value
  return acc
}, {})

(With datapoints being an array similar to the example array you gave.)

This returns an object which maps each daystamp to the sum of all datapoints that day.

3 Likes