What are Beeminder users automating with IFTTT?

Here are the replies we got from a straw poll of Beeminder users about how they’re using Beeminder’s If-This-Then-That Channel:

  1. My “late to work in the morning” goal.
  2. To update my bike ride miles on Beeminder.
  3. To update Beeminder goals for number of tweets per week and Facebook posts.
  4. To keep my Pocket to-read list under control. Every new pocket article → -1, every archived → +1, need to read 3/week.
  5. I need to have an event called “ccheck” in my calendar every day. Makes sure that I open my calendar application in order to enter it.
  6. Sleep In = Beeminder Sting.
  7. If new datapoint added to runkeeper-calories then send a notification from the IFTTT app.
  8. If new feed item from [url] then add datapoint for blog.
  9. If datapoint added to any goal then add row to spreadsheet in Google Drive.
  10. If new feed item from Zapier/RSS/Jira then add Datapoint for Trello goal.
  11. If new datapoint added to netcalories then quick-add event to Google Calendar.
  12. Using it with the DO button with widgets on my Android home screen to record some physical tasks like brushing my teeth.
  13. Used it to cobble together a Todoist integration, although I’ve since replaced Todoist with Complice.
  14. Trigger a +1 to a Beeminder graph when I mark a book as read on Goodreads. [x4]
  15. When I receive an email from a specific address (change notification of sorts that I can’t use through IFTTT directly – in this case, a ‘buddy’ notification is sent when a test is completed on Moodscope), I add a +1.
  16. When I enter a location, add +1 to a Beeminder goal. beeminder.com/adamwolf/gym_visits
  17. I set a geofence around my gym’s parking lot using the IFTTT Location service, and once I enter this geofence, it posts to my Beeminder gym goal. It works really well because 1) it’s completely passive, and 2) it’s hard to weasel because it requires physically driving to my gym parking lot…
  18. Get a Beeminder point when there’s a post to my Blogger blog!
  19. I use IFTTT and Alexa to log to Beeminder that I have taken my daily medication.
  20. IFTTT goal which triggered whenever my phone gps entered a circle around campus, intended to track going to my classes every day.
  21. I can one-tap a shortcut on the Apple Watch and add a datapoint! It’s awesome! For example, I will tap the “Break Fast” workflow, and it’ll just take the current time and feed it to my Beeminder goal where I track how long I fast, through IFTTT, as that day’s datapoint.
  22. Create a reminder in iOS reminders when it’s a beemergency day, so that it’s right there with my to-do’s for the day, where I’ll see it.
  23. I’ve used the “when there’s a zeno alert” trigger for certain goals to turn my Hue lights red, so that I don’t forget that goal’s Beemergency.
  24. I’ve used IFTTT to make one Beeminder goal populate another (Using the “datapoint added to a specific goal” recipe), but with an altered datapoint. For example, I was okay sharing my weight loss, but not my weight. So, I created two goals: ‘Weight’ and ‘Difference in Weight’. When one point got added to the weight goal, IFTTT would see it and, through the macros, subtract my starting weight from the datapoint and post it as a datapoint on the “difference” goal, so I could share my progress while protecting my privacy. (The goal I then shared only showed that I was at a weight that was 3.2 lbs lighter than my starting weight, or whatever.)
  25. The “Beemergency for specific goal” recipe gets around the fact that I can go into the red on do-less goals. I have a second goal that’s got a 0 slope, and so derails at the end of the day whenever a +1 datapoint is entered, and so if my do less goal (which is a $0 goal) becomes a Beemergency, IFTTT posts a +1 datapoint to the goal that will charge me at the end of the day. No more loophole!
  26. I had one that used an elaborate scheme to estimate how long certain goals would take me to complete, depending on what the total due was, and then put it on my calendar, for that length of time, an appropriate amount of time before it’s deadline. That was difficult to set up, but I was pretty proud of the web of insanity.
  27. I use IFTTT to log what I read. I have two IFTTT recipes to log to the same beeminder goal, one is the DO note app where I can log the exact number of pages I’ve read, then I also have the DO button set up to log 5 pages every time I press it, so I can just add what I guesstimate I read if I forget to actually count the pages as I read.
  28. I use the IFTTT “Do Button” app to record my water consumption. This is really just for convenience: I have two buttons corresponding to the sizes of containers I usually drink from; it’s faster to just push one of those buttons on my home screen than to open the Beeminder app and submit a data point from there.
  29. I use it to automatically record a data point every time I publish a blog post
  30. Record a data point every time I upload a video to YouTube (to sate the family appetite for cute videos of progeny)
  31. I use it to count pomodoros, which I time using a Particle Button that I programmed to count up and flash pretty colors for breaks and so forth; it also publishes data points which get logged to a Google Sheet and generate data points via IFTTT.
  32. At one point I used it to automatically record a data point every time I called my grandmother.
  33. I use IFTTT to add (kilo)meters biked to my biking goal after every Strava activity completes.
  34. Completed Todoist task (Reviews) triggers datapoint to Beeminder Reviews goal.
  35. If task in Any Project marked complete, then add datapoint for tasks goal.
  36. I use IFTTT to monitor the Beeminder blog RSS and tell me when we’ve published something new…
  37. Alexa skill to add datapoints to my exercise goal hands freee!
  38. I created an IFTTT that loads weight from a Fitbit Aria scale directly to Beeminder for a weight-related goal.
  39. Location-based going to the library on average at least every two weeks but auto-trimmed to three weeks (which would keep the books returned on time).
  40. I have a goal fed by 2 IFTTT applets: one which logs a datapoint if I upload an activity to Strava, and one which logs a datapoint when my phone connects to my gym’s wifi. I have the aggday set to nonzero so I only ever count one “workout session” per day.
  41. I use IFTTT to log whether I’ve weighed myself consistently; whenever I update my “weight” goal, my “weigh” goal is updated with a 1. Again, aggday is nonzero so I only get points for weighing myself once per day.
  42. My most beloved IFTTT recipe is the Beeminder => Beeminder one that adds a datapoint to my “weighin” goal every day.
  43. Monitoring emails sent to an electronic photo frame.
  44. I set up a script that runs periodically and checks for changes to my /now page; if it detects a change it pings IFTTT via the Webhooks / “Maker Event” channel (basically “create your own IFTTT trigger event by hitting a certain URL containing your unique key”) which then sends a data point to my Beeminder goal.
  45. Send myself a random cute cat gif whenever I get more than 2 safe days on my pullups goal.