A full 10 years ago we published a listicle, “16 Obscure Beeminder Features”. Number 15, we could say, surprised us. With its longevity and practicality. Since we don’t actually want to clickbait you, here it is:
If you have over a week of safety buffer you’re immune to the akrasia horizon.
Quick Review: Akrasia and the Akrasia Horizon
Akrasia (also defined in the sidebar of the blog) means acting against your own better judgment. Beeminder’s akrasia horizon refers to the restriction that, while you can make your goal easier or even end it altogether at any time, the change takes a week to take effect. So you can change your mind about your commitment for a thought-out reason, but you can’t do so akratically. See our help article for more.
In short, akrasia horizon immunity means that you can immediately flatten your bright red line and — though it takes a week for the flattening to take effect — by the time you run out of safety buffer you’ll have reached the flat spot.
In our blog post introducing the rainbow dashboard, we point out that goals with 7+ days of safety buffer are shown in a subtly darker shade of green, to remind you that you’ve achieved akrasia horizon immunity. Quoting ourselves:
If something comes up or you decide you hate your Beeminder goal (it happens), you can click Archive or schedule a flat section of the bright red line. It takes a week for such changes to take effect, but, lucky you, you have that much safety buffer! So instead of clicking Archive or scheduling your break and then toughing it out for another week, you can do that and then immediately check out. By the time your safety buffer runs out, your break will begin. Your friends will be dark green with envy.
Of course if you had the discipline to maintain a week of safety buffer you wouldn’t need Beeminder in the first place. But it’s a nice little carrot to go with the stick.
