Tag Archive

Feature Announcement: General Mercy

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018
Feature Announcement: General Mercy

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth and derailing on a Beeminder goal meant getting a week of respite. That is still in fact the default. After derailing you get a week of safety buffer. It gives you »

16 Obscure Beeminder Features

Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
16 Obscure Beeminder Features

It’s our first ever listicle! We tried these out in a daily and weekly beemail and even among those most hardcore users, many didn’t know about many of these features. For the average feature in this list, 30% of daily subscribers and 40% of weekly subscribers weren’t aware of it. So here they are, listed... »

New Feature and Veritable Paradigm Shift: Arbitrary Deadlines

Monday, October 27th, 2014
New Feature and Veritable Paradigm Shift: Arbitrary Deadlines

A simple-seeming feature is now live: You can set custom deadlines on goals! Until now, you’ve had till midnight every day to make sure you’re safely on Beeminder’s yellow brick road. (Or for non-autodata goals you’ve had a grace period... »

Get Things Done (Or Else!) With Beeminder and GTBee

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014
Get Things Done (Or Else!) With Beeminder and GTBee

At its core, Beeminder is a tool for getting yourself to do things using money as an incentive. Most goals on Beeminder focus on making steady progress over time. But some goals, and some people, work better with a different model. Let’s say you have to call someone by the end of the day today, and... »

Precommit to Recommit: The Third Great Beeminder Epiphany

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Precommit to Recommit: The Third Great Beeminder Epiphany

UPDATE 2013 August: We decided this was so ingenious that we made it fundamental to Beeminder. There’s no longer such a thing as not precommiting to recommit. In other words, goals no longer freeze when you derail. Below is the post in its original form for posterity.   The First Great... »

Pledge Short-Circuiting

Saturday, December 8th, 2012
Pledge Short-Circuiting

Until now you haven’t had much choice about how much to pledge (put at risk) on your Beeminder commitment contracts. It starts out free, then $5, then each subsequent time you derail from your yellow brick road you’re encouraged (though not forced) to jump to the next pledge level for your next... »

Getting Back On The Wagon

Friday, May 25th, 2012
Getting Back On The Wagon

This is a guest post by Philip Hellyer who can walk on water and outrun bullets, with the help of Beeminder. He eloquently describes what we think is currently the single biggest pain point (though there are many) with Beeminder right now — how to keep from procrastinating indefinitely on... »

Flexible Self-Control

Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Flexible Self-Control

The problem of self-control may be a ridiculous first world problem but it's the granddaddy of first world problems and I want to solve it. We live amidst a deluge of opportunities for instant gratification, especially in the form of food and entertainment, and most of us don't handle it well. The general problem, known as akrasia, is this: you understand your own best interests when you consider them dispassionately, but in the moment your decision-making is distorted. The best time for, say, a workout is always "tomorrow".... »

PSA: T Minus One Week to Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 17th, 2011
PSA: T Minus One Week to Thanksgiving

Today is one week before Thanksgiving in the US. One week is also Beeminder’s akrasia horizon. That means if you would like to stuff yourself silly a week from today, or slack off, or otherwise make your bright red line do the opposite of... »

Dog Food Renewed

Sunday, November 13th, 2011
Dog Food Renewed

Half a year ago, with Beeminder in its infancy, we committed to averaging one User-Visible Improvement (UVI) to Beeminder every day for at least... »