| Oh, thank you, sir! Didn't expect to get a reply from the cofounder of Beeminder. I don't think it's possible for to fully explain how big of a difference Beeminder has made in my life. I was much like some of the folks in this thread (as in, starting projects but not finishing them; struggling to get stuff done), but since implementing Beeminder in my life, my productivity has gone through the roof. It's also given me a lot of self confidence in my abilities, which is pushing me to take on more ambitious projects and ambitious tasks. The focus on averages is definitely what I like most about Beeminder. On more than one occasion, I've fallen asleep without writing my daily 750 words, only to wake up 20 minutes later in a cold sweat, rushing to my laptop so that I can quickly write my words so I can get back to bed. With Beeminder, that's not a problem. I usually have reserves built up, or, alternatively, I can simply put in some extra time the next day. Case in point, last Friday, I went to the doctors for a routine asthma checkup and they gave me a flu shot that completely knocked me out. It effectively ruined my plans for the day. Instead of worrying, I went home, rested, and put in some extra time on Saturday instead. It's simply not possible to do this with the Seinfeld method. One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post is that I heard about Beeminder through Nick Winter's book 'The Motivation Hacker'. http://www.amazon.com/The-Motivation-Hacker-Nick-Winter-eboo... It's cheap, it's a quick read, and it's got some great information inside. I made some notes while I was reading the book - I've uploaded them here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9f6xofet38ka1x2/Nick%20Winter%20-%... If anyone's on the fence about buying it, it's definitely worth picking up, in my opinion. There's a lot of great stuff in there that I didn't cover in the notes. Cheers again, man. |
I'm fascinated that you can get so much value out of Beeminder without the commitment device aspect! For us personally that's really key. Maybe for you the commitment device is that if you derail you'll be forced to put in a credit card. :)
I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this if you want to move this to an email discussion. Ooh, or check out the Akratics Anonymous google group. You'll probably love that.