Get Everything Done

Just checking in.

Beeminder is interesting, and looks great for goals. But I'd be careful about putting a dozen trend-lines on there for fear of failing too often. Put it this way, it really encourages you to address habits and goals one at a time, and make sure that something clicks, which really is new habit forming rule #1.

Of course, I already tried breaking it, and I've had some successes with a couple things while juggling the dozen. I was using an App called Epic Win for the iPhone to track all sorts of things that wouldn't be described as a task. The beauty of this method is with Daily repeats you get rewards for what you do right, while the items that are not relevant that day or are simply not accomplished just show up the next day, rather than stack up, nag, or guilt you. But, I'm ready for something even more functional.

Another method might be to find a service that allows you to use a shared ready list. Something like wunderlist or trello, which I'm using, means that others bare witness, can lend a hand, root you on. Frankly, even a little trash talking will force you to put your money where your mouth is.

I just signed up for a tinyhabits.com seminar, and I'm amazed enough that such a resource could be available for free. I'm left wondering "what's the catch?" I missed the zenhabits workshop this winter due to scheduling and funds.

I should mention that none of the above resources come with a handbook on how to incorporate habit tracking within the FV system. In your case, Tortoise, I would see no harm in listing the established routine in your FV that will serve to recruit the new habit, as it fits my first example.

Another quality to this process is checking in, so an agreed amount of time would need to pass in order to check your accomplishments. Some might not come in at all if the new impulse was not needed that day. For example "Get business cards into my phone on the spot" would fail if no networking opportunities presented themselves that day. That's where I suspect you'd be doling money to beeminder.

You could put an item in FV that simply reads "Record habit tracking results" then go to your chosen platform and enter things in.

Which leads me to another quality of this work: baby steps nonetheless can't be seen as lines crossed off on a list. If your accomplishments go into a void after they're done, then you're really not tracking your progress. Some retrospective would be helpful. This is challenging because the value of the work will be hard to quantify unlike the FV results from boosts to your productivity. A reward or goal would be good, but the best reward I think in this case would be to actualize Dr. Fogg's 2nd Option, namely to change your context. That is, with a given amount of success, you help construct the environment that is conducive towards your recovery.

One thing I'm slowly noticing is that routines and "Check Ins" get sent down the list, which then encourages new, 1-off tasks to percolate to the top. Maybe an "Easter Egg" or reward task, upon arriving at the top, could then mark when accomplishments were due some recognition.