5 ms·
Don't let a single day pass without doing something towards your goal
- Palomides 11y agoso... a minimalist beeminder?
- pessimizer 11y agoOr just a clone.
- jqm 11y agoSometimes not working towards a goal for a day gets me closer than working badly towards goal. And sometimes, waiting until the moment is right is better than trying to seize the moment. It's a very fine line though and can become a good excuse not to get things done or let circumstance drive us around. But I for one do not believe in working on a goal every day. Just most days.
- ryanmonroe 11y agoMy main goal in life is to be happy. I have other goals, but if working on them for the n-th straight day comes in conflict with my main goal, I'm gonna take a day off.
- sillysaurus3 11y agoHave you reached your main goal? Any tips for reaching it?
- Skunkleton 11y agoIsn't 'being happy' everyone's goal?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- sillysaurus3 11y agoTo varying degrees. Most people will sacrifice their own happiness for their children's, for example. Or their spouse's, and so on. Some people have not reached the goal, which is why I asked.
- jraedisch 11y agoIsn't sacrificing their own happiness a little bit like happiness by proxy then? Maybe that's too broad an interpretation. It leads to the (old) question of whether there is true selflessness.
- smhg 11y agoThis isn't really readable on Chrome on Android. Seems like a viewport related issue.
- canistr 11y agoRather unfortunate that you must sign in with a fitness app. Any way around this? I don't really want to connect my Jawbone/FitBit account to a random app.
- lordelph 11y agoSimilar to the Jerry Seinfeld "Don't break the chain" advice - http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se... EDIT: Wait, what? He never said this at all? https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld_here_i_will_give_you_an_answer/ceiugt5 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld...
- nonzeroday 11y agoIt is very similar to Jerry's advice.
- jraedisch 11y agoThere even is a web app based on it http://dontbreakthechain.com/ http://dontbreakthechain.com/ which I try to improve right now with https://markmyday.net https://markmyday.net The latter doesn't require an account, lets you log some additional data and is of course absolute beta. I really didn't plan to publish it yet, but I haven't done anything else to reach my goal today.
- jraedisch 11y agoQuick update: The comment above brought me my first 36 potential test users. Please drop me a line with suggestions, questions or feature requests! https://markmyday.net/imprint.html https://markmyday.net/imprint.html Also, in case you see some promise in the app, be sure to bookmark it or add it to your homescreen (adjust the title first). Thanks!
- k-mcgrady 11y agoI could swear I read somewhere that Seinfeld later said he never actually did this.
- dceddia 11y agoYep, he said in a Reddit AMA that he never actually did this: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld_here_i_will_give_you_an_answer/ceiugt5 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld...
- Ensorceled 11y agoIt's borked. 404's for multiple js files ...
- truebosko 11y agoI used to try and follow this advice, but honestly -- Life gets in the way and sometimes you indeed have to enjoy life. Dropping your streak for a day or two won't hurt, as long as you hop back on.
- bdevine 11y agoThat's great and all, but when you've got multiple goals in multiple domains, something is going to fall to the bottom, or, more likely, right off it. There is only triage and its attendant guilt.
- elchief 11y agoThat sounds exhausting
- cortesoft 11y agoSeriously. Zero days are my favorite days!
- aaroninsf 11y agoSpoken like someone without a family.
- cortesoft 11y ago"Keeping my infant daughter alive" is my current life goal. So I have no zero days so far!
- magic_beans 11y agoEven someone with a family can manage 10 minutes a day to work towards a goal.
- aaroninsf 11y agoI am sure there are personality types (probably over-represented among the readership of HN) for whom rigid structure like this is very helpful. IMHO being able to firewall e.g. a three-day trip with the family from other concerns is worth far more than putting in a token 10 minutes in service of an abstraction like this. I would myself take more pride in not having e.g. looked at a screen for three days, than having checked off three more boxes.
- marssaxman 11y agoI am really confused by this idea, because the author seems to assume that it is so normal to have goals of a sort for which this service or technique might be useful that it is not necessary to explain what those goals might be or why they might matter so much. I can think of literally nothing in my life for which this strategy would be relevant: nothing significant enough to be classified as a primary goal in life, such that it would be worth making a special effort to schedule my time around it, which is still somehow trivial enough that routine daily action would provide meaningful progress toward achieving it. The things I imagine as goals for my life aren't generally things one can measure in the first place, much less count as having definitively achieved or not achieved.
- true_religion 11y ago
- swalsh 11y agoI use Githubs tracker (though its a private repo), though half the days I don't have code to submit. So if its something like I wrote some emails, or did some data analysis, or similar I'll add that to the repo and commit it. Just so i can get the streak credit.
- atemerev 11y agoThe "chain method" is incredibly frustrating for me. After a first 2-3 slips I tend to quit whatever I tried to start, with incredible feeling of guilt. And slips are inevitable (the more I say I'll not slip this time, the more inevitable they become). So, I found something better: the accumulation method. I have a intermediate goal of, say, 10,000 push-ups. If I'll do only 10 push-ups a day, it will take me 1000 days to reach this goal — almost 3 years. Or I can do more — then I'll get to it faster. There is no frustration, I can skip any days I want, but if I want to reach this goal, I have to move forward.
- oxalo 11y agoI haven't seen this approach before, and I like the idea of it. Dunno if it fits for all goals though. Would it be effective if you just measured total hours?
- atemerev 11y agoYes, but 1 hour is quite a big quantum (if you work out for 55 minutes, then stop, then what — all effort is lost?) Measuring minutes is better. Another thing: the goal should be quite bold, bigger than you'd think first (something you can think of reaching in 2-3 years; don't worry, it will be faster). Some examples: do 10,000 push-ups. Save $100,000 (or give $100,000 to charity, whatever suits you best). Run 2,000 kilometers. You start slow, but your progress accumulates, and then accelerates.
- nonzeroday 11y agoYou can always decrease the amount you do per day without breaking the chain. In our case you would decrease the amount of steps, miles or calories.
- vehementi 11y agoSkipping days with "impunity" is a great way to break habit though :/
- nothrabannosir 11y ago
- rl3 11y agoCool project, but where's the money going in the event the user has a "Zero Day" or otherwise fails to meet their deadline? I'm not trying to be judgemental about where, just genuinely curious. Also, it's probably a good idea for people to establish a bare minimum as to what constitutes progress for them. Chronic procrastinators will simply pass off even the most miniscule items as progress (I know; I am one). Granted, that's not necessarily a bad thing if they're escaping the throes of depression, but in normal situations such justifications may constitute slacking.
- nonzeroday 11y agoThank you. User establishes their baseline of a Non Zero Day (5000 steps) per day. If failed to achieve the goal they pay us money.
- gene-h 11y agoSo in short, you are monetizing procrastination?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- davemel37 11y agoI can't imagine long term sustainability for any business that depends on their users failing. I once heard a really smart marketer say that self-help is the best niche to target because perfection is impossible, so once you get a customer, you have one for life. In reality though, any app or service that the business interests are misaligned with the users best interests, can't keep users forever. The users who benefit wont make you any money and the ones that fail will resent the service and leave. While I see where you are coming from, this is an extremely shortsighted monetization strategy. A better strategy would be gentle push reminders to not let the day go to waste, tools to make it easier to see progress, and monetize with premium add-ons.
- hammock 11y agoThere is a major chain of fitness gyms that charges you more the less often you come in.
- TheGRS 11y agoThis is a variation on the idea that you need to show up every day. Send some e-mails, talk to your loved ones, write some code, cook dinner, go on a jog, etc. Being goal-focused helps a lot, but I think the secret is to always show up.
- kiloreux 11y agoAs much as I like the idea and would love to use it, but I am not really motivated by the fact that you are taking the money, you are not offering any service, just using people's procrastination to make money, I don't know about others but I really don't like that. It could be much better if the user has to choose a charity that money goes to, I understand that you also have costs for running this app, but I think I will write my own app and besides that, it's not always about workouts, it might be about reading , FOSS, self development, or whatever of that things, would love if it had something like that.
- pipedreams2 11y agoCurrently working on a similar app and I definitely agree that if you're going to be charging it should be towards a charity. This seems like a terrible cash grab with something that does not even provide an enticing service.
- nonzeroday 11y agoIf you charge towards the charity then a user doesn't feel committed when he/she slips.
- fluxquanta 11y agoIf you believe the point is to "make people feel bad if they fail" then you really deserve nothing from this. It conflicts with the stated purpose entirely. The goal should be to entice people to succeed, not punish them if they don't. Edit: For reference, the original comment I responded to stated "If you charge towards the charity then a user doesn't feel bad when he/she fails."
- fapjacks 11y agoThis is so awful and you a rent-seeking bad person.
- dreamdu5t 11y ago
- aytekin 11y agoI have been doing this using browser startup tabs. Since I open the browser only once in the morning when I come to the office, I will launch the browser and review all the tabs and remember to do things. http://lifehacker.com/use-your-browsers-startup-settings-to-help-form-habits-1520690736 http://lifehacker.com/use-your-browsers-startup-settings-to-...
- smegel 11y agoAre you allowed to take holidays?
- Kinnard 11y agoYou should add support for pomotodo.
- dorfsmay 11y agoFWIW this rendered poorly on both chrome and Firefox on my android phone. The first 4 or 5 chars on the left hand side were cut off. I had tobuse the little book thingy in Firefox in order to be able to read it.
- omaranto 11y agoA less extreme version of the Stephen King story Quitters, Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quitters,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quitters,_Inc.
- mikearagua 11y agoMore really stupid shit at the top of hacker news. Thanks guys.
- inanutshellus 11y agoFunny, there was an April Fools website about 3 years ago that was exactly this concept. "Hey, pay us in escrow while you're still motivated and inspired, then we'll rake ya when you falter. Bwahahaaaaaaaa!" (in a humorous way) All of the links to sign up just popped up a "Just kidding! April Fools!" link. My google-fu is weak, apparently... Not finding it now...
- shubhamjain 11y agoThe philosophy hits the nail in terms of battling procrastination. It doesn't burden you with guilt of not doing enough but just tell you to make an effort to take the first step which will make you take the second. Sadly, where it can fail is same as where it succeeds - It is easy to slack off another day, if you slack off on one. There is no magic pill for procrastination that will fix everyone's problems even if you follow every productive hack out there.
- iconjack 11y agoThis is great! Today I already got 1/4 of the way toward my goal. Tomorrow I'll get 1/9 done, the next day 1/16 and so on. Slow and steady wins the race!
- astrange 11y agoI expected this to be some kind of manifesto about security disclosures.
- js8 11y agoWhat if my goal changes every day (although they repeat after a while)?
- kafkaesq 11y agoThe whole point about focus and discipline is that you shouldn't need someone to track you and "make" you do positive things towards your goal. It should come naturally. Plus, apps like these can end up being counter-productive if they force us to make some kind of token contribution (just to meet our "quota") but which may actually move the project forward (and by jiggling context, may actually move it backward).
- GregBuchholz 11y agoI wonder what people's thoughts are on Scott Adam's "Systems vs. Goals" approach? It would see compatible with a mini-habit approach. http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-systems http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-systems
- lucaspottersky 11y agoI wonder if there's a generic app to track good habits -- not just fitness. For example, I'd like to track how many days I studied during the year. Reading the comments I found: - http://dontbreakthechain.com/ http://dontbreakthechain.com/ - https://markmyday.net/ https://markmyday.net/ Are there any fancier apps?
- dreeves 11y agoBeeminder! And, yes, we have a whole blog post about why we're better than Don't Break The Chain apps: http://blog.beeminder.com/seinfeld/ http://blog.beeminder.com/seinfeld/ (That post also includes a link to what we think is the best Don't Break The Chain app, if you decide the complexity of Beeminder's graphing -- not to mention the whole commitment device angle -- is too much.)
- prawn 11y agoLook up Streaks in the iOS App Store - we launched it mid-2015 and I've personally found it very useful. I use it to keep reading, walk more, work on side projects, etc. http://streaksapp.com http://streaksapp.com
- fpvracing 11y agoSurprised that nobody has yet mentioned http://chains.cc http://chains.cc Free and works well.
- dreeves 11y agoCongratulations on the launch! Just added you to our list of fellow commitment device apps: http://blog.beeminder.com/competitors http://blog.beeminder.com/competitors (We're genuinely delighted to have more competitors! Check out the "Sushi and Green Fields" section of that blog post.)
- zodPod 11y agoAm I missing something? Your website doesn't really say anything aside from explaining the base principle then it tells me to sign in and let you handle it for me? Seems like it needs more info.
- zerooneinfinity 11y agoThe real trick is breaking your goals down as small as possible. Then accomplishing those tasks building up to your ultimate goal. Most people fail or get frustrated/give-up because they define their goals in terms of end goals.
- ativzzz 11y agoSimilar to https://gofuckingdoit.com/ https://gofuckingdoit.com/
- Mikhail_Edoshin 11y agoIf it's just a punishment, then it's not going to work well. Rewards are a better way to get going. Punishment may be a way to break a bad habit, but it's not the way to build up a good one. And inducing guilt negates whatever gains you get and then some.