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Error comments on Group rationality diary, 1/9/13 - Less Wrong
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I've been looking into beeminder and procrastinating about using it. The irony of this has not escaped me.
There is a class of things I don't want to do so much as have done, such as exercise; this is the sort of thing I'd like to use beeminder for. The internal fear leading to the procrastination seems to be "oh, crap, if I take step X that is likely to override my defenses against doing Y, I might actually do Y."
My brain goes to remarkable lengths to undermine me.
Attempts to exercise because I want to lose weight have failed me, every time.
Attempts to exercise because I had already reached the point where I enjoyed the exercise, however, succeeded. When I worked a manual-labor job, I got in terrific shape, exercising outside the job itself on a regular basis; I'd go jogging with the flu, in the rain, whatever. I didn't even notice I was in great shape until a couple of months after I was.
I've had trouble putting myself into the mindset that "If I keep this up, I'll eventually enjoy it," using the enjoyment of the exercise as a terminal goal. But I think that it might be more successful than using a goal which is distinct from the action that leads to the goal.
Don't choose ends; choose means, as ends into themselves. The means are what you spend all your time doing, after all.
Are you sure that you really want to have done Y? Maybe you just think you do.
I suggest picking exactly one thing you'd like to track, and put it into Beeminder just to track, without enforcing a goal on it. That is a good way to get started. (It will require you to set a goal, but you can set it to be something you can trivially meet. I.e. if you're tracking 'how many minutes I ran today', just make the goal zero minutes.)