Beeminder
Goal tracking with monetary commitment contracts. Charges you real money if you don't meet your goals, creating powerful accountability through loss aversion.
About this tool
Overview
Beeminder is a unique goal tracking service that uses commitment contracts and financial penalties to keep you accountable. You pledge money that you'll lose if you go off track from your goals, leveraging loss aversion psychology.
How It Works
- Set a Goal: Define what you want to achieve
- Create Yellow Brick Road: Set your target rate of progress
- Track Data: Manually or via integrations
- Stay on Track: Keep above the yellow brick road
- Derail or Succeed: Get charged if you fail, celebrate if you succeed
Features
- Commitment Contracts: Financial stakes for goal adherence
- Flexible Goals: Any quantifiable metric
- Integrations: 100+ service integrations for automatic tracking
- Yellow Brick Road: Visual progress path
- Safety Buffer: Emergency day gives you a break
- Data Entry: Manual or automatic tracking
- Custom Pledges: Set your own stakes ($0-$1000+)
- Escalating Pledges: Penalties increase with repeated derailments
- API: Extensive API for custom integrations
Goal Types
- Time tracking (Toggl, RescueTime)
- Exercise (Fitbit, Strava, Apple Health)
- Weight loss (various scales)
- Meditation (Headspace, Calm)
- Writing (Draft, Pocket)
- Reading (Goodreads, Kindle)
- Coding (GitHub commits)
- Custom metrics
Psychology
Loss Aversion
- Fear of losing money is powerful motivator
- Stronger than equivalent gain
- Creates immediate accountability
Commitment Device
- Pre-commit to goals publicly
- Raise costs of quitting
- External accountability
Pricing
- Core Service: Free with optional pledge amounts
- Bee Plus: $8/month - Premium features
- Infinibee: $16/month - Unlimited active goals
- Derailment charges go to Beeminder (your pledged amount)
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