Creators of Beeminder commitment contract system in 2011, designed to address their own procrastination by combining self-tracking with financial consequences for missing goals, pioneering the quantified self movement for productivity.
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Beeminder was conceptualized in 2011 by Daniel Reeves and Bethany Soule, a couple who designed the platform to address their own procrastination and commitment issues. The system emerged from their personal struggle to maintain consistency on important goals.
Reeves and Soule recognized that:
Beeminder combines two powerful behavioral tools:
Users track quantifiable metrics for any goal:
Users pledge money to stay on track. Cross the "bright red line" to your goal and Beeminder charges your credit card. Stakes start small ($5) and increase with repeated failures.
The founders pioneered "commitment devices" for personal productivity:
The technical term for acting against one's better judgment - knowing what you should do but not doing it. Beeminder was designed specifically to combat akrasia.
The visual representation of your commitment. All your datapoints must stay on the good side of the red line or you pay the price (literally).
Beeminder integrates with dozens of services:
The founders based Beeminder on behavioral economics research:
Reeves and Soule helped pioneer:
While time tracking and productivity are core uses, Beeminder applies to any quantifiable goal:
"Beeminder is goal-tracking with teeth." The platform assumes users are rational actors who need protection from their irrational, short-term-thinking selves.