I thought I’d try Beeminder out. The website is all tools and configuration options, so I made a throwaway goal to play with the site. I’m not good about brushing my teeth before bed. This would make a convenient testing goal, I thought. This will totally be easy. Really.

Beeminder is all about goal-tracking. You set yourself a goal, anything measurable. Your first few goals are free – throwaway goals for you to play with the site. Later on you pledge real money, entering in your credit card number. But you aren’t charged at that point. You’re never charged until you fall off your goal.

The first part of the graph, where the yellow goal band is flat, is my free week, where I’m not racing anything and can build a head start. After that it rises are a rate of 5 per week. I thought, well I’ll get well ahead of the goal band and then have an easy time. But I didn’t get quite as far ahead as I’d expected. For the next two weeks I did worse than I expected. The goal crept up on me. Until now, and I’m back on the goal line, and kind of surprised with myself. I’m pretty confident it says something about human psychology or wobster psychology or something.