I signed up — what do I do first?

So you just joined Beeminder. Welcome! If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, we've got some advice about where to start.

Maybe this sounds obvious because you need to do this before a week is up or you'll be charged $5! But it's important: it's easy to get bogged down in reading about how Beeminder works or trying to plan out the perfect goal, but it's really best to just get started. For the first week, you can delete the goal right away, so you have time to test things out and change your mind about what to track.
Don't forget that you can start small with your goals. If you're unsure, pick something ridiculously easy for your starting rate, like -0.001 pounds per week to lose weight, or one workout every other week (a daily rate of 0.5/7). You can always make it harder later if you're doing great, but starting off easy means you have time to learn the system and figure out whether you're being too ambitious.
If you're stuck for a goal to create, or an idea for how to track something, you can check out some of the example goal guides linked on this page for instructions and/or inspiration.

You can visit your reminder settings to adjust how often and through what channels we remind you about your new goal(s). If you're planning a lot of goals, you might want to refine the reminders window to make sure you get reminders when it's most relevant!
We'll send you a reminder email about this 24 hours after making the goal, too.
You can get reminded and enter your data through our free iOS and Android companion apps! (You'll still need to use the website to make goal and account changes, though.) With a premium account, you can also get SMS reminders if you live in the US.

You might want to take a quick look at the new goal defaults and set them to what you'd like every time you create a goal. This way you won't have to redo anything after you've created all your goals. (If you want more info on what those settings mean, see the article on new goal defaults.)
If you're going to use any autodata goals, you can go ahead and add service authorizations to speed up goal creation.

If it helps to feel part a of a community, you might also want to introduce yourself over on the forum. Members are encouraged to share their favourite goal in their introductions, so it's also a good way to get inspiration!

Creating unlimited goals requires a premium plan, and so do certain goal types like odometers...
But there's no need to jump straight to a premium plan! Core Beeminder is very powerful. And you want to avoid Beeminder burnout. You'll get extra free goals over time, anyway, each time you derail -- and if you need a new goal right away, you can also ask for one in exchange for giving us feedback about Beeminder.
You can delete goals for 7 days after creation, so feel free to experiment with your new goals, break things, change your mind, accidentally cause derailments — it's all safely undone by the Delete Goal button. When you delete a goal, you can send us feedback. We'd love to hear about if there was something confusing or broken (eek!).

Use our contact form or email support@beeminder.com — we'll get back to you within 24 hours at the outside, and usually much faster!

Keywords: newbees, freebie goals