How do I delete a goal?

Mostly, Beeminder makes it difficult to delete your goals. After all, we're a commitment device: if you can get out of it by deleting your goal, then we're derelict in our duty!

So normally, if you want to end your goal, you need to archive it first. Archiving your goal takes 7 days, during which you're still on the hook. That's called the akrasia horizon. If you derail during this time, your goal will become inactive, and you can choose to pay immediately and archive the goal right away.

You can delete an archived goal immediately, using the "Delete goal" button on the goal page. If you don't see it, make sure you're logged into Beeminder!

If the goal is not archived and was created less than 7 days ago, you can delete it immediately using the "Delete now" button in the Stop/Pause tab below the graph. If you're deleting the goal because you were confused or something was buggy, you can let us know why in the freeform text box below. The support team often get in touch to chat about feedback sent through this box, but it's useful if you can let us know any details you remember.

If you're thinking of deleting a goal because something is buggy, consider contacting support first. They can often help explain or dig into problems, and it's easier for them to understand what went wrong if they can see your goal.

Don't forget, if you're having any problems entering data, e.g. because something doesn't seem to be working right, you can get in touch with support so they can dig in and hopefully help you get things working again. You don't just have to derail or delete your goal; we're eager to figure out what's going wrong and uphold our end of the commitment contract!

Keywords: deleting vs archiving, when new goals can be deleted