Can I put my goal on pause for a little bit?

Do More and Odometer goals
Do Less goals with manual data
Do Less goals with automatic data
Whittle Down goals
Weight Gain and Weight Loss goals

You can absolutely put a break in your goals! If you're going to be away, unable to enter data, or just want some extra breathing room for any reason, you can schedule a break on your Beeminder goal (on most goals, that means setting your goal to 0 units required per day). You'll need to do that at least 7 days in advance, as with all changes that make the goal easier.

If you have something come up last-minute and you need a break because you really can't do the goal, or you've forgotten to schedule a break in time, please contact support and we'll see what we can do!

Adding a break also works if you want to add some safety buffer to your goals for a while, as well! A break doesn't stop you adding data, so if you just don't want to be in the red so you don't have to enter your data every day, or something like that, this will also work for you.

Breaks work a little differently on different types of goals, so read on to figure out the nuances.

Do More and Odometer Goals

To schedule a break, use the Take a Break section below the Stop/Pause tab underneath the graph. Select the break start and end dates, as well as the rate you want the goal to have during that period. (This can also be used to make the goal harder temporarily by entering a rate that's higher than usual!) Press Schedule to submit the break. If there's a problem with your input, you'll get a red error message telling you what's wrong.

In the image above, we're scheduling a break on an Odometer goal from 23rd June 2022 through 26th June 2022, 2017. The bright red line will begin sloping up again on June 27th. These dates are inclusive, so June 23rd and June 26th will have a rate of 0 as well.

After submitting the break, it will be visible in the Upcoming Changes list, even if you can't see that far on the graph yet! You can overwrite this break if necessary by scheduling an overlapping one with your original rate (or any other rate you like), or by using the Graph Editor tool in settings (for Bee Plus and Beemium subscribers) or the experimental visual graph editor (available for everyone).

The graph has automatically adjusted the rate after the break to ensure the graph reaches its target amount on the target date. If you don't want the rate to increase after your break, make sure your rate is one of the things you've set yourself, rather than the field which is being auto-calculated.

Once you add a break for a Do More or Odometer goal, you can't derail on those dates unless you delete or change earlier data, or add a negative datapoint.

Do Less goals with manual data

On a Do Less goal, setting a break of 0/day makes your goal harder (it means you can't do the thing at all), so you may want to set yourself a higher allowance for that time. You may also need to make sure you turn off the Pessimistic Presumptive Reports while you're gone! (If you don't know what those are, read about them first!)

Even if you drastically increase your goal rate for your break period, the PPRs will have new values to reflect your new rate, so you could still end up derailing on the goal while you're away. Turning off the PPRs will ensure that no data is entered while you're gone, so you don't even have to schedule the break if you don't want to.

Of course, you'll need to remember to turn them back on when you return so that the goal has some sting power again! You can also ratchet the graph to cut down on the safety buffer you accrued during your time off.

There are some other ideas on how to handle PPRs during breaks on the Pessimistic Presumptive Reports page.

Do Less goals with automatic data

Autodata goals don't get PPRs, so the problem is different! But if your data source is automatic and you want to keep tracking things on vacation, and/or if you're a big Quantified Self fan, you might still want to enter your data for the break period without being at risk of derailment. You can use the Take a Break function to increase the rate temporarily (as shown below), so that your vacation data still falls below the bright red line.

Whittle Down goals

All of the above instructions about the mechanics of adding a break still apply.

If you're using an automatic data source (most commonly your Gmail inbox), your Whittle Down break may be cut short if you rise too far above the bright red line during your break. This isn't legit and we'll undo it if you contact support, but it is something to keep in mind when scheduling your break! Adding a rate of 0 so that you don't have to decrease during that time would only work if you can maintain the current amount and not allow any more emails to accumulate.

If the thing you're tracking will rise over time while you're away, consider adding a break with a rate of +100/day (or something similarly permissive), so that you have extra buffer to fully ignore your inbox. When you return, you can ratchet the graph to cut down on the safety buffer you accrued during your time off.

Weight Gain & Weight Loss goals

All of the above instructions about the mechanics of adding a goal still apply. However, bear in mind that if your data crosses the bright red line at any time, you'll still derail. If you're planning to keep adding data, you may want to make sure you don't just add a period where your graph is at 0/day, but also add in a jump up/down (depending on whether you're trying to gain or lose weight) to give you more breathing space.

For weight goals, you may want to add a few extra days onto your break. If you weigh in far off the bright red line when your break period ends, you would derail that day, with very little time to do anything about it.

In that case, you can weigh in a few days before your break "officially" ends, so you know where you stand and still have a couple days to get back on track if necessary! However, if you weigh in above/below the bright red line and it gets entered on your graph via an automatic data source, then you'll still derail, so you might also want to think about scheduling a temporary jump in your graph.

Keywords: scheduling breaks, take-a-break feature, pausing goals, pausing a goal, safety buffer