Focusmate

What else to add beyond the title? Frankly when it comes to easing the experience of the pandemic, I can vouch for how this service has been such a blessing. It's truly surprising how much can get done in a virtual space with a dedicated time frame and the presence (and accountability!) of a stranger. It's also incredibly helpful to create a form of calm and structure without getting distracted by thoughts and work politics. Personally, I've found the little chats before and after the session with a stranger pleasant to enable recreating some sense of normality. Looking back at the highlights of 2020, discovering this platform has definitely been one of them. Plus the first sessions are free so I'd encourage you to try and see for yourself!

This has given me external accountability to take action on things I'd been dragging my feet on. Once I got familiar with the format, it changed the way I took action by giving me a way to jump on immediately and find an accountability partner. If you haven't tried it, open an account and try this out for a 25 minute session with some activity which you have been procrastinating on.

I use FocusMate to hold myself accountable during unstructured hours of the workday when working from home. I schedule daily blocks a week in advance and it helps me block out time for my important projects that would otherwise always get pushed out by the urgent, but not so important fires that crop up. It's been life changing for my productivity. I'm also on the FocusMate FaceBook group. The folks behind FocusMate are very active on the group. They are kind, responsive and clearly care about their users. It is a wonderful community.

Focusmate has helped me get work done on writing my research paper. It is a great way to motivate yourself and be motivated by others getting work done and putting in the effort together. It is really inspiring to see that it takes hard work for everyone to get stuff done, but eventually turns into something very rewarding at the end of the day.

Focusmate changed the way I worked and transformed me as a person. I was used to habitually procrastinating and then being overwhelmed by deadline. Focusmate brought structure to my day and made me feel accountable for my actions by its apparently simple interface of virtually co-working with a stranger. Now I end up finishing my work well before deadline and that's amazing for someone like me who juggles too many activities at the same time. I spend around 5-6 hours on most working days since the time I discovered it last month. Words aren't enough to express how much I love this platform. Highly recommend.

I am almost four years into running my marketing consultancy and last fall, I had really hit rock-bottom—feeling unable to 'show up' for work, missing client deadlines, not following through on commitments, and watching my livelihood fall by the wayside as I struggled to shake myself out of it.

I then stumbled upon a recommendation for Focusmate through an ADHD support group, and this product turned my life around overnight.

I'm meeting my deadlines, I'm keeping my commitments, my sleep schedule has become more regulated, and the change in my energy and happiness is palpable.

Running the numbers, I am about 3x as productive as I was before Focusmate, and as a result I'll be able to increase my income this year by more than six figures.

Come join the community — you won't regret it.

Focusmate is honestly a game changer. I'm more productive, more focused, take breaks more regularly when sessions end (which means I can work longer without getting as tired). Best of all, having sessions scheduled helps create structure in my day while working from home. Feeling tired and unmotivated to get started on my day? I've got a session coming up that I need to be on time for. Having a hard time getting back into work after lunch or using the last hour of the day productively? Schedule a session. A bunch of to do's without deadlines piled up because they're less urgent than things with deadlines? Plan a session or two to focus on just those things. It's so helpful and I would absolutely recommend trying a couple sessions yourself to see how much of a difference it can make.

Focusmate has helped me create the work structure that I was missing while working from home. Whenever I'm on Focusmate I'm in 'work' mode which allows me to separate 'work' and 'life' given that work and life all happen in the same space now. I've met people from all over the world and continue to be inspired by others. The first session is the most difficult but stick with it and you'll never look back. The Focusmate admin team is always looking for ways to improve the service and safety as the Focusmate community grows. They are responsive to their members and really believe in what they are doing.

The staff is very supportive, friendly and helpful. The community is very kind and nice. It provides a structure for working without burnout. During the pandemic, it is a great tool to both get things done and stay connected to other people.

I have used Focusmate since it's earlier, free version, and naturally switched to the $5/month. There are more users than ever and they are very helpful support in doing the work through accountability. Kudos!

Focusmate has transformed my ability to get work done. Being paired up with another focusmate has given me accountability and a connection to others. The team works tirelessly to improve the platform based on user feedback.

Since working from home, Focusmate for me has been an absolute game changer in my productivity! I work two jobs and study a masters full time in my second language. I also live alone and am forced to stay at home to work due to no household mixing for a year now. Being someone who enjoys the company of others motivation to get up out of bed and be the least bit productive was near impossible until someone itntroduced me to focusmate! I have been able to achieve so much and be far more productive than I would be if I was even able to go to the workplace! The accountability and aspect of being present virtually with another human has been exactly what I needed! Thank you focusmate and the team for all of your tireless work to create an ideal platform for productivity!

This may be one of the best productivity services I have ever seen, and it is certainly the most affordable (3 sessions a week are free). You can choose to let the system only match you with partners of the gender with which you identify or schedule sessions with specific users or people you already know. Focusmate is structured enough to help professionals tackle long term projects, as well as flexible enough for students to complete assignments, parents working from home to prepare a meal, people who need motivation to stick to their exercise routine, people with disabilities to finish a task that they have trouble concentrating on, and anyone who finds themselves isolated in the pandemic or otherwise. I'm so glad I found Focusmate during COVID, and I plan on using it long into the future!

Focusmate has changed how I work! I am able to stay caught up on boring paperwork and other tasks I usually procrastinate on. If there's some task or project I have been dreading, I schedule a Focusmate session and get started. I really enjoy how diverse the the people and their activities are. I've met some wonderful individuals who are supportive and kind.

It's an awesome service, that provides a need for a gap in the market for a very affordable price. For five dollars a month, you can use focus mate unlimited. I find it really helpful

I was already getting my focus in order when I stumbled on Focus Mate. While meditation has proven to be a tremednous help with focus... Focus Mate has taken the brunt of it.

Another thing that FM has done is to make it feel like my time is flying by. So I don't have to require on using the pomodoro technique anymore.

Antonio

Absolutely spectacular website. I wouldn't have made it through graduate school if Focusmate didn't exist. I have ADHD, and having virtual coworking partners was essential to getting my work done. Going to keep coming back now that I'm transitioning to the working world!

I've been using this platform for a couple of years now for hen I have major projects or goals I want to achieve. My productivity is always so much greater when I have a co worker and stating what I want to achieve keps ke on track!

At the end of last year, a friend and I were talking about an article she‘d read about work gyms. The basic concept is that, instead of finding a buddy with whom you work out your body at the gym, you match with an accountability buddy online to get your brain work done. I was intrigued, so the friend sent the article, and I fell down the rabbit hole of the various online services.

I won‘t lie: the offer of "three free sessions per week" was the initial "win" for Focusmate over its competitors. I had literally nothing more to lose than my time. So, to simply try it out, I quickly created a profile and booked my first session.

YOWSA, ZOWIE, and WHOO BOY was I completely underestimating the value of such a simple system. Having a portal through which I could find a stranger willing to simply WATCH ME GET WORK DONE (and vice versa) proved to be a powerful tool in the personal productivity toolbox. Apparently, I am one of those persons for whom "body doubling" is the difference between achieving some objectives (under stress and after much procrastination) and feeling turbo-charged in meeting and achieving my objectives with time to spare. GTD? Yes! I upgraded my free subscription to the paid USD $5 per month rate for unlimited sessions in a week.

"Focusmateys" can use the simple browser-based calendar to select from users available at different time slots OR create a session on a date and time of their own choosing to then be matched by the program‘s algorithm or with someone using their private invitation link.

[As the site has grown in popularity, it has faced the same struggles that the Zoom boom did to ensure the safety of its members from trolls and abusers. The Focusmate team does this work admirably and transparently, attending especially to calls from women (cis and trans) and nonbinary persons to create rules and algorithm tweaks that puts their safety FIRST.]

Back to how it works: After connecting the two participants, the interface uses video, mic, and a chat channel (what every Zoom user understands by now) for the session. Each person declares their intent and queries about how it should proceed. Mic on or mic off? Screensharing tasks or not? Video, however, is not negotiable. Video on!

By now, I have completed over 60 sessions and have already added sessions to the calendar through to the year's end. I get ZILCH, ZERO, NICHTS for writing this review. I am that truly impressed by the product, by its effectiveness in my life, and by the community of users that have sprung up around it. (Search Facebook! Focusmate has a vocal and happy base of users, including creatives, people with ADHD, and students!) I have no doubt that it will be a success.

And that brings me to the SOLE COMPLAINT that I have about Focusmate: payment options for joining. I do not live in the US and, in Europe, paying for services via direct bank transfer is the norm. In Germany especially, credit cards are *not* the default. I wish very much for Focusmate to make it easier for international users to participate, whether via Paypal or direct debit. This, however, isn‘t a strike against the team and everything they are trying to achieve. It is more a warning for international users and non-credit-card holders to read the payment options closely. Definitely sign up, if your payment option is available to you. :)