Since having a newborn to tend to, my opportunities to get work done have been extremely short-lived. And with sleep deprivation being the norm, focusing on anything was really difficult! So my brother suggested that I try a website called FocusMate and it turned out to actually be EXTREMELY effective at increasing my focus. And it didn’t just provide better productivity but led to hyper-focused, deep-work sessions each and every time, which is kind of mind blowing and why I’m sharing this with you!
How FocusMate Works
You book a session and you’ll connect with another person on video. Both of you will share what you plan to get done and then mute your microphone and get to work. When the session is done you unmute your mic and tell each other what you got done and end that session. The experience sounds super-mundane, right? But the results are incredible and I’ll explain why.
Why Does This Work So Well?
Most self-help books recommend isolation with minimal distractions to help you focus. However, isolation can easily lead to procrastination. When you are in presence of another person (even virtually) and you state your motivations, it solidifies the obligation, even if it’s with a complete stranger. That accountability feature turns out to be far more effective motivational tool than any isolation technique.
There’s also an underlying feature here that makes it effective:Â Since you need to tell someone else what you are going to get done, it forces you to have extreme clarity of exactly what you want and need to get done.
So before I even book the next session, I will plan out what’s of highest priority and what I can realistically get done in the next hour to know exactly what I’m going to say I’m doing. This, combined with the obligation-effect leads to these sessions being very fruitful as you don’t waste any time on lower priority stuff.
Since time is so precious with a baby to juggle, I need to be very calculated with my time and it helps me be far more productive. I use it for desk-work but you could also use it if you need motivation for exercise, studying, cleaning up the house, etc.
You just have to try it once to experience it for yourself. It’s free to do 3 sessions a week and there’s no credit card required to sign up. I don’t make any money from sharing this referral link with you. (If you eventually pay for it, I may get a free month myself.)
So, give it a try and afterwards, contact me to let me know if it worked for you. Alternatively, join our community chatroom and let us know if you liked it there as well!
Read next: How to utilize to-do-lists for improving all aspects of your life!
