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Comment by iandanforth | Hacker News Reader

If you're struggling with scheduling work time and getting things done I'd like to recommend https://www.focusmate.com/

You book 50 minute video sessions and are paired with a random other person who wants to get work done. You start by saying what you intend to work on, and you finish by saying what you accomplished. That's it, other discussion is strongly discouraged.

I work from home and have nearly unlimited leeway over my time. This is not such a great thing, with unlimited freedom I tend to wander or do nothing. This service has helped to provide a human expectation and environment conducive to work. It's free and the days I schedule sessions are distinctly more productive than the days I do not.

View on HN

I get that you're streaming yourself to a person, but how does that help enforce accountability? Part of my job entails very little typing or keyboard interaction, so comparatively, it could look like I was reading HN, Reddit, etc. Is it a purely psychological thing?

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Before I sent this comment, I went deeper into the website beyond the home page and 30s video. It is just that:

>Research in psychology and behavioral science shows that regular human connection reduces the likelihood that a worker will procrastinate or become distracted.

>In our most recent internal survey, 95.5% of users reported a significant increase in productivity, and reduced procrastination.

It looks like it's not a site that will magically boost your productivity (which isn't really what it claims). You have to want to be productive, and the site helps facilitate that desire.

I've talked about this as a research idea in the past. Something about someone observing you work, even if it's only barely, gives a level of accountability. Also, it looks like you start and end your 50 minute focus session with a bit of accountability (what you will work on, what you got done), so there's that.

Isn't this the Hawthorne Effect?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

Some people who need this extra level of accountability share their screen. That's not desirable or possible for some of course.

That's actually pretty neat. The anti-chatroulette.

Wow, this is awesome! I’m afraid to try it...I’m trying to read HN over here!

I wonder if there would be any merit in replicating the experience on a fully remote team.

Maybe something like everyone schedules Slack video calls once a day with a random team member. Or a quick Flask app to output a schedule for the day.

I think you'd lose a lot of the benefits if this isn't opt-in. If you make it just another ritual, then I imagine by the month's end, it stops giving any type of accountability.

Man, I was just wondering if such product exists two days ago.

Why wouldn’t you schedule sessions every day then (speaking as someone who does do sessions almost every day haha)?

I am not 16 yet so I guess

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