Focusmate – Virtual Coworking Helps You Get Things Done | Hacker News Reader

Focusmate – Virtual Coworking Helps You Get Things Done

focusmate.com

184 pointsjeffshek62 comments

I've been using focusmate for four months. It's been absolutely revolutionary for me. (I work remote at home, so YMMV.)

Here are some of the ways:

(1) I’ve been getting a ton more done and feeling better about it.

(2) It really does help me focus. I hardly ever get distracted from the task at hand. I used to get distracted a lot.

The focus does not come from being watched, but because I’m "working together" with someone else, and I don’t want to let them or myself down. And because of the built-in break/recovery schedule. It's like a hack for my brain.

(3) I schedule back-to-back sessions, so I have 50 minutes of 100% focus and then 10 minutes between. In the 10 minutes I use the bathroom, get coffee, clear my head, walk around, or stretch. These things I’m sure help enable the 100% focus for the 50 minutes. I don’t feel as worn out at the end of the day (and I get more done).

(3) Declaring my goal for the session at the beginning and then reporting on it at the end has caused me to become much more realistic about how long things take.

(4) Being more realistic about how long things take has made it possible to plan out my week. I’m now planning my day and week in "focusmate session sized blocks" of work. I do have to adjust the plan, but making the plan has been a huge help.

(5) Setting a focusmate appointment in the morning causes me me to get started at a constant time — for the first time in my life. Knowing that someone else is relying on me to be at the session makes me show up.

(6) The little bit of social connection helps working at home to not feel lonley.

It's like the Pomodoro technique, but with peer pressure of the Pomodoro timer being disappointed if you bail. Not wanting to let someone else down, even a stranger, I can see how that would help you stick to it. Brilliant!

You're right! Most of what I described is common to the Pomodoro technique. I was never able to stick to the Pomodoro technique. The accountability of the timer being a person is huge.

It's weird (but true) that disappointing a random person is more motivating to me than doing what I told myself I would do.

Been using this for the past 4-5 months, ever since I saw a personal story of someone using it posted to HN.

It's been a game changer for me. I can WFH productively for the first time in my life, and have had 95% enjoyable experiences with the people on the other end of the chats thus far.

To those complaining about the pricing...they just started charging and I'm sure that's why it's not in the FAQ. Also, it's $5/mo, they aren't trying to get you hooked on something and then surprise you with $500/mo or something.

I used Focusmate a lot and then dropped it. I think it serves its purpose well until you get used to it and then productivity starts dropping again.

I also would like to highlight something which is not particular to Focusmate but rather a phenomena spreading to all these SaaS platforms: Focusmate is not free. It's a paying product that costs $5/month.

There is absolutely no details of pricing on the home page. There is no pricing page on the website. The FAQ itself doesn't mention pricing. This will only come up after you signup and start using it. There are details on the blog but that's about it.

It really gets on my nerves when services do that and I decided to ignore anything that ignores my right to know the price beforehand. But I can see it working with the general public for a while.

Founder of Focusmate here.

I'm sorry to hear the effect that not having a pricing page has had on you. Thanks for sharing your feedback.

A few thoughts:

1) Focusmate IS free to use 3 times per week. Most of our users are on the free plan. You can use it in perpetuity for free.

2) We don't have a pricing page yet because we started charging 29 days ago, and because we're shipping product incrementally. (We are a 3-person team with 1 engineer, FWIW.)

3) At this very nascent stage, there is value to being able to run pricing tests, which we can't do if we publish a pricing page. (The downside is we annoy some people, which is not a trivial downside. Knowing the negative effect on you is meaningful to us/me.)

I welcome additional thoughts/feedback.

Taylor

The lack of a pricing page usually infuriates me, but you've articulated a pretty good reason (#3) for it to be missing under some specific circumstances. I'd not thought of that.

To be honest though, I usually just see it as a dark pattern and quickly back-button away from wherever I am.

At least you can make sure that the home page shows that it's only free for 3 sessions a week, then users have to pay, even if you can't/don't-want-to show the exact pricing.

> Focusmate IS free to use 3 times per week.

Better say that Focusmate is free to try. 3 times/week is so little to be any useful.

> 3 times/week is so little to be any useful.

If a user is exceeding this free teir, they're likely finding it useful enough to pay, and should pay

When someone hides a measure of value for an ongoing service, there’s a concern that the actual value doesn’t measure up to the real value. I think that’s what’s going here, and it probably works because $5 is a small amount.

Hi! Founder here. See my comment above on the reasons why we haven't published a pricing page yet. We just started charging, and will add a pricing page soon. BTW we could charge 10X what we do. The reason for the $5 price is that we're more interested in learning about who pays and why, than revenue-maximizing. That price also allows us to be inclusive of our student customers and international customers, for whom a US-centric price would be prohibitive. Note, we also have a scholarship program for those who cannot afford $5/month.

> BTW we could charge 10X what we do.

So we can expect that the price will eventually increase to $50 a month when your company is transitioning out of its growth phase and into generating revenue.

Good to know.

If a service provides a useful value that people are willing to pay for at $50 then why shouldn't the service provider charge $50?

Yes, you could charge 10x more. You could charge N more (why stop at 10x, 1000x!), but would anyone pay?

You started at 5 USD and you're not publishing it because as you indicated earlier in the thread, you're price testing. I assume that means finding the price point the most people are willing to pay for the product. For a product with low marginal costs, getting data on what users want so you can keep expanding that pool is revenue maximizing.

You're free to not use the product, but to character assassinate a small, indie Dev house because you disagree with the price point, is just not OK. BTW - this rant you went on, is the quintessential indicator of you not being there target customer, you will generally be ignored by makers.

You should also read patio11's essay on pricing: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/saas_pric...

Where's all that negativity coming from? The founder is being transparent about his budding business and you're at him harder than hn was on Apple's stance on Hong Kong.

A business that looks at what users want and can pay, and adjusts accordingly? Sounds like a competently run business!

Thank you Taylor for sharing your comments here as a founder. Some of us at HN still love hearing about actual new startups, business models, pricing strategies etc.

It's been a huge value for me, and I get a ton more done with it. No joke, I would pay $100/month. (See my other comment about this article for how its been so valuable to me.)

I would recommend you take a look at Sococo then (disclaimer -- I don't work for them but know people that do): https://www.sococo.com/

Much more upfront about their pricing structure.

It’s much more expensive and not the same thing at all. That’s totally fine since Sococo is doing their own thing. Focusmate is entirely different though

I had the same experience. I ended up getting used to the mild uncomfortableness of having someone watching you "work", which led to me dropping the service. Found myself not working even when the camera was on.

In fairness to Focusmate, they only added their paid plan a couple of weeks ago, and they sent a lot of emails trying to get user support for the move.

There seems to be various unrelated domains that are tapping into the power of virtual presence of others to enhance personal performance.

The obvious one is the Peloton exercise bikes with the video of the live instructor motivating them.

Before the virtually connected humans, we had real ones such as "pacers" in running: https://livehealthy.chron.com/pacer-running-2865.html

There's probably a meme or jargon that encompasses all the above psychology but I don't know what it is.

I hate it when services have texts like "get started for FREE". What does that mean? Is literally just the signup for free? Do I have to pay some subscription in the future? Is it a time limited trial? Is it really just free? ... oof.

A similar product, that I think I found on HN actually, is https://complice.co - though it's more like you hang out in chat rooms with people doing pomodoros together combined with a GTD task manager. So, same sort of idea but less.. intrusive?

I watched the 30 second video, and they mention that there is no collaboration (by design). Does anyone know of a site that does have collaboration?

My situation is that I'm getting back into contracting after being at an office job for 4 years. I'm updating my Upwork profile, getting my resume and portfolio together, all the things. But when I look at my recommended jobs, I get this sinking feeling like I'm working in a vacuum.

I'd prefer something that works line an online shared workspace, where I'd go in, say "hey I'm a backend PHP/Laravel and iOS/Android developer, does someone need help for a few hours or days for around 50 bucks an hour?" and someone would ping me with an offer and we'd get right to work solving their problem.

I also very much needed this when I couldn't find an answer on Stack Overflow. I've looked at https://www.codementor.io but can't tell if that's what they're going for or how much friction is involved.

Video surveillance is not the solution to this problem. It's outright creepy. I think a simple chat group or a game can better serve the purpose of providing a virtual "office environment". I think highfidelity is working on something along those lines, but you can already use an opensimulator/secondlife space as realtime hangout place.

I'm also critical of their "behavioral triggers". For example, "Pre-commitment" has more often be found to have the reverse effect: when you tell people what you will do, you end up not doing it. And social pressure is hit or miss. (Their generic list of neurotransmitters is also suspect). I see a future in this but with a different structure: paid behavioral coaches that teach you how to be more disciplined. That would be a valuable service, because right now remote work is not for everyone for the reason that they 're not disciplined. That's something malleable

Is working at a coffee shop "surveillance"?

The experience on Focusmate is akin to working with a buddy at a library or cafe.

As far as pre-commitment: I think you've got your behavioral triggers mixed up.

Wikipedia has a good definition: "Precommitment refers to a strategy that an agent may use to restrict the number of choices available to him or her at a future time. The strategy may also involve the imposition of obstacles or additional costs to certain courses of action in advance."

I think you're thinking about telling someone what you'll do. That works when you tell someone what action you plan to take. It backfires when you share what result you'll get, because your brain visualizes some of the result, and experiences the reward prematurely.

> Is working at a coffee shop "surveillance"?

The security camera guy of the shop is surveillance. Being in a public space, knowing who is looking at you (let alone, he is being seen by others as looking at you), is not the same thing.

Maybe precommitment is not what i had in mind but but you do mention explicitly "implementation intentions" as "what to do and how you will do it" which may not be an optimal thing to do.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/200...

That might be true for you. For me just that - sharing a workspace over video - sounds great, as I've got the most problems with "emotionally challenging" tasks. (Like doing those things piling up for some time now).

In the past for some things that are hard to do I asked a friend to come over to my place and/or having them on the phone for some time.

So I'd not feel that as "video surveillance" but rather human company. (For video surveillance alone you wouldn't need a partner, it'd expect it is not to difficult to train an AI to detect whether you're working or slacking locally from video capture and desktop screenshots plus use a virtual call center of "central scrutinizers" to oversee the AI).

(Update: OH SHIT THAT ALREADY EXISITS: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119734-ai-tracks-your-...)

i just find the surveillance part different than in-person: in person you know when you 're being watched or not, and being watched constantly is exhausting. I do like the AI idea, especially when it's client-side or not-very-invasive, as it gives you an incentive to not slack

MOOCs + IRC (or any live chat) rooms was a nice pleasure for me. You get small chunks of stress, motivation through tests, sharing of frustration and ideas through chat.

A couple of questions for experienced users, or FocusMate reps: this sounds like a potentially useful service but I'm concerned about privacy issues and not annoying other people, esp wrt working in public or common work spaces.

I guess this isn't much different to any other remote conference in that regard - any thoughts on how to use this in a polite and safe way? Or is the idea it's really for use in a private environment only, like your home? That is implied in some of the intro material.

Basically, what are etiquette considerations or issues for other people who aren't involved in the session? Just don't use it in that context?

Secondly, how have you handled the unusual nature of this compared to normal conferencing - where you are directly and continuously interacting with the other person, rather than having them quietly watching over your shoulder as in this case? There are obviously quite concerning potential privacy issues here as well.

Hi! Thanks for your questions.

We have many users who use it in public or semi-public places. You are only interacting with your Focusmate at the start and end, and that for just 30 seconds or so to say hello and share what you're committing to work on. As compared to people having a loud conversation in a cafe, this is very, very minimal. We also have users who are in libraries or other quiet spaces, and they usually indicate that on their profiles and by logging in early and sending a chat to their partner.

As far as the "unusual nature" -- a few things. One, consider that it takes a fair bit of effort to set up and attend a Focusmate session. That screens out 99% of privacy concerns because people are truly motivated to be there to get work done. The fact that users have a profile and track record also mitigates this issue. Sure, we have new users joining, but once someone has 5-10 sessions under their belt, the community has had a chance to vet them. As far as new users with malicious intentions, that's certainly possible, and we have blocking and reporting functionality to stay on top of those issues. Last thing I'll add is that there isn't much someone can "do" to you over videoconference. If you were to feel uncomfortable, you can just close the tab.

You can learn more here: https://www.focusmate.com/community

Much appreciated, thank you

A few comments here saying this is creepy af. If you think that, fine, don’t join. I think this is one of the most genius things I’ve ever come across, I love it, love the community and am so much more productive since I found it.

No pricing info right now but it looks like it'd be fun to try out. As it's free that may help build up a user base.

Their turbo plan is $5 per month for unlimited sessions. Their free plan gives you 3 free sessions a week.

It's a bit weird that as a signed up user I can see the pricing information but it's not publicly available on their homepage. Anyway I like the service as 1 or 2 sessions in a day helps me get into the rhythm.

I agree with you the pricing information is missing. Also, in a privacy focus era, what could be interesting is to know what kind of information is kept by Focusmate on its users.

[Edit]: just found [0] in the blog. Apparently, there is a free plan allowing you to have 3 sessions/week (12/months). You can subscribe for 5$ / month to unlimited session. The plan is setup to support the development of the platform and to keep it ads free.

[Edit II]: the privacy policy is available here: [1]

[0] https://blog.focusmate.com/the-next-chapter-of-focusmate-int... [1] https://blog.focusmate.com/privacy/

I love this idea, but I think there is a stronger pricing model than paying per session.

Is the founder on HN? Please talk to me - this is a large market that I've been keeping an eye on for a while. If this is executed with the right toolset, this could be a Zoom or a Slack one day.

Taylor Jacobson submitted focusmate to Show HN 9 months ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18884258

He's posted on HN a few times, mostly promoting focusmate but he hasn't been active since the post I linked above.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=taylorjacobson

If you sign up for FocusMate he’ll email you ten times a day. You can also sign up to do a FocusMate session with him and then you’d be able to send him a message via the platform.

Taylor here. I welcome your feedback on how we do email campaigns.

I appreciate the opportunity. I quite like FocusMate but the emails drive me nuts.

When I'm logged in I can change email settings for Calendar Invites (I definitely want these) and Performance Reports (if I could track my own performance metrics I'd want these but for now they're really just a prompt to schedule mores sessions like every other FocusMate email). Opting out of Performance Reports apparently doesn't opt me out of "FocusMate Stats" emails even though they're basically the same.

Clicking "manage subscriptions" at the bottom of an email takes me to a different page of email settings that's almost impossible to figure out - Engagement? Outreach? Important Messages? CEO? I have no idea what I'm opting into or out of.

Important messages sounds like something I want - I'm glad I got your emails about the new subscriptions, for example. (Was that an "important message" or "CEO"?) But important messages also seems to include not so important stuff - like the email of dubious veracity about the unemployed food truck guy who turned his life around in a week by scheduling a ton of FocusMate sessions. That was (yet another) email trying to get me to schedule more sessions.

I like FocusMate and I think it's is well worth $5/month but any email that ends with some version of "book more sessions" is an email that I don't want or need.

Great feedback, thank you.

We're still learning how to use our email tool optimally, and we have some fixes to implement, which will help reduce/elimiate the confusion you're talking about.

Over time we can also integrate more of those emails directly into the app, in your settings, alongside the Cal invites and Performance reports. (Doing that requires more engineering work, so is a bit slower.)

As far as the duplicate stats email: I just removed it. Our bad!

Thank you again so much for the feedback. Keep it coming!

Taylor

Hi, got your tweet/email, chat soon!

I read comments here, I watched the video. I still have no idea what this is actually for.

There is chat app, maybe someone can see your screen. I don't know.

How it works: you and another user video-conference for 50-minutes to hold each other accountable and keep each other company. Focusmate makes it easy to find a partner 24/7/365.

TL/DR: Book appointments on your calendar to get work done and stick to them. Shut off notifications while you're in there.

I've been working from home for a decade now, and basically I think this is bonkers (no offense, I see the founder is here posting). With all the tools out there if you really want to do that pair up with a coworker and do it with an existing tool. I don't work in pajamas or do anything dumb but I have zero (0) interest in having someone I don't even work with having a video feed into my house. That's as a man, don't even get me started on how uncomfortable I'd be if I wasn't a cis / straight guy.

I'm a straight woman who works from home and loves FocusMate; I don't have any qualms about allowing someone to see me working from home. They're not working from home with me; the most they know about me and my home is perhaps the color of the wall of the room behind me. If I feel uncomfortable for any reason, all I have to do is close the tab and I can report the user.

Wrt your tldr solution to procrastination: You are possibly self-disciplined enough not to be their target market. It's not that easy for everybody.

Different strokes...

Just get a offline video recording device, and record yourself on loop if you want to have the feeling of being watched. Then just repeat what you did before and after the session for accountability.

This concept is creepy af, and its hilarious to have to pay for it.

What's possibly hilarious is to have never tried it, and to suspect that its concept is creepy.

Sure, the webcam is on, but as long as the person at the other end seems to be reasonably busy with something, it should not be bothersome at all. And of course, you can always exit a session.

On having to pay for it - why not? Why not try paying for a service that asks for a reasonably designed monthly payment term instead of annual one time payments? Or the ones on which ads cover half the page?

Entrepreneurs need words of encouragement.

What in the WE is Virtual Coworking ? Does it elevate my consciousness with Blockchain sped up by IOT devices powered by 5G which funnel data through Kafka to backend instances that have been clustered up the wazoo with Kubernetes !

Could someone summarize what is a "virtual coworking" or "accountability partner"? I don't really understand the concept. Is it about having a video chat with a person who is watching you work?

I don't think a simple description will cut it; the idea is that with co-working, you meet up (physically) at some space, and all work on your projects. The simple fact of not being at your home and in the presence of other people with work to do helps a lot with productivity, even if you don't speak at all. This, I understand, is an attempt to virtualize this effect.

It may seem a bit silly but I honestly dig it, I have immense trouble getting myself to work at home, but co-working I can get into flow for hours at a time. I think that this sort of virtual co-workers might just work, because I think I'd feel really weird if I went all the trouble to set up a session, "meet" with someone and then just browse HN for 50 minutes. I'd be much more likely to feel "indebted" to the other guy's time, even though we have no professional relationship as such.

It's just a psychology hack, no more, no less.

No, you both do your own work and mostly ignore the other person. At the beginning you talk about what you plan to accomplish, and at the end you review what you did.

Focusmate started as a productivity hack and became a community for me

This is my nightmare, it’s incredibly exhausting to be watched on video. I really enjoy dead silence when working. No music, convo, etc. Check ins a few times a week is perfect for me.

The "How it Works" section should be at the very top of the page, because it's the part that tells you wtf this service does.

I finally feel that I don't have to worry about my writing. It will happen because I have Focusmate! Amazing, thank you!

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