As someone who works from home, I have long been missing more accountability and support to do my best work. In this LinkedIn article, I write about all the reasons using Focusmate.com has changed my life for the better.
If you try it out, I’d love to hear how it goes for you. I found the people who use Focusmate to be an inspiring and supportive group.
Thanks a bunch, I’m gonna look into it, this is a HUGE issue for me!
@natemaingard if it works 1/100th as well as it has worked for me, you will be a happy/productive camper. Feel free to email me at lindabrandtmph@gmail.com if I can be helpful or to tell me how it goes for you. The Facebook group is also a great place to pick up tips and tricks.
Wow @lindabrandtmph this is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing this with us and I’m so glad to hear it’s working for you. Do you feel more productive after the 50 mins are up too?
I wonder if we could do something like that for Patreon creators 
@mindy Yep, the virtual company often leaves me feeling much more productive. It’s also great to hear how it’s going for others. People are often very honest about how it went and what they need to do next. I would suggest sending people toward Focusmate (and possibly setting up a Patreon subgroup at some point) as more useful than recreating this free tool.
Ooo a subgroup! Great idea. I will take a look into that! Thank you so much 
That sounds so lovely, actually!
Thanks so much, Linda! What is your work? I’m curious 
@natemaingard My full-time work is promoting healthy workplaces for county level government. My full-time hobby is renegade community building to make mainstream organizations better able to attract and keep diverse leaders - like myself. I look forward to connecting with you more. Linda
Thanks to @lindabrandtmph post and suggestion, we now have a Patreon FocusMate group! This means you will be able to schedule a working session with a fellow Patreon creator and help give each other accountability.
At this point, it’s only via email invite, so <3 comment if you’d like to be added
Hooray! Thanks for making this available to Patreon members!
@mindy please send me an invite. do you need contact info from me?
cc @lindabrandtmph - I have used Focusmate now for a good week+ and as a heavy procrastinator I must say no other tool has helped me to focus thoroughly as much as this one. I want to keep using it in the next month and see if I find a hole where I’ll shoot myself in the leg again (something we procrastinators say a lot) despite the Focusmate, but it gave me real, and I mean REAL hope that I could actually trust myself again more with tasks I assign to myself.
The real crux of procrastination is actually the sense of failure and (seeming) realisation that you cannot trust yourself with commiting to something. Your word looses its meaning, its value, because you never really know if you’ll not procrastinate your commitment away.
I’m still thinking and figuring it out what it is about Focusmate that works (at least for me). Perhaps it’s the fact that you actually talk with a living person and you tell them you will focus on this task for next 50 minutes, and that person acknowledges it and stays on your screen while you do your thing and you stay accountable! You do the same for them so it’s a mutual help. It also means work is a slightly less lonely thing. No app can do that for you.
The other great thing is that you schedule your session for next day, and the rule is you must not be late and you must not cancel it (at least not at the last minute). It’s like you have a meeting scheduled. You must not be late for a meeting, and on a meeting you simply have to provide, right? You have to work there, you are under watch, so you do it, you simply do it.
Linda, I just want to say this saved my life - or so it seems - but I need to keep using it for couple of months to really stand behind those words. What is true tho, is that it is very different, in all my sessions I stayed really focused on my task(s), and it’s a relief for now, it’s still possible to realise what I wish the most in my life - I lost that hope for a moment (or a year or two).
Also, maybe it doesn’t work for everybody. Maybe, if you’re a procrastinator, you are not at that precise point where you really know and WANT to change your behaviour. Maybe you still trick your mind around by lying or finding other excuses. I just came to a point where I really really WANT to stop loosing time on short-term mood correction and really do what I feel I’m the best at and nourish a sustainable membership club around my art that pays enough for food on my table and decent life.
Thank you for that link.
@lukaprincic I am so happy to hear that you’ve found such success with Focusmate. You are not the first person I’ve heard of with such a strong appreciation for this platform. I will pass your story along to the CEO of Focusmate, Taylor Jacobson, so he is reminded what a big difference he is making in the world.
I look forward to virtually coworking with you and others who join the Patreon group.
Thanks for the reply! I just added you via email to the private group Let me know if it doesn’t work.
Just signed up with FocusMate, please add me to the group.
Hooray @lklawless for joining Focusmate. It’s been a gamechanger for me so I hope you also enjoy it. Starting Thursday Focusmate will have a free (limited to 3 sessions per week) and paid ($5 a month with 20% discount for early adopters) unlimited usage plan, but you will be on the unlimited plan at no charge because you are member of the Patreon private group.
In addition to being a free, the software will also prioritize matching you with other Patreon members so we may meet up there. You can find people’s group membership on their profiles.
Focusmate plans to announce a scholarship program this week for students, unemployed, and those in countries where the cost would be a barrier. The ultimate goal of charging is to increase the quality of the experience and make it sustainable.
OMG this might be just what I need! Funny enough I have had a couple of apps bookmarked that are supposed to help with organizing especially for people with ADD, Todoist, but that was at least a couple months ago and have I even downloaded it?
No.
I think you’re right, in that having a living person actually on the other end to be accountable to might be the missing link to make this effective.
I’ve been struggling with focus and time management issues for quite a while, but especially after the winter of 2016. Without anyone here to be accountable to, it became even harder to pull away from other non-work related things like whatever awful crisis is in the news that day, or even just getting stuck in an information or research loop that I tell myself is benefitting my business, but at that moment is not what I need to be doing.
A long time friend - one who is self employed but does gigs so there is some kind of schedule set, and she does not have any mental health issues - will usually bring the conversation back to advice about hiring a business consultant or taking workshops to learn how to grow and expand my business, but it’s not even about that.
Demand is there - I can’t meet it and not because I am too busy. I already have a following, art and a product that people want that is definitely profitable when I AM using my time effectively.
It’s just my brain that isn’t cooperating.
I heard ADHD / ADD summed up so well recently as not an inability to focus, but an inability to recognize and keep track of time as it’s passing or to anticipate the amount of time needed, as well as the struggle to get from knowing a thing needs to be done, to actually doing the thing. And that is exactly it.
It’s not that I don’t know what to do to have a successful art business, it’s that I for whatever reason can’t get myself to do those things at the moments I need to do them.
So I can see how this might be a big help 
I hope so anyway, because this girl right here needs a vacation and some dental work, and none of that is going to happen if I keep doing things the way I’ve been doing them.
@faeryangela I think you will find lots of company in your challenges on Focusmate. In particular, there is a great Facebook group for Focusmate where people share how much it’s helped them in the ways you just described. In addition to the company, I find it incredibly helpful to hear about other people’s struggles with distraction, frustration with endless tasks lists, as well as sharing wins.
This morning my Focusmate partners started his session with 10 minutes of meditation (after I agreed that doesn’t bother me). I’ve also seen others do physical therapy exercises they can’t do on my own and I myself have done some office decluttering I do best with company.
I’ll be cheering you on. Linda
Can I get into the free group too? Was enjoying using it, but not quite up for the $5 charge at this point 
If I understand correctly, anyone in a private group - like the Patreon group - can get the unlimited ‘paid’ plan for free as long as you’re in the private group