DDJ #04: Focusmate
The best $5 you will spend this month to boost your 'work from home' productivity.
The complexity of the Employer & Employee Relationship.
How Focusmate works.
Why it really works.
Closing thoughts.
The complexity of the Employer & Employee Relationship:
Pre March 2020, the concept of working from home for most of us was an irregular luxury that went against the default protocol.
The consensus view of the 9-5, Monday through Friday office routine, appeared to highlight an invisible lack of trust between employee & employer.
It seemed as if working remotely would jeopardise the quality of the employee’s output & could damage the teams’ sense of connectivity.
In an age of constant connection with email, instant messenger, intranets, conference calls & collaboration tools, employees were never fully trusted (at scale) to work remotely.
This seemed particularly strange, since from the employers’ perspective;
they could be seen as being a flexible employer
the employee’s output when working remotely was just the same if not arguably more efficient as without the noise distractions of the office or being dragged into meetings etc. the employee could get into flow state and get the work done
Conversely, from the employee’s perspective it would provide a boost to their mental health as;
it broke up the monotony of the 5 day office week
it allowed the individual to gain the time back from commuting to complete other tasks or side hustles to free up their precious weekends
So with greater trust between employer & employee, we would have a win win for both parties, right?
Perhaps not..
Fast forward a year, where the default is now working remotely as a result of the pandemic, there appears to be more than a lack of trust that challenges the employer employee relationship.
It unfortunately seems that the time gained through lack of commuting has been replaced with the intense burden of staying connected.
Without a morning routine, the employee can find themselves at their desk, coffee in hand, answering emails within a few minutes of waking up.
Throughout the day, too many conference calls leaves the employee feeling drained & unproductive with ‘Zoom Fatigue’.
By the end of the day, with more unprocessed emails in the inbox than at the start of the day, the employee ‘switches off’ for the evening by venturing over to a different screen to consume their favourite Netflix show.
The traditional structure of the day has been torn to shreds…
As of April 21, with some hopeful progress on the roll-out of vaccinations, most employees seem to be looking forward to the prospect of integrating their working lives back into the office environment for some days of their week.
It seems that employees now actually WANT the occasional commute as this creates a natural boundary between work & home life.
They also value their co-workers in their working environment to help improve their focus and create a sense of camaraderie, a sense that they are all in it together.
But what if there was a way to have both?
What if we could get all the benefits of working remotely but also create boundaries around our home life & have that sense of camaraderie with those we share our working environment with?
Up steps.. Focusmate!
Focusmate is virtual co-working space that claims to ‘helps you get things done’.
How Focusmate works:
Anyone can sign up to the platform & have 3 free sessions a week but after interacting with the product the $5 a month fee to get unlimited sessions becomes a no brainer.
Once you sign up, the landing page looks something like this:
As an example, I’ve booked in two sessions tomorrow morning 7am - 9am before the I have to start the day job at 9am.
I have the Focusmate session linked to my google calendar so these sessions are booked out & I can clearly plan the structure of my week.
The back end matches me up with another user who has opted for the same time slot & when the time comes we both click the link & join the call.
I like to start with the question;
‘So where in the world are you calling from?’ to get an idea of who I’m connecting with.
In my first week of completing ~10 sessions, I’ve met people from Germany, the US, India, Italy, Austria, Wales & Malta.. kinda cool!
Focusmate encourage users to ask;
So what would you like to get out of today’s session?’
Amongst my ~10 sessions I’ve had users explain that they are going to complete a variety of different tasks.
I’ve had a university lecturer sending off applications for a new position, a latin academic writing a paper & planning her day, a tax student studying for an exam & even an international rugby coach debriefing a training session!
Once the formalities are out the way;
both users agree to get on with their work & proceed with the session.
the video can be left on or off & the sound can be muted at each users discretion.
there is also a side chat function that each user can use.
At the end of the session, users can either drop off or rejoin the call & discuss how their session went.
Focusmate then update your profile with an extra completed session so that when you match with another Focusmate, you can see how many sessions the other person has completed.
Sounds weird?
Here is why it REALLY works…
a) The power of setting an intention;
In James Clear’s incredible book ‘Atomic Habits’ the peculiar ritual of ‘Pointing-and-Calling’ is sighted as the main process in which the Japanese Railway conductors in increase the safety of the service & reduce their frequency of mistakes.
‘As each operator runs the train, they proceed through a ritual of pointing at different objects and calling out commands. When the train approaches a signal, the operator will point at it and say ‘Signal is Green’.’
Sounds extreme but as an example, I for one always do the ‘Keys, Wallet, Phone’ (and sadly now Hand Sanitizer & Face Mask) check before I leave the house.
By declaring what we are aiming to specifically achieve in the next 50 minutes to our Focusmate, we are setting our intentions to an accountability partner & ultimately reducing the risk of becoming distracted.
b) Creating a space of Indistractable, Deep Work;
According to Crunchbase, Focusmate has been backed by the best selling Israeli author Nir Eyal and I can see why.
In his most recent productivity book, ‘Indistractable’, Nir encourages us to plan time for ‘Traction’ waste.
‘Traction’ = Action 'pulls' you towards a particular direction with intent. It pulls you towards your values or the type of person you want to be or the things you said you were going to do.
‘Distraction’ = Actions that pushes you away from these values or the person you want to become.
This thesis is also backed up by US best selling author Cal Newport in his brilliant book. ‘Deep Work’. Newport encourages us to ‘not to take breaks from distraction, instead, take breaks from focus to give in to distraction.’
By booking out timeslots in a calendar format that Focusmate provide, we have the tool to set out the structure in the working day to take breaks from focus (the Focusmate sessions) to give in to distraction (Twitter feed etc.).
Subconsciously, this can facilitate as a much needed virtual boundary between our work & home lives. When the session is over, the session is over. No going back to answer more emails…
c) Adding variety to an otherwise monotonous & somewhat lonely routine;
A surprisingly beneficial element to Focusmate is the intrigue and excitement around meeting new people.
When working remotely, for the most part, we are on Zoom calls & Slack with the same colleagues each day. The only form of networking seems to be via external webinars or sliding into someone’s DMs on Linkedin or Twitter.
You are going to put in the time and do the work anyway.. Why not spice it up a little be and paired up with someone else?
Worst case, you simply utilise your Focusmate as an accountability partner & add some variety to your day but, best case, you adopt some some intellectual curiosity in the other person’s task (recommend a book or article that is related to their piece of work), connect on a deeper level and add them to your network!
Closing thoughts:
On a personal note, I’m genuinely excited that for just $5 a month, I have access to a tool that can actually incentivise me towards adopting healthier relationships and structures around the incredible technology that is at my disposal.
In terms of Focusmate, I’m incredibly bullish at their long term growth prospects.
Irrespective of the intricacies behind what type of working routine the employee & employer revert back to as we move out of our respective ‘lockdowns’, it is evident that remote working will remain an important part of the employee, employer relationship in the coming years.
Whilst I have very little insight into the future growth strategy of the company, I see huge potential for the founder Tyler Jacobson & his team, to go on to disrupt the complex terrain of the evolving employer, employee dynamic.
It would not surprise me to see Focusmate grow to be as big as, or perhaps even acquired by, some of the big boys in Salesforce Inc (who recently acquired Slack for ~$27bn) or Zoom Inc (~$95bn market cap stock).
Such companies could utilise their resources and expertise to provide an additional B2B revenue stream by white labeling the technology of the platform out to corporations.
These corporations would then inevitably benefit from utilising the tool by giving their employees the chance to enter deeper work flows & generate greater connections with colleagues across different departments that they would otherwise never had met.
Ultimately, Focusmate is a unique tool that promises positive digital disruption for our productivity and mental health.
So go ahead, give it a try, what have you got to loose?
DDJ #04: Focusmate
If you like Focusmate, you should check out Groove (https://links.groove.ooo/substack) I'm biased since I'm on Groove's team ;) but I'd use it all the time even if I wasn't.
Pretty similar concept, but Groove is free, the groups are only up to 4 people, and you're off video and sound after the initial check-in until the regroup. We like to say it's a way to get sh*t done the fun way. Would love to see you on a Groove!