alt Hacker NewsI'm using an app called Focusmate (no affiliation) on a daily basis - scheduling 5-6 hour sessions per day.
You talk to a stranger for a few seconds, say what you're working on, and after 50 minutes you say goodbye. They stay on the video throughout the session, but muted.
It helps me focus because I always think "it's only 50 minutes".
Also, I recently deleted Instagram and it made a huge impact.
Replies
Not sure why you got downvoted. This works for a lot of people. Doesn’t work for me because I find the video aspect to be awkward, but the concept of ‘body doubling’ as a way of enabling focus is well established.
[Editing to note that perhaps you were downvoted because OP lives in a place with internet issues and couldn’t use Discord to cowork with friends, so the video and bandwidth heavy approach of Focusmate isn’t a viable recommendation]
Yeah I’ve done nearly 3000 sessions on there and it’s been a life saver.