MyFocusSpace - Accountability on demand via virtual coworking!

#What is MyFocusSpace ? 🚀

Hey there! My name is Vio and I building MyFocusSpace together with my co-founder Ionut Mistreanu, a virtual coworking space where people become more productive by being matched with strangers for a 1-on-1, 50-minute working session, followed by 9 minutes of networking.

#Why does it work? The science behind it:🔬

This setup helps with procrastination because is harder to neglect the session knowing that there is someone else waiting for you to start working.

This setup works with distractions because you share with your partner what are you going to work on during the 50-minute session(and this makes the goal specific) and because it taps into our natural inclination to try to perform better when we are observed by someone else.

This setup works with loneliness and tiredness by bringing variety in the work experience and healthy breaks.

We use Machine Learning to match people on-demand based on their profile information to foster better conversations at the end of the session.

#What have we done so far? 🚧

We've been working on it since December 2020, and now we have a fully functional MVP and planning to launch on Product Hunt by the end of April.

Using the model from YC Startup School - Launch again and again - we launched MyFocusSpace with our friends, by the end of the second week of February we launched it again with strangers. Inspired by Paul Graham essay - Do things that don't scale - we did our on-boarding 1-on-1 sessions and reached 150 people who have been introduced to MyFocusSpace in less than a month.

This helped us to learn more about every person on the platform: what they do, how they procrastinate, what are their passions, interests, etc. which made us realize the power of building true relationships with them. Now I can go and recommend to each of them something I have tried/learned/ think that can help them. This is amazing if you stop to think a bit.

I've said elsewhere, but it's worth saying again: these people are not just users to us, they are like-minded people supporting each other and getting things done.

The experience of 1-to-1 on-boarding also brought up the thought of matching our community members using AI. This means that they can have more fulfilling conversations at the end of the working focus session.

#How does it work?

• You book a session in your calendar whenever you want to work on something / along someone (it can be something that you like/ don't like/ postpone on doing, etc.)
• We do our best to match you with a member from our community that has similar working preferences based on his/her profile.
• At the beginning of the session you share with your partner what you will be working on, this should not take longer than 3 minutes, then you mute yourselves, leave the video on and start working.
• At the end of the session, you get to rate your productivity, energy, motivation, attention for the specific task and have it displayed in the analytics panel. This way, you get insights about your productivity that will help you dive into deep work more often.

#What people most like about MyFocusSpace

🛑 They stop procrastinating

🎢 They stay in the flow

💻 They don't feel lonely when working alone from a computer

🚨 'Get shit done atmosphere'

🌿 It enforces a habit creation of practicing deep work

📊 Custom productivity insights

#Suggested improvements to MyFocusSpace

🎶 Background music

🤼‍♂️ More structure around deep work practice

⏱️ Longer sessions

👥 Sessions with a specific friend - custom invite link

💪 Increased accountability to get things done

📆 Google Calendar integration

#Next Steps: 🔥

1. Launch on Product Hunt by the end of April
2. Bring other likeminded people - have the 1-to-1 on-boarding with them
3. Plan marketing rollout

#What's our philosophy? ❤️

• We want from MyFocusSpace to give you the flexibility you need. You can either start your day by doing sessions with a peer to get in the flow or keep pushing yourself at the end of the day and have some solo sessions in the middle. It is up to you how you plan and use it.
• We are building this product for ourselves first because we didn't find something that checks all the problems. We believe that going from procrastination to deep work is something that is worth pursuing.

Happy to answer any questions! Very excited about what's coming next. I'll have another update in the coming week.

Twitter: @VanicaViorica
Instagram: @vioricavanica

Twitter: @MyFocusSpace1
Twitter: @MyFocusSpace1