It’s been a while since I’ve written one of the ‘Startup journey’ posts and lots of things have changed.

To summarize, I’m moving from LifeHQ to FocusHub. I’m taking the best features from LifeHQ, copying them over to FocusHub and adding a social element on top.

What is LifeHQ

For new readers, let me explain what LifeHQ is.

LifeHQ is an all-in-one productivity tool. It is a single app where you can manage your projects, track your habits, journal, have todo lists and take notes.

In a typical productivity fashion I tried to do everything in one place. The main premise of LifeHQ is to be able to organize, work and review in a single app. This way you’ll remember to do everything and not get sidetracked with multiple apps.

However it turns out that LifeHQ is too crowded with unconnected features and most people end up using just one or two. So I started exploring options about splitting these out.

What is a Pivot

Pivot in the business world is when you switch directions with your company or your product.

Especially at the beginning of a new product or service, you could be in the right space but you might be solving the problem in a wrong way, or you could be solving the wrong problem altogether.

To pivot simply means to change directions and experiment. This is necessary in the beginning stages until you find product market fit, or simply put the correct people you like to serve, and the correct problem that is worth solving for them.

Why I am pivoting

With LifeHQ I ran into the problem of trying to solve few problems at once for few different audiences, people who journal, people who plan todo lists and run projects, people that track their habits.

First of all the productivity space is becoming a mature market with more and more powerful and specialized players. Notion, Todoist, Evernote, Habitica: all doing a great job in their respective niches.

They are all well made and do their job. I know I wasn’t going to be better at todo-lists than Todoist and I wasn’t going to be better at organizing than Notion.

But I had a few productivity features that they didn’t have buried deep inside LifeHQ that my (few) users loved.

Also for the future of LifeHQ I wanted to create something social, a module where people would push each other to do better. A sort of a friendly competition where you’d be motivated by seeing the tasks and habits your peers have accomplished today.

Social accountability is the best long-term motivator out there.

Adding all of that seemed too much for an app that already had 5 modules in it.

So I decided to take out the best features, polish them up, add the social module and create the first Productivity Social Network.

That is how FocusHub came to be.

Social network for the greater good

Another reason for doing this is that I’m fed up with all mainstream social networks that just exploit our attention and turn us into consumers.

They sell our data and try to make us into zombies with their endless streams of videos, pictures, stories and algorithms designed specifically to get us hooked.

What if we use social networks to build each other up, to create a friendly competition and push each other to do more, accomplish more and spend our time on our long term goals.

That is my goal with Focus Hub.

First: It is a social network where you go to:

  • Get inspired by what others are doing
  • Participate in a friendly productivity competition
  • Share your accomplishments

Second: It is a productivity app that lets your organize your daily tasks into work sessions and work cycles and get into Flow every day by following few key principles:

  • Define actionable tasks.
  • Define the first concrete action steps to get started with said tasks.
  • Anticipate blockers.
  • Set a custom time limit.

That is the gist of it but I go much deeper into the subject in the FocusHub Intro article.

Focus Hub provides the tools and the environment to kick ass and crush your goals with like minded people by your side.

Explore FocusHub and join the productivity movement.