In Hollywood, the roaring success of movies, sitcoms and talk shows such as Avengers Endgame, Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Dr Phil wouldn't have become as successful as they are today without the individual masterminds behind them.
Which got us thinking...
Like most online applications or websites, those little chat icons in the bottom corner of your screen can be easily mistaken as an annoying little robot.
Asking for your email address so it can chew up your details and repeatedly spit out free pdf documents to your inbox, claiming it can help you become the next Tim Ferriss.
Although these little bots are helpful when the team steps away from their computers for the evening... because we're humans! We have lives...
focus booster takes pride in the fact that we are one of the few small productivity apps which offer online support from REAL PEOPLE!
So we are giving you a sneak peek behind the curtain to see who makes the magic happen at focus booster, what makes us qualified and most importantly, what we are all doing in our spare time to keep the creativity flowing!
Because focus booster wouldn't be what it is today without the incredible contributions of our alumni.
So, without further ado meet...
Scott: Chief Technology Officer
Coffee of choice: latté.
Tell us a bit about your photo:
It's me at Coney Island!
Which TV show (reality or fictional) would you ultimately want to be a contestant/character on, and why?
A bit cliché but, I would want to be Mario. Because he always saves the girl!
What does a typical day in the life look like for you?
Rise and shine early. I scoff down some breakfast and start up a focus booster session to plan out what I aim to achieve for the day.
Throughout the day I'm generally programming or scoping new projects for our clients.
Knock off time is around 5:30-6pm and I always aim to squeeze in time for some sort of fitness. Whether it's going for a jog or, back in summer, Alice and I went paddle boarding almost daily down the river.
Lastly, I will generally finish the day off watching a Netflix series. At the moment we're watching The 100. I love sci-fi and dystopian futuristic genres!
Any interesting projects that you are currently working on?
Yes and I can't wait to release this into the hands of our beta testers!
I've been working weekends and long nights on focus booster Next, our new progressive web app (PWA) client.
What is your background/past experiences that have prepared you for your position today?
I've always been a lead developer or Chief Technology Officer.
In the past, I've worked on some really exciting projects with clients such as Adobe, Volvo, Verizon, Bass, Fringe Festival, Repco, Beerenberg... the list goes on really.
Do you have any tips on how you structure your day using focus booster? Do any other apps or techniques come into play?
I use a combination of techniques like Getting Things Done, Kanban for planning and (of course) the pomodoro technique to make sure I actually focus and get shit done.
What do you enjoy doing outside of the office?
To be honest with you, in my spare time I'm still programming!
Otherwise I'm hanging out with my two boys or, usually Netflix binging.
Alice: Jack-of-many-trades, marketing, customer support and general management.
Coffee of choice: soy latté
Tell us a bit about your photo:
This was taken on our (Scott and I) last holiday, which was to the Philippines, we were in the mountains and were engulfed by low cloud, it felt very mystical. We both love to travel and have a pact to go overseas every year. This year we are going to Japan with our boys.
Which TV show (reality or fictional) would you ultimately want to be a contestant/character on, and why?
Project Runway, so I could put my sewing skills and creativity to the test. I am not quite up to their standards yet though!
What does a typical day in the life look like for you?
Walk, breakfast, work in the home office, sometimes a relocation to a cafe for a little while, workout, dinner, often some more work or a bit of sewing, then chill out to an episode of something on Netflix.
Any interesting projects that you are currently working on?
Well as I write this, the focus booster 10th birthday celebration! After that, I will be moving onto creating more opportunities to grow focus booster and another product we built, Teamly Cloud.
What is your background/past experiences that have prepared you for your position today?
I never would have imagined this is where I would end up. I studied journalism, then did a masters in business management after discovering a love of writing doesn't make a passionate journalist.
My first job was in project management in electricity supply construction. I moved to England for two years and used my Australian charm to get a job with a local SEO agency where I was a project manager then account manager. When I moved home I managed a big automotive client for a digital agency but one client wasn't challenging enough. I took a job as an operations manager at another agency, where I met Scott, was promoted to general manager but soon left to do my own thing with Scott and we still do that today, 5 years later!
Do you have any tips on how you structure your day using focus booster? Do any other apps or techniques come into play?
Planning is so important. If you don't plan, you are flying blind in terms of setting your own expectations and this will always lead to disappointment.
I plan my days in pomodoro sessions. I have recently been using kanban to capture tasks and monitor progress. I really like the combination of kanban and pomodoro, when I use them together and work effectively I have a great sense of satisfaction with what I accomplish.
What do you enjoy doing outside of the office?
Oh, so many things! Walking on the beach, reading, catching up with friends and sewing.
Allan: Web Applications Developer
Coffee of choice: flat white, full cream milk.
Tell us a bit about your photo:
This photo was taken at the BikeSA Fleurieu Fondo 2018. I rode from Glenelg to Willunga Hill and back again which came to 169.4kms in 6hrs 22mins and 7seconds.
Which TV show (reality or fictional) would you ultimately want to be a contestant/character on, and why?
Not so much a TV character, but can I say the Flash? Who doesn't want super-speed as a super power! It would really come in handy for my cycling.
What does a typical day in the life look like for you?
Every morning I'm up early for a bike ride. I generally ride around 200-300km a week.
Once I'm back home and ready to get cracking, my work day will start around 7:30-8am and will consist of a lot of programming and scoping projects for our clients.
Any interesting projects that you are currently working on?
At the moment I'm working away on our open source framework (Linz).
What is your background/past experiences that have prepared you for your position today?
I studied a Bachelor of Information Technology at Flinders University. After this, I worked mostly as a developer for various companies, nothing exciting that's worth mentioning.
Do you have any tips on how you structure your day using focus booster? Do any other apps or techniques come into play?
Similar to the rest of the team, I really enjoy following Kanban as a way to plan out what I need to action for the day, week and so on. Our team uses Notion for this and it's a lifesaver!
Once I'm working on a task, I'll use focus booster to really hold myself accountable. It's easy to get carried away in programming and the next thing I know... it's way past my lunchtime!
What do you enjoy doing outside of the office?
I have to be honest and say, I eat a lot. But I would blame this on the amount of cycling I do every day. Otherwise, when I'm not cycling, I'm probably eating and watching Netflix. I just finished Designated Survivor.
Sophie: Marketing Assistant, Customer Support
Coffee of choice: long black, with a dash of almond milk.
Tell us a bit about your photo:
I'm largely known as a dog nut and an avid supporter of animal rescue organisations. In 2018 my partner and I went to Bali and I made it my mission to visit a rescue shelter in Ubud called Barc 4 Bali who rescue stray dogs, rehabilitate and rehome them.
On this day I spent $100 Australian dollars on pet food donations. We spent roughly 3 hours just hanging out and playing with the little dogs. I was honestly in my element!
Which TV show (reality or fictional) would you ultimately want to be a contestant/character on, and why?
If I was asked this question prior to 2018, my answer would have been a contestant on Survivor. But, since I discovered Ru Pauls Drag Race, I would do absolutely anything to be part of the show! Or even just a fly on the wall.
What does a typical day in the life look like for you?
Every day is a 5:00am wake up call. My partner owns a gym so, sleep-ins are rare in our household. I generally do an hour workout consisting of strength, weights, HIIT or the occasional mobility workout.
8:00am I jump online to start work with a fresh cup of black coffee.
Throughout the day I'm monitoring the support chat for focus booster, jumping on social media to see what's happening in the productivity space or working on any current projects within our marketing plan.
5:30pm I jump offline where I head to my second job as a dog walker.
After that, I come home and cook up some dinner. At the moment I'm loving bun-less burgers. Then I'll watch some general trash TV to unwind for the day.
Any interesting projects that you are currently working on?
Right now we're working on expanding our marketing into the world of video. It's been an interesting learning curve discovering how to condense useful information into only a short amount of time AND make it graphically appealing.
I'm really excited to delve a little deeper into the analytics behind video marketing and see where it can ultimately take focus booster.
What is your background/past experiences, for working in your position?
This is my first gig straight out of study. I did a Diploma in Marketing and Communications to sort of test the waters and see if marketing was the right direction for me (spoiler, it is).
I grew up in a creative household. We were always drawing, painting, building things you name it. So, I knew my career direction had to be in a creative field of some kind.
When the world of instagram and social media algorithms blew up, I became obsessed with photography and learning why these silly platforms were such a big deal. Which brings me to where I am now!
Do you have any tips on how you structure your day using focus booster? Do any other apps or techniques come into play?
I'm very similar to the rest of the guys. I use a combination of Getting Things Done and Kanban to really map out which of my tasks are important and what should be tackled first.
Then, to get through each of my tasks for the day, I use focus booster.
What do you enjoy doing outside of the office?
My spare time is made up of a few things such as mothering my abundance of indoor plants, anything fitness related like hiking, or walking my dog.
Currently a lot of my spare time is taken up by building my own little business.
Credit: Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
In a world of productivity hacks, apps and tips, how did focus booster come about?
Ten years ago, the mastermind behind focus booster, Scott, lead a team of marvellous, but easily distracted employees.
From designing, building and managing websites, distractions were landmines they couldn't continue to step on any longer.
He stumbled across the pomodoro technique. At first glance, it was simple, and something he knew the team could quickly adapt to.
So, he took it one step further, built an app, and the birth of focus booster was upon us.
Ten years on, focus booster has continued to grow exponentially and impacted the productivity of hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.
Due to the accelerated growth of our client work, this opened up a new door for the business behind focus booster (idearium) and we were able to expand the team into the five of us.
Five completely relatable humans (not custom bots) who enjoy activities from programming to travelling to binge-watching Netflix, just like everyone else.
But what unites us? We all have the same vision. To be the most productive version of ourselves, while encouraging and educating people like yourself to do the same.