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Community4 min readUpdated 31 August 2026

How study groups work

Shared goals, group challenges, and seeing who is actually putting the hours in.

A study group is a small set of accounts with a shared goal and a visible record of who is contributing to it.

Creating a group

From Groups, create a group and share the invite link. Anyone who opens the link and signs in joins immediately — there is no approval queue.

Three to twenty members works best. Below three there is not enough activity to compare against. Above twenty, individual contributions stop being visible and the rankings lose their point.

Shared goals

A group goal is a target number of focus hours across all members over a set period — for example, 100 hours in a week across eight people.

Every completed session by any member counts towards it. Progress is shown as a single bar, so the group either hits the target or does not; it is a collective number rather than a per-person quota.

Group challenges

Challenges are time-boxed competitions inside a group. Members' focused minutes are ranked against each other for the duration, then the challenge closes and the ranking is final.

This is the same calculation as the public leaderboard, scoped to the group. The difference is field size: placing in the top three of a ten-person group is achievable, which is what makes it worth competing for.

You do not need to be online together

Group progress is calculated from recorded sessions, not simultaneous attendance. Members in different time zones contribute exactly the same way. Nothing is scheduled and no one has to show up at a particular hour.

If you specifically want the effect of working alongside someone in real time, that is body doubling, and it works differently.

What other members can see

  • Your username and avatar
  • Your focused minutes inside the group's active window
  • Your session count

They cannot see what you were working on, your session notes, or your activity outside the group.

Why groups hold better than solo streaks

A solo streak breaks quietly. In a group, the shared goal bar stops moving and other members notice. That visibility is the mechanism — it is the same reason a gym partner works better than a gym membership.

Common questions

How many people can be in a study group?

Groups work best between three and twenty members. Below three there is not enough activity to compare against; above twenty the rankings stop feeling personal.

Do I need to be online at the same time as the group?

No. Group progress is based on recorded sessions, not simultaneous attendance, so members in different time zones contribute normally.

How do I invite people to a group?

Each group has an invite link. Anyone who opens it and signs in joins the group; there is no approval step.

Start a session

One payment, no subscription. Sessions record automatically once you sign in.

Open the timer

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