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An accountability partner is a trusted person who must approve your requests to stop, pause, or modify a protected plan. Instead of bypassing your own restrictions with a password or random characters, the request goes to someone else — adding a human judgment layer that is much harder to get past in a moment of low willpower.

Accountability partner settings in FocusMe

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How It Works

  1. You invite one or more accountability partners by email
  2. Your partner receives an invitation and accepts it
  3. When you try to stop, pause, or modify a protected plan, a request is sent to your partner
  4. Your partner sees your reason for the request and approves or denies it
  5. If approved, a one-time code is generated that you enter to complete the action
Partners don’t need a FocusMe account — they manage everything through email links.

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Setting Up a Partner

  1. Open Settings in FocusMe
  2. Go to the Accountability tab
  3. Enter your partner’s email address and optional name, then click Add
  4. Your partner receives an email with a link to confirm
You can add multiple partners. When you submit a request, any active partner can respond. Once your partners are set up, click Lock Accountability Partners to prevent yourself from adding new partners. This stops you from swapping in a more lenient partner.
You cannot remove an accountability partner while you have any active plans. End all active plans first, then remove partners from this tab. Alternatively, the partner themselves can remove their own role via a link in their original invitation email.

Invitation sent to accountability partner

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Using Partner Protection on Plans

Once you have an active partner, you can select Accountability Partner as the protection level on any plan action:
  • Stop when active — partner must approve before you can stop the plan
  • Stop on standby — partner must approve before you can stop the plan outside schedule hours
  • Pause/Postpone — partner must approve before you can pause
  • When disabled — partner must approve before you can edit or delete the plan
You can also combine partner approval with other protection levels (password, random characters) for additional security.

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The Approval Process

When you request an action on a partner-protected plan:
  1. You enter a reason explaining why you need to stop or modify the plan
  2. Your partner receives a notification with your reason
  3. Your partner reviews the request and either approves or denies it
  4. If approved, you receive a one-time code to enter in FocusMe
  5. If denied, the plan stays active — you’ll need to wait or submit a new request

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Support Fallback

If you don’t have an accountability partner set up, you can submit a stop request to FocusMe support instead. Support requests require:
  • A reason for the request
  • Your email address (if you’re not logged in)
The FocusMe support team will review your request and respond.

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Tips

  • Choose someone who will say no. The whole point is having someone who won’t rubber-stamp every request. A partner who approves everything is the same as no partner.
  • Explain your goals to your partner. Give them context about what you’re trying to achieve so they can make better decisions about your requests.
  • Combine with Enforced protection. For maximum commitment, use Enforced mode for the schedule and accountability partner for the stop action — you physically can’t stop the plan without your partner’s approval.
  • Add multiple partners. If one partner is unavailable, another can respond. This prevents you from being locked out if your only partner is unreachable.