I wonder if the author really finds having a partner to be necessary. It sounds like this could be substituted with keeping a journal, recording what happens every hour. You'd get the bonus of having a written record of your day.
I worked at a company with an engineer who had a Perl script that prompted them to record what they were doing at random intervals through out the day.
When it came time for performance reviews, not only did it make for entertaining reading but it was easy to find all the small improvements they made that normally slip through the cracks.
Social pressure can be a really powerful motivator. Especially for someone who's competitive: imagine the partner getting a lot done, but you spent the whole hour distracted by reading the latest coronavirus news.
