I've thought about doing this before even if I have zero audience. The "threat" that someone could join the stream and see me slacking off on YouTube might be stressful but I imagine it could help me stay on task?
That's what the streamers in the article I read said - they all pretty much started out to "force" themselves to be reasonably productive (and/or in a small group of friends with the same goal).
Don't underestimate the force of this, I reckon it's similar to precommitment (eg, announcing to all your friends that you're giving up smoking), for which there's evidence that it's an effective tool to drive behavioral change.
