Focus in a Fragmented World: A Developer’s Guide to Staying Productive

Transcript

1. Focus in a Fragmented World A Developer's Guide to Staying Productive Susanne Bach Ladefoged Hou - Senior Software Engineer @Unioo.io
2. BOOTING SUSANNE_OS... Susanne Bach Ladefoged Hou Senior Software Engineer @ unioo.io Fullstack → Backend & DevOps → Agentic Development Has ADHD Diagnosed. Survived anyway. Embroidery +Heavy Metal + Diablo 4 PlayStation 5. No apologies. loading_adhd_kernel... [OK] mounting_dotnet_dependencies... [OK] launching_susanne_os... [OK]
3. "Not a psychologist—just a developer who hacked her own brain to get things done and survive life with ADHD."
4. Agenda 1 2 Why This Is Hard The Basic Toolkit Init Failed Procrastination Your attention is broken Time, energy, and Getting started on large (not you) environment tasks Fixing the can't-begin bug 5 6 3 7 4 8 The Boss Fight Task Tracking Phone > Focus Wrap-up Meetings edition Memory leaks are real Take back your attention The final commit
5. Why Are We Struggling With Attention?
6. It's Not You. The World Got Harder to Focus In. The modern world constantly pulls attention away from deep work. 🕰️ Then — 1990s ⚡ Now — Today
7. The AI Burnout AI promises to 10x your output — but it also means an endless stream of generated content to review, validate, fix, and re-prompt. More Output More Cognitive Load AI accelerates generation Every output needs human judgement More Fragmentation More Expectations Steering multiple agents Expectations to deliver more, across multiple tasks faster
8. PART 1 The Basic Toolkit Simple habits that protect your focus before the hard stuff even starts.
9. Time Management Timeblocking Block deep work time in your calendar — treat it like a meeting you can't skip Batch Code Reviews First thing in the morning + first thing after lunch. Never midflow. Adapt to suit your needs This is not set in stone - adapt as you see fit.
10. The Ramp In & Ramp Out Technique Every context switch costs you. Ramp In/Out is how you pay less. 🗓️ Workday 🛫 Ramp In Start of Day (~30 min) 🛬 Ramp Out End of Day (~20 min) Tidy desk, get water/coffee Check emails & flag urgent items Review notes from yesterday Do a final Slack/Teams/email sweep Note where you left off + next step Log your time, shut down your laptop Catch up on Slack/Teams, open your tools Clean your desk and leave it behind 📅 Meetings 🛫 Ramp In Before a Meeting (~5–10 min) Read the agenda Skim relevant docs or previous notes Jot down your questions or talking points Leave breadcrumbs for yourself for later 🛬 Ramp Out After a Meeting (~5 min) Write down decisions and action items, if any Assign owners and deadlines while fresh Get coffee or spend a few minutes processing the meeting Re-open your previous context (use breadcrumbs)
11. Energy Management: Because You Can't Just sudo reboot Yourself Optimize Your Human CPU: A 4-Step Guide 70% 20% 🟢 GREEN — 60-70% — Energizing Tasks Examples: Coding, Debugging, Designing, Optimizing, Architecting 🟡 YELLOW — 20-30% — Neutral Tasks Examples: Reviewing, Documenting, Planning, Syncing, Configuring 01 Log your tasks daily Write down everything you did at end of day. Even the small things. 02 Color-code them Green = energizing · Yellow = neutral · Red = draining 03 Repeat every day for 1-2 weeks 10% Keep a log, so you can compare later. 04 Review results and adjust 🔴 RED — 10-20% — Draining Tasks Examples: Meetings, Hotfixing, Reporting, Coordinating Too much red? Balance with green where possible. Works outside work too — not just for the office.
12. Create a Work-Only Zone Avoid the Couch Trap Working in leisure zones weakens both work quality and rest quality Physical Boundaries Work Separate room is ideal. No room? Use a visual divider — a specific rug, a folding screen. The Clean Slate Effect Minimalist environment = fewer microdecisions = more willpower preserved for actual work
13. PART 2 Error: Start Sequence Not Initiated Getting started on big tasks - or, let's be honest, any task sometimes.
14. Tactic 1: Eat the Frog 🐸 Do the hardest thing first Research shows: tackling your most difficult task first leads to less fatigue and greater mental relaxation by end of day. Look at today's tasks. Which one is the largest? That's your frog. Start there. Source: "Eat the Frog" method, popularized by Brian Tracy, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time (2001)
15. Tactic 2: Snowball Method ❄️ How to Build Momentum When Your Willpower is null Harvard's Teresa Amabile found that small wins significantly boost mood and motivation. Start with whatever is easy. Let the momentum carry you. Source: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011)
16. Tactic 3: The 5-Minute Start ⏱️ Bypass internal resistance Tell yourself: "I only have to do this for 5 minutes." You don't have to finish. Just start.
17. PART 3 Task Initiation Failure Your brain knows the assignment. It just keeps opening new tabs.
18. What Causes Procrastination? Your brain has entered escape mode. 😨 Fear of Failure If I never submit the PR, I can never be roasted in the comments ✨ Perfectionism Renaming the variable for the seventh time like that will fix everything 🌊 Overwhelm My brain has 16GB of RAM and this task just asked for 32GB 😴 Boredom Updating the README? I'd rather organize my sock drawer. 😰 Anxiety If I don't touch the legacy code, the legacy code can't hurt me
19. Strategy 1: Make It Harder to Procrastinate Don't trust yourself — engineer the environment Most procrastination is habit, not willpower failure. Habits are hard to break. So make it as hard as possible to do the distracting thing. If you think "I can just stop checking the news" — nope. You probably can't. That's the point.
20. Website Blockers 🚫 Cold Turkey Freedom / FocusMe Forest My personal favourite. Incredibly Popular cross-platform Gamified focus: grow a virtual tree hard to bypass. alternatives with scheduling during work sessions. Leave the features app? The tree dies. Also: SelfControl and Refocus for Mac. 🌳
21. Strategy 2: Make It More Enjoyable Put on your favorite music Make your favorite drink first Gamify it "30 minutes of work = one more coffee" — small rewards work Celebrate progress Tell yourself: "That's great work — look at the progress I made!" Moving forward counts.
22. Strategy 3: Flip the Script 🔄 ❌ The Old Frame ✅ The New Frame "This code review is going to be painful." "This review will sharpen my skills and unblock my Negative framing increases avoidance and anxiety. Your brain categorizes the task as a threat. teammate." Reframe around value and identity. Even when it feels forced — the rewiring happens over time. Deliberately flipping the narrative changes how your brain categorizes the task. Neuroplasticity is real.
23. PART 4 Surviving Meetings They're multiplying. And somehow you're always in all of them.
24. What Can We Do About It? Reduce distractions Ask questions Take active notes Don't bring your phone or Active participation triggers Forces deeper processing and laptop unless it's necessary. attention circuits and keeps you keeps your brain from drifting engaged into listening-mode Gamify it Keep your hands busy Draw little starts in your notebook every time Fidget toys, doodling etc. someone says the word "Agile"
25. PART 5 Keeping Track Without Keeping It in Your Head With all the meetings and distractions — how do you stay on top of what you're actually supposed to be doing?
26. Strategy 1: TODO Lists Your brain's RAM is limited ClickUp / TODOist Working memory can only hold so much - A TODO list offloads to external storage. Full-featured task management with prioritization OneNote / Simple List Sometimes the simplest tool is the best tool Reduces cognitive fatigue. Surfaces Claude / Another AI Get the AI to manage your TODO list for you priorities. Provides visual progress = dopamine.
27. Strategy 2: Prioritization Matrix Clarifies what actually matters Urgent vs. important — not the same thing Reduces mental clutter No more "what should I do next?" spirals Boosts motivation Completing high-impact tasks triggers dopamine, sustained attention follows
28. PART 6 The Smartphone: A Weapon of Mass Distraction Mastering the device before it masters you.
29. Tactic 1: Turn Off All Notifications Every notification is an unsolicited context switch. Remove them from anything that isn't strictly necessary. The world will not end if you respond to a message 2 hours later. Protect your brain.
30. Tactic 2: Away With It 📦 Physical distance works better than willpower Lock it in a timed box A real box with a timer lock. Not metaphorical. Yes, this exists. Yes, it works. Schedule screen-free time 1 hour a day, half an hour a day Get it out of the bedroom Sleep quality improves immediately. Keep it out of reach at work Leave it in your bag or jacket pocket. Out of sight, out of mind.
31. Tactic 3: App Blockers 🔐 OneSec — my personal favorite Before opening a distracting app, OneSec forces a 12-second pause and asks: "Do you really want to open this?" That tiny friction is enough to break the automatic habit loop in most cases. OneSec Alternatives ScreenZen: Customizable friction, opening limits, free. Opal: Hard-blocking, VPN-based, "Deep Focus" sessions. Minimalist Phone: Text-based launcher, inapp timers, Android-only. Freedom: Multi-device sync, cross-platform blocking, scheduled sessions.
32. WRAPPING UP The Final Commit You've survived the whole talk. Let's land this.
33. Failing Is Fine. Expected, Even. "This is hard. You will fail at some of this. That's not a bug — it's part of the process." The goal is not perfection. The goal is trying, and keep trying. Systems fail. You restart. That's the whole thing.
34. 🎮 Hack the Sh*t Out of Your Own Life "Apply your problem-solving skills to your own life." You debug systems for a living. You are also a system. Observe, hypothesize, experiment, iterate. If exercise is boring — play Diablo 4 while doing it. Whatever works.
35. Have Fun and Live Life 🌱 "Life isn't just about being productive. It's about living." Go outside. Call your people. Build LEGO in your basement. Watch movies. Make sure there's room for the things that make life life.
36. Questions? 📋 Feedback 🙋 🤳 Scan to leave feedback Thank you for being here 💜 💼 LinkedIn 🦄 Connect with me