I tracked every second of my coding for 4 weeks. The data revealed something shocking: I'm 3x more creative at home than in the office. Here's why.
10:47am - Slack notification. Lost 30 seconds.
10:52am - Coworker laughs at a meme. Lost 30 seconds.
10:58am - Someone starts their standup behind you. Lost 30 seconds.
11:03am - Phone buzzes on nearby desk. Lost 30 seconds.
By lunch, you've lost 47 minutes to interruptions you don't even remember happening.
The Number That Changed Everything: 18% vs 56%
I've been tracking my coding for a month using FlouState. In the office, I create new code 18% of the time. At home? 56%.
Same projects, same deadlines, same me. Three times more creative output at home.
Creative Output by Location
3x more creative output at home
This isn't about being “less productive” in the office. The data reveals something far more disturbing: I literally become a different developer.
The Data That Made Me Question Everything
After 4 weeks of automatic tracking (since July 15th):
- 187 hours logged automatically
- 1,248 work sessions categorized
- 42,000 lines of code analyzed
- Split between office (3 days) and home (2 days)
The pattern emerged within the first week and held steady.
The Discovery That Changed How I See Myself
After my last post about the debugging perception gap went viral (turns out we only debug 2% of the time, not 40%), I kept tracking with FlouState to understand my other patterns. Within the first week, I noticed something even more disturbing in my daily summaries.
Every Monday/Wednesday/Friday - my office days - showed massive “exploring” time. Just clicking around files, reading the same code repeatedly, losing the thread. Tuesday/Thursday looked like a completely different developer's profile.
Work Type Distribution: Office vs Home
49% of office time spent “exploring” (re-reading the same code)
At first I thought it was coincidence. Bad week at the office. So week two, I deliberately moved my complex feature work to office days.
The pattern held:
- Office days: still ~20% creating
- Home days: still ~55% creating
By week three, I accepted the truth: The environment was changing who I was as a developer.
See YOUR Actual Coding Time Breakdown
Stop guessing. Start knowing. FlouState automatically tracks and categorizes your coding activity in VS Code.
No credit card required • Works with your existing workflow • Private by design
What The Data Actually Shows
Office Days (Mon/Wed/Fri)
🚀 Creating:18% (1.4 hrs)
🐛 Debugging:2% (10 mins)
🔧 Refactoring:31% (2.5 hrs)
🔍 Exploring:49% ← Half my day
🚀 Creating:56% ← 3x more (4.5 hrs)
🐛 Debugging:2% (10 mins)
🔧 Refactoring:28% (2.2 hrs)
🔍 Exploring:14%
That “exploring” time haunted me. I wasn't learning new frameworks or studying documentation. I was re-reading the same file for the fifth time because I'd lost context. Again.
The 23-Minute Rule Nobody Talks About
Research from UC Irvine shows it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully refocus after an interruption. In my month of tracking:
Average Uninterrupted Focus Time (minutes)
Office interruptions happen before recovery is possible
Average uninterrupted coding time at home: 87 minutes
Average uninterrupted coding time in office: 11 minutes
I never get 23 minutes to recover. I'm perpetually operating at 30% cognitive capacity, like a computer with too many browser tabs thrashing its memory.
The Invisible Poison: Attention Residue
Here's what's actually happening in that 49% “exploring” time:
Your brain evolved to notice tribe members' behaviors for survival. Every movement in your peripheral vision, every sound, every visual change triggers ancient threat-detection systems. Your conscious mind doesn't notice, but your brain does a status check.
In an open office with 20 people, you're running a background process consuming 60-70% of your cognitive resources just tracking potential “threats.”
You're not distracted. You're neurologically impaired.
A Typical Day: The Minute-by-Minute Reality
Focus Level During a Typical Office Morning
Never recovering to baseline focus before the next interruption
Office Day (Wed, Aug 7)
9:00am - Start deep work on auth feature
9:08am - Slack notification (2 min)
9:19am - Coworker asks about lunch
9:31am - Mechanical keyboard thundering
9:44am - Sales team celebrates
9:52am - “Hey, quick question...” (12 min)
10:15am - Finally refocused... coffee chatter
Result: 23 minutes of creating in 75 minutes
Home Day (Thu, Aug 8)
9:00am - Continue same auth feature
10:27am - First natural break to stretch
Result: 87 minutes of pure creation, feature completed
This Isn't About Productivity - It's About Identity
For the past month, every office day, I've watched myself become someone I don't recognize in the data:
- A developer who can't finish a function without getting lost
- Someone who reads the same code 5 times
- A “senior” engineer producing junior-level output
The data proves it: I'm not less motivated in the office. I'm biologically impaired.
When developers say “I can't focus in the office,” we're treated like we're making excuses. But you wouldn't tell someone with lung damage from secondhand smoke to “just breathe better.”
The Secondhand Smoke Parallel Is Perfect
We spent decades discovering that secondhand smoke causes real physiological damage. The open office is causing real neurological damage - we just can't see it without data.
Your focus issues aren't a personal failing. They're environmental poisoning.
What Actually Works (Based on Data, Not Hope)
After discovering this pattern, I tried everything:
What Didn't Work:
- Noise-cancelling headphones (visual interruptions still trigger)
- “Focus time” blocks (ignored by colleagues)
- Earlier hours (maintenance staff, security, early birds)
What Actually Worked:
- Presented the data to my manager - Numbers don't lie
- Negotiated “deep work” days - Tue/Thu at home for complex features
- Office days became “collaboration days” - Meetings, reviews, pairing
My manager was skeptical until I showed three weeks of data. Hard to argue with 3x creative output.
The Conversation Script That Works
“I've been tracking my work patterns to optimize my productivity. The data shows I complete complex features 3x faster at home due to fewer interruptions. Could we trial having my feature work on remote days and collaboration on office days? I'll share the metrics after a month.”
Not: “I hate the office.”
But: “Here's how we maximize my output.”
Some Developers DO Thrive in Offices (And That's OK)
My colleague Sarah shows the opposite pattern - she creates MORE in the office. She feeds off the energy, thinks better out loud, and uses background noise for focus. Her FlouState data backs this up.
This isn't about offices being universally bad. It's about knowing YOUR pattern and designing YOUR optimal environment.
Developer Productivity Preferences (FlouState Users)
Most developers show similar patterns, but not all - track your own
The Movement Nobody's Talking About
In the past month since FlouState launched, hundreds of developers are discovering their real productivity patterns. We're not guessing anymore. We're proving that:
- Some brains need silence to create
- “Collaborative” and “interruptive” aren't the same
- Pairing can be powerful, ambient noise can be poison
- One size fits no one
Stop Blaming Yourself, Start Tracking Reality
I spent years thinking I was “easily distracted” and “lacked focus.” The data showed I can maintain deep focus for 87 minutes at home. In the office? 11 minutes on average, 23 minutes maximum.
That's not a character flaw. That's physics.
If you're reading this from an open office and feeling unproductive, you're not broken. You're swimming upstream against millions of years of evolution.
Your Next Step: Get Your Own Data
You can't fight perception with feelings. You need numbers. Track your own patterns for just two weeks - the pattern will likely be clear by then.
I track with FlouState because it automatically categorizes work types (creating vs exploring is the key insight). But even a simple time log would reveal your patterns.
The real power isn't the tool - it's finally seeing the truth about your capabilities.
The Bottom Line
After just one month of tracking, I discovered I'm operating at 30% capacity in the office. Not because I'm incapable, but because my environment is hostile to my neurology.
Track it. Prove it. Change it.
You're not asking for special treatment. You're asking to work in a way that triples your creative output. That's not accommodation - that's optimization.
I'm 3x more creative at home than in the office
The data doesn't lie: 18% creating in office, 56% at home
Discover your own patterns. Track your real productivity, not perceived.
Join hundreds tracking their actual (not imagined) creative capacity
About this post: Based on 4 weeks of personal tracking data since July 15th, 2025. Your patterns may vary, but the environment's impact on focus is well-documented. The 23-minute recovery time is from UC Irvine research on interruptions and productivity.