With the age of AI agents giving everyone a heightened sense of speed in shipping code, it is valuable for engineers to focus deeply on technical work. The distraction of mobile phones and social networking have been replaced by the distraction of checking what Claude Code is doing, or asking Grok or ChatGPT questions.
The idea of "writer decks", a minimalist computer, is making a comeback as a way to create a distraction-free environment to be able to have a focused work session. One writer set up a laptop with no GUI (no desktop or window manager), and only a text editor with a wiki system and a way to back up the files. You can create the same by finding a quiet spot (or wearing noise-canceling headphones), disabling the wifi on the laptop, and closing all programs so it is just you and the writing. This applies for coding, though you will need a way to look up API documentation. Having a different browser you do not typically use where every website is logged out can reduce distraction.
Distraction-Free Writing
Obsidian
Zen plugin for Obsidian is a "focus mode" for the Obsidian note-taking app.
