Blog

Building Focuser

Feature deep-dives, design decisions, and lessons learned by Hunter Ladd

Building Focuser

Building in Public Starts Today February 26, 2026

I've been building Focuser for over a year and a half without sharing the journey publicly. Today that changed.

Maintaining Context Between Screens February 19, 2026

Maintaining context can be a constant struggle, and not just in software. How many times have you walked into a room and completely forgotten why you were there? The same kind of struggle presents itself constantly in software too — and once context is lost, it can be difficult to regain. This post is about how Focuser goes after that problem, and the chain of decisions that led to auto-navigation, auto-drill-down, and persistent context across nearly every screen in the app.

Did You Forget to Add Ads? February 17, 2026

Focuser doesn't have ads, & never will. Not because it's a smart business move — because ads are counter-productive to an app about focus, they take up screen real estate that belongs to you, & I'm not interested in monetizing your attention on top of your subscription.

Everything Everywhere All At Once February 16, 2026

Why Focuser's dashboard shows all nine checklists, your reminders, notes, and stories on a single screen — and why nothing is allowed to push anything else out of view.

Essays

You Think You Know Where Your Time Goes. You Probably Don't March 5, 2026

I thought I was an active guy. Then I had to get a bigger kilt, and the Focus Metrics prototype showed me the reality of the situation. The numbers don't lie — and most productivity tools are built to never show them to you.

Productivity

How to stop forgetting what you meant (or have) to do: An ADHD-friendly system July 15, 2026

Why ADHD makes you forget what you meant to do, broken into five stages from capturing a thought to following through, with the checklist-based system I built to address each one.

Release Notes

Focuser is Live April 21, 2026

The honest story of a Kickstarter that didn't fund, an app that launched anyway, and a Focus Metrics feature that got built instead of the marketing.

The Kickstarter Campaign is Live March 17, 2026

The Focuser Kickstarter is live. Over a year of building; now it's time to find its people.

Focuser is Coming to Kickstarter February 27, 2026

The Focuser Kickstarter campaign has been approved and the pre-launch page is now live.

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