About Progractivity

If you’re working in a software development team — whether leading people, managing technical decisions, or deep in code trying to protect your focus — you’re in the right place.

Progractivity isn’t about hustle culture or squeezing more hours from your day. It’s about doing less with greater effect, cutting the noise, and creating space for what actually matters: meaningful work, personal growth, and time for life outside the screen.

Focused efforts lead to effective outcomes — that’s the core belief behind everything here.

How I Got Here

Hi, I’m Daniel Koprowski — the creator of the Progractivity blog. I’m not a productivity guru, management consultant, or someone with decades of leadership experience. I’m a software engineer with 10+ years of hands-on experience who became a team leader this year. I’m leading a team while still keeping my hands in code. I’m figuring it out as I go.

My background is technical. I completed my master’s in computer science while working part-time, building VR applications in Unity and C#. I created 3D exhibitions for museums and expos, collaborating with artists (which was awesome!). Eventually, I switched to frontend development — React’s mental model felt surprisingly similar to Unity, and with TypeScript, the transition clicked. Today, I create React and React Native apps that are used by tens of thousands of users.

Why did I take on a leadership role? After 10 years of coding, I wanted more impact and to grow beyond the purely technical scope. I was curious whether leadership was for me, but I had doubts — I wasn’t sure I’d be good at it. I naturally lean toward collaboration and consensus, but leadership sometimes requires making tough calls and setting firm boundaries. Public speaking? Still a challenge. This role demands constant work on communication, coordination, problem-solving, and balancing team needs with business goals — and that’s exactly the test I wanted.

What surprised me most? The sheer number of contexts. You’re in many different circles, making decisions, reporting on decisions, and building systems to track an overwhelming information flow. If you don’t have a method, you’ll drown.

Why did I start Progractivity? I’ve always loved reading productivity books and testing methods on myself. When I realized many productivity tips were too generic for developers, I thought: what if I combined my two interests — programming and productivity — and created something uniquely useful? That’s Progractivity.

Principles I Work By

I don’t believe in optimizing just to do more.

Pure efficiency is for machines. Humans should do things that are fulfilling, important, and make an impact.

My goal is to help you do less with greater effect, so you have more time to enjoy life, spend time with loved ones, or simply drink a cup of tea while looking at the trees instead of rushing to the next task.

Real talk: Not everything I try works. Todo lists are great — until you hit the “Add” button too easily and end up with dozens of noise tasks that overwhelm you.

On leadership: I believe in building real teams, not just groups of individuals who happen to work on the same codebase. It takes focused effort to build a group that trusts each other and cooperates effectively, but the payoff in shared ownership and better solutions is huge.

I share what works, what doesn’t, and what I’m still figuring out. This is my journey.

What You’ll Find on Progractivity

At Progractivity, content is designed for developers and technical leaders facing real challenges:

Team Leadership Insights: Practical advice for new tech leads and engineering managers navigating meeting overload, one-on-ones, decision-making, and team dynamics. Learn from my mistakes and wins as I figure out leadership in real-time.
Focus and Productivity: Strategies to minimize distractions, optimize workflows, and protect deep work time. From handling Slack noise to focusing on single tasks per day, discover tactics tailored for developers.
Technical Insights: In-depth explorations of tools, frameworks, and best practices that enhance your development process and coding efficiency.
Indie Hacking Journey: Follow along as I build side projects and tools outside my regular job, sharing lessons learned and challenges faced along the way.

Get new articles and tools on focus, productivity, and leadership. Subscribe to the Progractivity newsletter to get updates delivered straight to your inbox. No spam, just new content to help you on your coding and leadership journey.

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The Progractivity Agile Poker Cards

Estimating tasks can be a challenging part of any developer’s work. To make this process more intuitive and effective, I’ve created the Progractivity Agile Poker Cards — an opinionated tool designed to help developers estimate work more accurately.

Learn more about Agile Poker Cards →

DIY Agile Poker Cards: Available as a downloadable PDF file, these cards are perfect for offline story point estimation. You can print them out and use them as a hands-on tool during planning sessions, retrospectives, or even solo work. This resource is exclusive to Progractivity newsletter subscribers.
Online Agile Poker Estimation App: If you prefer a digital approach, try out the online app available directly on the website. It’s designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, helping you streamline the estimation process and stay on track with your projects.

Why Progractivity?

Progractivity stands out because I face the same challenges you do. I’m not a consultant or guru; I’m a developer who also leads a team, so I understand the challenges of both worlds.

Whether you’re a developer fighting distractions and protecting deep work time, a team leader drowning in meetings, or a tech lead trying to stay technical while managing people — there’s something here for you.

Let’s Connect

You can also find me on LinkedIn.

Let’s do less with greater effect, support our teams, and make time for what truly matters.