--- title: Calm at Scale - Oriana Sparks - NDC Toronto 2026 | daily.dev description: A conference talk from a performance strategist and former corporate communications professional who became a widow raising three young children overnight,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/calm-at-scale---oriana-sparks---ndc-toronto-2026-jw8x5pnfe twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Calm at Scale - Oriana Sparks - NDC Toronto 2026 | daily.dev og:description: A conference talk from a performance strategist and former corporate communications professional who became a widow raising three young children overnight,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/calm-at-scale---oriana-sparks---ndc-toronto-2026-jw8x5pnfe og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Jw8X5pNFe.png og:image:alt: Calm at Scale - Oriana Sparks - NDC Toronto 2026 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Calm at Scale - Oriana Sparks - NDC Toronto 2026 **[NDC Conferences](https://daily.dev/sources/ndc)** · 38 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A conference talk from a performance strategist and former corporate communications professional who became a widow raising three young children overnight, describing how mindfulness practices became her survival system. The talk argues that burnout stems not from too much work but from constant task-switching, citing research showing average focus lasts 47 seconds before interruption and 23 minutes to regain deep focus afterward. It presents six practical strategies for organizations: 60-second resets before decisions, protected deep work blocks, regulated leadership through breathing, attention-aware scheduling, micro-recovery breaks, and information diets (concise updates, color-coded urgency, meeting audits, protected no-contact hours). The speaker connects this to AI, arguing that while AI accelerates output, it cannot accelerate the human nervous system, making attention preservation increasingly critical for creativity and decision-making in tech workplaces. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How long can the average person focus on a screen activity before switching to something else? About 47 seconds, according to research by attention scientist Dr. Gloria Mark, who studied workplace behavior for roughly a decade with thousands of observations. After an interruption occurs, it takes an average of 23 minutes to return to that original level of focus, meaning most people rarely reach deep, sustained concentration during a typical workday. _Developers fighting constant context-switching can find focus-friendly reads curated on daily.dev._ ### Does multitasking actually work or is it a myth? Multitasking is a myth; the brain cannot focus on two things simultaneously and what actually happens is rapid task switching, which causes the brain to lose efficiency each time. Neuroscientist Dr. Amishi Jha describes attention as a spotlight that can only illuminate one thing at a time, and switching between tasks burns metabolic fuel as the brain reorients itself. _Teams debating focus versus multitasking habits can track attention research on daily.dev._ ### What are some low-cost ways teams can reduce burnout caused by constant task switching? Six no-cost strategies include a 60-second stillness reset before decisions, protected 60-90 minute deep work blocks, three slow breaths for leaders before entering a room, scheduling demanding meetings around peak cognitive hours (mid-morning, avoiding late afternoon), 90-second micro-recovery breaks between tasks, and an information diet using concise weekly updates and color-coded email urgency (red/yellow/green). _Engineering leads shaping healthier team rhythms can browse workplace culture discussions on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [It's getting harder to focus every day](https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-getting-harder-to-focus-every-day-eyr8b8gyh) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Deep Work Paradox: Why “Busy” Is Killing Your Growth \(And How to Fix It\)](https://daily.dev/posts/the-deep-work-paradox-why-busy-is-killing-your-growth-and-how-to-fix-it--wpa2jwdtp) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Math of Why You Can't Focus at Work](https://daily.dev/posts/the-math-of-why-you-can-t-focus-at-work-hee65nul7) · Tech Lead Digest · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/calm-at-scale---oriana-sparks---ndc-toronto-2026-jw8x5pnfe) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Calm at Scale - Oriana Sparks - NDC Toronto 2026","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/calm-at-scale---oriana-sparks---ndc-toronto-2026-jw8x5pnfe","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/calm-at-scale---oriana-sparks---ndc-toronto-2026-jw8x5pnfe"},"datePublished":"2026-08-13T10:07:00.373Z","dateModified":"2026-08-13T10:07:26.732Z","description":"A conference talk from a performance strategist and former corporate communications professional who became a widow raising three young children overnight,...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ogyf7JXU_Qs/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ogyf7JXU_Qs/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"NDC Conferences","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NDC Conferences","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--SiIyojEj--/f_auto/v1748760369/logos/ndc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ndc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/calm-at-scale---oriana-sparks---ndc-toronto-2026-jw8x5pnfe","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"career,leadership","timeRequired":"PT38M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Calm at Scale - Oriana Sparks - NDC Toronto 2026","description":"A conference talk from a performance strategist and former corporate communications professional who became a widow raising three young children overnight,...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ogyf7JXU_Qs/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-13T10:07:00.373Z","duration":"PT38M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/Jw8X5pNFe","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ogyf7JXU_Qs"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NDC Conferences","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ndc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Calm at Scale - Oriana Sparks - NDC Toronto 2026"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/calm-at-scale---oriana-sparks---ndc-toronto-2026-jw8x5pnfe#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How long can the average person focus on a screen activity before switching to something else?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"About 47 seconds, according to research by attention scientist Dr. Gloria Mark, who studied workplace behavior for roughly a decade with thousands of observations. 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