Simple lights, fewer distractions

A few months ago, while working from home, my family kept interrupting me without realizing I was on calls. I put a small LED cube on my desk with simple color meanings. Green meant free, red meant busy. Surprisingly, it worked better than messages or notes. Has anyone else tried app-free visual indicators like this, and do they really help focus in shared offices or home setups?

Reading through this, it seems like visual availability tools work best when they stay simple. Whether in an office or at home, people respond faster to clear visual cues than to written rules. The format probably matters less than shared understanding and consistent use over time.

In my case, the biggest benefit was how straightforward everything felt. No apps, no syncing, no updates running in the background. At our shared office, one coworker brought a standalone LED cube and explained the colors in one sentence. That was enough. People noticed it instantly and adjusted without reminders. Later I tried the same idea at home, and even kids understood the signal. If you’re curious about how this kind of setup looks in practice, you can have a look at the Cube device as a reference. What I liked most was the consistency. The same colors meant the same thing everywhere. It didn’t block communication, but it reduced interruptions and made focused time easier to protect, especially during deep work or calls.