Indistractable

• We need to learn how to avoid distraction. Living the lives we want not only requires doing the right things but also necessitates not doing the things we know we’ll regret.

• The problem is deeper than tech. Being indistractable isn’t about being a Luddite. It’s about understanding the real reasons why we do things against our best interests.

• Here’s what it takes: We can be indistractable by learning and adopting four key strategies.

• Distraction stops you from achieving your goals. It is any action that moves you away from what you really want.

• Traction leads you closer to your goals. It is any action that moves you toward what you really want.

• Triggers prompt both traction and distraction. External triggers prompt you to action with cues in your environment. Internal triggers prompt you to action with cues within you.

• Understand the root cause of distraction. Distraction is about more than your devices. Separate proximate causes from the root cause.

• All motivation is a desire to escape discomfort. If a behavior was previously effective at providing relief, we’re likely to continue using it as a tool to escape discomfort.

• Anything that stops discomfort is potentially addictive, but that doesn’t make it irresistible. If you know the drivers of your behavior, you can take steps to manage them.

• Time management is pain management. Distractions cost us time, and like all actions, they are spurred by the desire to escape discomfort.

• Evolution favored dissatisfaction over contentment. Our tendencies toward boredom, negativity bias, rumination, and hedonic adaptation conspire to make sure we’re never satisfied for long.

• Dissatisfaction is responsible for our species’ advancements as much as its faults. It is an innate power that can be channeled to help us make things better.

• If we want to master distraction, we must learn to deal with discomfort.

• Without techniques for disarming temptation, mental abstinence can backfire. Resisting an urge can trigger rumination and make the desire grow stronger.

• We can manage distractions that originate from within by changing how we think about them. We can reimagine the trigger, the task, and our temperament.

• By reimagining an uncomfortable internal trigger, we can disarm it.

• Step 1. Look for the emotion preceding distraction.

• Step 2. Write down the internal trigger.

• Step 3. Explore the negative sensation with curiosity instead of contempt.

• Step 4. Be extra cautious during liminal moments.

• We can master internal triggers by reimagining an otherwise dreary task. Fun and play can be used as tools to keep us focused.

• Play doesn’t have to be pleasurable. It just has to hold our attention.

• Deliberateness and novelty can be added to any task to make it fun.

• Reimagining our temperament can help us manage our internal triggers.

• We don’t run out of willpower. Believing we do makes us less likely to accomplish our goals by providing a rationale to quit when we could otherwise persist.

• What we say to ourselves matters. Labeling yourself as having poor self-control is self-defeating.

• Practice self-compassion. Talk to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend. People who are more self-compassionate are more resilient

• You can’t call something a distraction unless you know what it is distracting you from. Planning ahead is the only way to know the difference between traction and distraction.

• Does your calendar reflect your values? To be the person you want to be, you have to make time to live your values.

• Timebox your day. The three life domains of you, relationships, and work provide a framework for planning how to spend your time.

• Reflect and refine. Revise your schedule regularly, but you must commit to it once it’s set.

• Schedule time for yourself first. You are at the center of the three life domains. Without allocating time for yourself, the other two domains suffer.

• Show up when you say you will. You can’t always control what you get out of time you spend, but you can control how much time you put into a task.

• Input is much more certain than outcome. When it comes to living the life you want, making sure you allocate time to living your values is the only thing you should focus on.

• The people you love deserve more than getting whatever time is left over. If someone is important to you, make regular time for them on your calendar.

• Go beyond scheduling date days with your significant other. Put domestic chores on your calendar to ensure an equitable split.

• A lack of close friendships may be hazardous to your health. Ensure you maintain important relationships by scheduling time for regular get-togethers.

• Syncing your schedule with stakeholders at work is critical for making time for traction in your day. Without visibility into how you spend your time, colleagues and managers are more likely to distract you with superfluous tasks.

• Sync as frequently as your schedule changes. If your schedule template changes from day to day, have a daily check-in. However, most people find a weekly alignment is sufficient.

• External triggers often lead to distraction. Cues in our environment like the pings, dings, and rings from devices, as well as interruptions from other people, frequently take us off track.

• External triggers aren’t always harmful. If an external trigger leads us to traction, it serves us.

• We must ask ourselves: Is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it? Then we can hack back the external triggers that don’t serve us.

• Interruptions lead to mistakes. You can’t do your best work if you’re frequently distracted.

• Open-office floor plans increase distraction.

• Defend your focus. Signal when you do not want to be interrupted.

• Break down the problem. Time spent on email (T) is a function of the number of messages received (n) multiplied by the average time (t) spent per message: T = n × t.

• Reduce the number of messages received. Schedule office hours, delay when messages are sent, and reduce time-wasting messages from reaching your inbox.

• Spend less time on each message. Label emails by when each

• Real-time communication channels should be used sparingly. Time spent communicating should not come at the sacrifice of time spent concentrating.

• Company culture matters. Changing group chat practices may involve questioning company norms. We’ll discuss this topic in part five.

• Different communication channels have different uses. Rather than use every technology as an always-on channel, use the best tools for the job.

• Get in and get out. Group chat is great for replacing in-person meetings but terrible if it becomes an all-day affair.

• Make it harder to call a meeting. To call a meeting, the organizer must circulate an agenda and briefing document.

• Meetings are for consensus building. With few exceptions, creative problem-solving should occur before the meeting, individually or in very small groups.

• Be fully present. People use devices during meetings to escape monotony and boredom, which subsequently makes meetings even worse.

• Have one laptop per meeting. Devices in everyone’s hands makes it more difficult to achieve the purpose of the meeting. With the exception of one laptop in the room for presenting information and taking notes, leave devices outside.

• You can hack back the external triggers on your phone in four steps and in less than one hour.

• Remove: Uninstall the apps you no longer need.

• Replace: Shift where and when you use potentially distracting apps, like social media and YouTube, to your desktop instead of on your phone. Get a wristwatch so you don’t have to look at your phone for the time.

• Rearrange: Move any apps that may trigger mindless checking from your phone’s home screen.

• Reclaim: Change the notification settings for each app. Be very selective regarding which apps can send you sound and sight cues. Learn to use your phone’s Do Not Disturb settings.

• Turn off desktop notifications. Disabling notifications on your computer ensures you won’t get distracted by external triggers while doing focused work

• Online articles are full of potentially distracting external triggers. Open tabs can pull us off course and tend to suck us down a time-wasting content vortex.

• Make a rule. Promise yourself you’ll save interesting content for later by using an app like Pocket.

• Surprise! You can multitask. Use multichannel multitasking like listening to articles while working out or taking walking meetings

• Feeds, like the ones we scroll through on social media, are designed to keep you engaged. Feeds are full of external triggers that can drive us to distraction.

• Take control of feeds by hacking back. Use free browser extensions like News Feed Eradicator for Facebook, Newsfeed Burner, Open Multiple Websites, and DF Tube to remove distracting external triggers. (Links to all these services and more are available at NirAndFar.com/Indistractable.)

• Being indistractable does not only require keeping distraction out. It also necessitates reining ourselves in.

• Precommitments can reduce the likelihood of distraction. They help us stick with decisions we’ve made in advance.

• Precommitments should only be used after the other three indistractable strategies have already been applied. Don’t skip the first three steps

• An effort pact prevents distraction by making unwanted behaviors more difficult to do.

• In the age of the personal computer, social pressure to stay on task has largely disappeared. No one can see what you’re working on, so it’s easier to slack off. Working next to a colleague or friend for a set period of time can be a highly effective effort pact.

• You can use tech to stay off tech. Apps like SelfControl, Forest, and Focusmate can help you make effort pacts.

• A price pact adds a cost to getting distracted. It has been shown to be a highly effective motivator.

• Price pacts are most effective when you can remove the external triggers that lead to distraction.

• Price pacts work best when the distraction is temporary.

• Price pacts can be difficult to start. We fear making a price pact because we know we’ll have to actually do the thing we’re scared to do.

Indistractable_ How to Control Your Attention .. by Nir Eyal, Julie Li.epub