Indistractable - Nir Eyal

 

Introduction

• In this day and age if you are not equipped to manage distraction, your brain will be manipulated by time-wasting diversions.
• In the future, there will be two kinds of people in the world: those who let their attention and lives be controlled and coerced by others, and those who proudly came themselves "indistractable".

1 - What's your Superpower?

• Cultivating the hability to focus intensely on what we're doing.
• The importance of making time for the things you really want to do.

2 - Being Indistractable

• We are constantly reaching for something: more money, more experiences, more knowledge, more status, more stuff.
• Researchers tell us attention and focus are the raw materials of human creativity and flourishing.
• Focusing deeply on the task at hand.
• Tantalus' curse was his blindness to the fact he didn't need those things in the first place. That's the real moral of the story.

Part 1 - Master Internal Triggers

3 - What motivates Us really?

• Even when we think we're seeking pleasure, we're actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting.
• It was an escape from reality.
• Distraction is always an unhealthy escape from reality.

4 - Time management is pain management

• Why are we perpetually restless and unsatisfied?
• Rumination: our tendency to keep thinking about bad experiences.
• Boredom, negativity bias and rumination can each drive us to distraction.
• It's good to know that feeling bad isn't actually bad; it's exactly what survival of the fittest intended.
• If we want to master distraction, we must learn to deal with discomfort.

6- Reimagine the Internal Trigger

• Be extra cautious during liminal moments.

7 - Reimagine the task

• Given what we know about our propensity for distraction when we're uncomfortable, reimagining difficult work as fun could prove incredibly empowering.
• Operating under constraints is the key to creativity and fun.
• The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
• Challenge the unknown day after day, the quest to solve these mysteries is what turns the discomfort we seek to escape with distraction into an activity we embrace.

8- Reimagine Your Temperament

• What we say to ourselves is vitally important.
• We should offer self-compassion by speaking to ourselves with kindness when we experience setbacks.
• Obstacles are part of the process of growth. We don't get better without practice, which can be clumsy and difficult at times.
• A good rule of thumb is to talk to yourself the way you might talk to a friend.
• Practice self-compassion. People who are more self-compassionate are more resilient.

Part 2 - Make Time for Traction

Chapter 9 - Turn Your Values into Time

• Reduce the sources of discomfort: if we don't control our impulse to escape uncomfortable feelings, we'll always look for quick fixes to soothe our pain.
• People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering (gaspiller) time, they are not wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy (radin).
• Is your schedule filled with carefully time boxed plans, or is it mostly empty? Does it reflect who you are? Are you letting others steal your time or do you guard it as the limited and precious resource it is?

Chapter 10 - Control the Inputs, Not the Outcomes

• Exercise, sleep, eating healthfully and time spent reading or listening to an audiobook are all ways to invest in ourselves.
• Schedule time for yourself first.
• 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.

Chapter 11 - Schedule Important Relationships

• It's not just the number of friends you have...it's the quality of your close relationships that matters.
• Unfortunately, the less time we invest in people the easier it is to make do without them, until one day it is too awkward to reconnect.
• If someone is important to you, make regular time for them on the calendar.
• Put domestic chores on your calendar to ensure an equitable split.

Chapter 12 - Sync With Stakeholders at Work

• Staying late at work  or feeling pressured to reply to work related messages after hours means spending less time with our family and friends or doing something for ourselves.
• Without visibility  of how you spend your time, colleagues and managers are more likely to distract you with superfluous task.

Part 3 - Hack Back External Triggers

Chapter 13 - Ask The Critical Question

• Our tech devices can gain unauthorized access to our brains by prompting us to distraction.
• You're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.
• The Fogg Behavior Model states that for a behavior (B) to occur, three things must be present at the same time: motivation (M), ability (A) and a Trigger (T). More simply, B=MAT.
• The more we respond to external triggers, the more we train our brain in a never-ending stimulus-response loop.
• The mere presence of one's smartphone may impose a "brain drain" as limited capacity attentional resources are recruited to inhibit automatic attention to one's phone, and are thus unavailable for engaging with the task at hand.
• Is this trigger serving me, or I am serving it?
• External triggers lead to distraction.
• External triggers aren't always harmful.
• We must ask: is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it?

Chapter 14 - Hack Back Work Interruptions

• The importance of interruption-free environment.
• Interruptions lead to mistakes.
• Open-office floor plans increase distraction.
• Defend your focus.

Chapter 15 - Hack Back email

• To receive fewer emails, we must send fewer emails.
• When does this email requires a response?
• Reply to emails during a scheduled time in your calendar.

Chapter 16 - Hack Back Group Chat

Chapter 17 - Hack Back Meetings

• If we are going to spend our time in a meeting, we must make sure that we are present, both in body and mind.
• The only things attendees really need in a meeting are paper, a pen and perhaps some Post-it notes.

Chapter 18 - Hack Back your SmartPhone

Chapter 19 - Hack Back your Desktop

• What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

Chapter 20 - Hack Back Online articles

Chapter 21 - Hack Back Feeds

• Social media is a particularly devilish source of distraction: sites like Twitter, Instagram and Reddit are designed to spawn external triggers - news, updates and notifications galore.
• The infinite scroll of Facebook's News feed is an ingenious bit of behavioral design and is the company's response to the human penchant for perpetually searching for novelty.

Part 4 - Prevent Distraction with Pacts

Chapter 22 - The Power of Precommitments

• A freely made decision that is designed and intended to bind oneself in the future.

Chapter 23 - Prevent Distractions with Effort Pacts

• In the age of personal computer, social pressure to stay on task has largely disappeared.

Chapter 24 - Prevent Distraction with Price Pacts

• People are typically more motivated to avoid losses than to seek gains; Losing hurts more than winning feels good. This irrational tendency, known as "loss aversion", is a cornerstone of behavioral economics.
• Put some skin in the game and enter a price pact to hold myself accountable to my important goal.

Chapter 25 - Prevent Distraction with Identity Pacts

• Our perception of who we are changes what we do.
• "How do you know someone is a vegetarian?" The punchline: "Don't worry, they'll tell you". You could replace "vegetarian" with any number of monikers, from marathon runner to marine, and the joke would still ring true.
• By aligning our behaviors to our identity, we make choices based on who we believe we are.
• By thinking of yourself as indistractable, you empower yourself through your new identity.
• It's time to be indistractable and proud!
• New research suggests that secular rituals, in the workplace and in everyday life, can have a powerful effect.
• The more we stick to our plans, the more we reinforce our identity.
• Identity greatly influences our behavior.

Part 5 - How to Make Your Workplace Indistractable

Chapter 26 - Distraction Is a Sign of Dysfunction

Chapter 27 - Fixing Distraction Is a Test of Company Culture

• Psychological Safety.
• We've got to have everyone's brains and voices in the game.
• Acknowledge your own fallibility.
• Model curiosity and ask lots of questions.
• Don't suffer in silence.
• Knowing that your voice matters is essential.

Chapter 28 - The Indistractable Workplace

• It's not polite to send direct messages after hours or during weekends.
• Indistractable organisations, like Slack and BCG, foster psychological safety, provide a place for open discussions about concerns, and, most importantly, have leaders who exemplify the importance of doing focused work.

Part 6 - How to Raise Indistractable Children (And Why We All Need Psychological Nutrients)

Chapter 29 - Avoid Convenient Excuses

• Simple answers to complex questions are often wrong.
• We are not unique; our fears do not differ significantly from this of our predecessors.

Chapter 30 - Understand Their Internal Triggers

• Ryan and Deci proposed that the human psyche needs three things to flourish: autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Chapter 31 - Make Time for Traction Together

• Failure is part of the training process.

Chapter 32 - Help Them with External Triggers

• Removing unwanted external triggers.

Chapter 33 - Teach Them to Make Their Own Pacts

• Distraction is a problem like any other.
• When we discuss our problems openly and in an environment where we feel safe and supported, we can resolve them together.

Part 7 - How to Have Indistractable Relationships

Chapter 34 - Spread Social Antibodies Among Friends

• I see you're on your phone. Is everything OK?

Chapter 35 - Be an Indistractable Lover

• Distraction can be an impediment in our most intimate relationships.