Becoming indistractable

Nir Eyal has taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He wrote an earlier bestseller, Hooked: How to Develop Habit-Forming Products.

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The first step is to recognise that distraction starts from within. We need to learn how to avoid distraction.

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Distractions: actions that move us away from what we really want.
Traction: actions that move us towards what we really want.

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All motivation is a desire to escape discomfort.

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If distraction costs us time, then time management is pain management.

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Four psychological factors make satisfaction temporary

• Boredom
• Negativity bias
• Rumination
• Hedonistic adaptation

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It’s good to know that feeling bad isn’t actually bad, it’s exactly what survival of the fittest intended.

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Flight attendants who were smokers were studied and asked when they had a craving to smoke on the flight. The cravings were directly related to the time to destination and arrival and not a fixed number of minutes.

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Fun and play don’t have to make us feel good. However, they might be used as tools to help us focus.

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

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People are frugal in managing their personal property but squander away their time.

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Only a third of Americans have a daily schedule they monitor.

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You can’t call something a distraction till you know what it is distracting you from.

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Reflect on and refine your schedule. This will help you focus on what matters most.

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Input is more certain than outcome, so many people think of tasks as opposed to results.

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When we get too busy with work, we starve our relationships—family, friends etc. That's how friendships die—they starve to death.

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The biggest unknown/problem for employees is that they don’t know where to spend their time.

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Having a detailed, timeboxed schedule builds trust between employees and employers.

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Dr BJ Fogg from Stanford University taught mass interpersonal persuasion.

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The Fogg behaviour model states that for a behaviour (B) to occur, three things must be present: motivation (M), ability (A), and trigger (T).

So, B=MAT

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Today, much of our distraction is a struggle with external triggers.

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In the medical profession, distractions can be dangerous. In the airlines profession, distractions below 10,000 feet are dangerous.

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Open office floor plans are a big distraction at work. Most companies do not recognise it.

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To receive fewer e-mails, we must send fewer e-mails.

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Many things become irrelevant when you give them some time to breathe.

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Meetings today are full of people barely paying attention and sending messages or e-mails about how bored they are in the meeting.

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The primary objective of a meeting is to get consensus around a decision or direction and not a forum for senior managers to hear themselves think.

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Having many apps or links on the home screen of your phone or laptop is actually a trigger that distracts you. If you have a clean screen, you have fewer triggers to get distracted.

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Our perception of who we are changes what we do.

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Though conventional wisdom says that our beliefs shape our behaviour, the opposite is also true.

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The modern workplace is a constant source of distraction. We are always pulled into something or the other when we should be focused.

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Dysfunctional work culture is the culprit, not technology.

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Technology is not evil for children. You need to teach your kids to be indistractable.

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Since 1955, children’s free play has been continuously declining partly because of ever increasing parental control.

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Without a clear plan, many kids are left to make impulsive decisions that often involve digital distraction.

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As parents we often forget that a kid wanting something really, really badly is not a good enough reason.

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Social norms are changing but whether for the good or bad depends on us.

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