Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

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In a world filled with an ever increasing number of distractions, Nir Eyal comes to the rescue with a book full of well researched and thoroughly tested ideas to help you choose how to spend your time wisely. It's all in service of the idea that what you consistently do over time is going to make you the person you end up being. Are you spending your time according to your values and who you want to be? Another day goes by and, once again, your most important personal and professional goals are put on hold. In Indistractable, behavioural designer Nir Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving you to distraction. Empowering and optimistic, this is the book that will help you design your time, realise your ambitions, and live the life you really want.

The chapter around identity was interesting. Much easier to make good decisions when you identify as someone who eats healthily or isn't a smoker than if you identify as someone who has a sweet tooth or a smoker trying to give up. Being indistractable is not about escaping from discomfort through distraction. Rather, it’s about learning to channel master feelings of dissatisfaction to make things better. In fact, throughout the book he is inconsistent about what he treats as a root cause versus a proximate cause. At various points he is happy to construe all manner of environmental factors – relational, organisational, psychological, and cultural – as root causes of distraction, while treating as a ridiculous moral panic any suggestion that technologies that have literally been designed to distract – many by designers he has influenced – are themselves part of any structural problem. He seems to allow for any root cause of distraction, as long as it is not technology. International bestselling author, former Stanford lecturer, and behavioral design expert, Nir Eyal, wrote Silicon Valley’s handbook for making technology habit-forming. Five years after publishing Hooked, Eyal reveals distraction’s Achilles’ heel in his groundbreaking new book.

To make time for traction, turn your values into time, schedule time for yourself and important relationships, and sync your calendar with stakeholders. I couldn’t blame my no-shows on traffic, nor could I blame it on membership dues, because membership was free for residents. Even taking a long walk would be better than doing nothing. Yet I somehow found reasons to skip my workouts. I decided to make a price pact with myself. After making time in my timeboxed schedule.

International bestselling author, former Stanford lecturer, and behavioral design expert, Nir Eyal, wrote Silicon Valley's handbook for making technology habit-forming. Five years after publishing Hooked, Eyal reveals distraction's Achilles' heel in his groundbreaking new book. The book covers a lot from being more focused at work to parenting to relationships and I learned several new ideas. What I loved the most, though, is how practical this book is. There are solid recommendations on new approaches to try as well as lots of useful and creative app recommendations to help you stay focused. I'm already putting several things into practice and seeing good results. Another aspect I found frustrating about the writing style was the slightly condescending or braggadocious tone that occasionally cropped up (especially when it came to subtly flaunting his wealth). I imagine that wasn’t the intention, but it was hard to ignore when he bragged about what other books he wrote and what companies he invested in. All the tips are practical and very useful. There are also reminders in the book and I have already recommended it to some of my friends. I’d also like to thank Stacy Creamer at Audible, as well as the team at BenBella, including Sarah Avinger, Heather Butterfield, Jennifer Canzoneri, Lise Engel, Stephanie Gorton, Aida Herrera, Alicia Kania, Adrienne Lang, Monica Lowry, Vy Tran, Susan Welte, Leah Wilson, and Glenn Yeffeth, for their efforts bringing this book to market. Indistractable PDF Book Free

Part 2: Make Time for Traction

To prevent distractions with pacts, plan for when you’re likely to get distracted, make unwanted behaviors more difficult, and call yourself “indistractable.” Time management = pain management. The drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause of all our behavior. Everything else is a proximate cause. One way to master internal triggers, says Ian Bogost, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is to reimagine an otherwise boring activity.