You sit down at your desk to work on an important project, but a notification on your phone interrupts your morning. Later, as you’re about to get back to work, a colleague taps you on the shoulder to chat. At home, screens get in the way of quality time with your family. Another day goes by, and once again, your most important personal and professional goals are put on hold.
What would be possible if you followed through on your best intentions? What could you accomplish if you could stay focused and overcome distractions? What if you had the power to become “indistractable”?
International best-selling 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.
In Indistractable, Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving us to distraction. He describes why solving the problem is not as simple as swearing off our devices: Abstinence is impractical and often makes us want more.
Eyal lays bare the secret of finally doing what you say you will do with a four-step, research-backed model. Indistractable reveals the key to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of us.
A quick read with a useful approach to countering distraction. I agree with the author that we like to blame the thing that distracts us; to overcome distraction, we have to face the root of our distraction — basically, discomfort. He breaks his approach into four chunks:
- Internal triggers
- External triggers
- Make opportunities for traction
- Prevent distraction with pacts
This book is broken into parts composed of very short, focused chapters, each closing with a bulleted list of key takeaways. I think I liked the format? But sometimes the brevity of the chapters left them feeling hollow of content.
I skipped the section on kids and some of the work chapters.
