How You Can Stop Distraction Right Now with Nir Eyal

In this episode we talk about one of the MOST important skills in the modern world - the ability to be inDISTRACTable. Are you sick and tired of distraction? Do you feel constantly overwhelmed in a world of notifications, demands, messages, and more and more information flying at you? In this episode we discuss exactly how you can battle back from distraction, control your attention and choose the life you want using the power of being “indistractable” with our guest Nir Eyal.Nir Eyal is an expert in “behavioral design” having worked in both advertising and video gaming helping companies build and create more engaging products. Nir is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the book Hooked: How To Build Habit Forming Products and has been featured in Forbes, Psychology Today, and more. Nir is an active angel investor and currently writes to help companies create good habit and behaviors in their users on his blog NirandFar.com.How do we deal with distraction in today’s world?Why don’t we do what we say we’re going to do? Why do we do the things we know we shouldn’t do?What is “akrasia” and how did the greek philosophers deal with the challenge of distraction?Many of the “folk psychology” remedies to distraction don’t actually workMost likely you know what you want to do. It’s also equally important to avoid the things you don’t want to do. How do you become “indistractable"? It’s about CONSISTENCY over INTENSITY to achieve anything. What gets in the way of consistency moves you away from your goals. If you don’t focus on the CORE reason you’re getting distracted you won’t solve the issue. What is the job of a knowledge worker?What is the output of knowledge work? Problem solving. Coming up with novel solutions to hard problems. "The psychology of distraction”The opposite of distraction is NOT focus, the opposite of distraction is TRACTION. And both words end in ACTION. EXTERNAL TRIGGERS are NOT the DISTRACTIONEverything we do is about the avoidance of discomfort. In psychology, this is called the “homeostatic response."To begin, we have to master our internal triggers. One of the most common distractions in the workplace are OTHER WORKERSDistraction is the third leading cause of death in the United States! How nurses at UCSF made a simple yet earth-shattering change that saved thousands of lives by removing external distractions, reducing prescription mistakes by 88%!!What can you as a knowledge worker do to prevent being distracted during deep work?Mindfulness and meditation is fantastic when you can’t get rid of the internal triggers. The first question you should ask yourself before you meditate is can you change the SOURCE, can you FIX the problem? Self-compassion is a cornerstone of achievement and an essential component "You can’t call something a distraction unless you know what it distracted you from."The myth of the todo list. The magic to do list fairy doesn’t exist. Your to dos are your OUTPUTS not your inputs. They have nothing to do with your inputs. You can only control and schedule the INPUTS. That’s what you need to focus on. Schedule everything you want to spend time on, good, bad, fun etc - and when you’re NOT doing that, you’re being distracted. Homework: Know what you WANT TO DO with your TIME. Homework: Realize you have power, control, and agency to put distraction in its place in your life. 

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