Or listen on your favorite podcast app
Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Spotify
—
“Whatever you do with your time, I want you to do it with intent. That’s the goal here. It’s not about getting off of technology, it’s about using this stuff with intent.” — Nir Eyal
Nir Eyal is a behavioral designer and bestselling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Hooked identifies a four-step process (called the Hooked Model) that explains how to build habit-forming products. But as Nir began writing about, sharing, and consulting companies using the Hooked Model, he realized that these same tools were causing his own distraction. They took time away from the things and people he valued most. This realization prompted him to write his second and brand new book, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.
In Indistractable, Nir addresses the root causes of distraction, honing in on what behaviorally makes us distracted in the first place. According to research, distraction is caused by external and internal triggers.
“We have to face the fact that most distraction starts from within. But what the research reveals is that most distraction is a reaction to a negative emotion. If our behaviors are prompted by these internal triggers, these uncomfortable emotional states, then that means that time management is pain management.”
In today’s fast-paced, tech-driven world, distractions live everywhere – from the pop-up ad online to the ping of your phone to the push notification on your computer. On this episode, Chad and Nir explain why we get distracted and identify tactics for how to overcome it.
—
P.S. Thanks to our partner, b8ta, this week we will be giving away three Pocketalk voice translators. The Pocketalk supports up to 74 languages and uses built-in mobile data to provide two-way foreign language translations in real time. Enter the giveaway here for a chance to win!
Quotes from Nir:
“So much advice out there in the personal development sphere is about what to do. But if you think about it, we all know what to do. We know that if you want to have better relationships, you have to be fully present with the people you love. The question is, why don’t we do it? So that is the central question of Indistractable.”
“We have to face the fact that most distraction starts from within. But what the research reveals is that most distraction is a reaction to a negative emotion. If our behaviors are prompted by these internal triggers, these uncomfortable emotional states, then that means that time management is pain management. All of these [self-help] people give you these tips, tricks, and hacks — none of them work unless you first start with the internal triggers.”
“The only input that you have control over is your time. Everything on your to-do list has to have a place on your calendar.”
