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Indistractable Summary
by
About Indistractable Book
"Indistractable provides a framework that will deliver the focus you need to get results."
—James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
"If you value your time, your focus, or your relationships, this book is essential reading. I'm putting these ideas into practice."
—Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind
National Bestseller
Winner of the Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award
Included in the Top 5 Best Personal Development Books of the Year by Audible
Included in the Top 20 Best Business and Leadership Books of the Year by Amazon
Featured in The Amazon Book Review Newsletter, January 2020
Goodreads Best Science & Technology of 2019 Finalist
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? What if you had the power to become "indistractable?"
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.
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.
Inside, Eyal overturns conventional wisdom and reveals:
• Why distraction at work is a symptom of a dysfunctional company culture—and how to fix it
• What really drives human behavior and why "time management is pain management"
• Why your relationships (and your sex life) depend on you becoming indistractable
• How to raise indistractable children in an increasingly distracting world
Empowering and optimistic, Indistractable provides practical, novel techniques to control your time and attention—helping you live the life you really want.
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4.7/5 (6784 reviews)
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These ideas are a summary of the Part 2 of Indistractable - Make Time for Traction. Soon I will publish more ideas respecting the remaining parts of the book in order to go deeper as it deserves.
Make Time for Traction
Part 2 of Indistractable is dedicated to the conscious decision of making time for traction. The author divides this Part as follows:
- Turn your Values into Time
- Control the Inputs, not the Outcomes
- Schedule Important Relationships
- Sync with Stakeholders at Work
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"If I know how you spend your time, then I know what might become of you."
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
202
"Values are not end goals; they are guidelines for our actions. [...] If we chronically neglect our values, we become someone we're not proud of - our life feels out of balance and disminished."
NIR EYAL
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Are you indistractable?
How to be Indistractable?
The root cause of all of our behaviors is the desire to relieve discomfort. Distraction is an unhealthy escape from reality. If we want to master distraction, we must learn to deal with discomfort.
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“Even when we think we’re seeking pleasure, we’re actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting.”
― NIR EYAL
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The Keys to Controlling Your Attention
Step #1 — Expand your internal triggers.
Step #2 — Make more time for traction.
Step #3 — Eliminate external triggers.
Step #4 — Pacts to prevent distractions.
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These ideas are a summary of the Part 1 of Indistractable - Master Internal Triggers. Soon I will publish more ideas respecting the remaining parts of the book in order to go deeper as it deserves.
Master Internal Triggers
Part 1 of Indistractable is dedicated to the art of mastering our internal triggers. The author divides this Part as follows:
- What Motivates Us Really?
- Time Management is Pain Management
- Deal with Distraction from Within
- Reimagine the Internal Trigger
- Reimagine the Task
- Reimagine your Temperament
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What Motivates Us Really?
For mastering internal triggers we have to understand what motivates us, what's the root cause of our hunger for distraction.
We first need to diferentiate the root cause from the proximate causes, e.g. A task is boring for me (root cause) so I use my smartphone (proximate cause) to scroll over social media (proximate cause). It's me who decides to get distracted with my smartphone due to my boredom, the smartphone is just a tool which I use to get distracted.
All motivation is a desire to escape discomfort and anything which stops discomfort is potentially addictive, but not irresistible.
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"Only by understanding our pain can we begin to control it and find better ways to deal with negative urges."
NIR EYAL
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These ideas are a summary of the introduction of Indistractable. Soon I will publish more ideas respecting the parts of the book, from the 1st to the 7th part, in order to go deeper as it deserves.
What's your Superpower?
To live the life we want, we not only need to do the right things, but we also need to stop doing the things that divert us from our goals.
- We need to learn how to avoid distraction. Living the life we want not only requires doing the right things, but also necessitates not doing the things we know we'll regret.
- The problem is deeper than tech. Being indistractable isn't about being a Luddite. It's about understanding the real reasons why we do things against our best interests.
- Here's what it takes. We can be indistractable by learning and adopting four key strategies.
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Traction & Distraction
We can understand traction as the actions that draw us towards what we want in life.
On the other hand, distractions impede us from progressing towards our envisioned life.
Both traction and distraction are prompted by triggers. These triggers can be internal or external.
These triggers, wether internal or external, result in an action which can be aligned with our broader intention (traction), or misaligned (distraction).
- Traction helps us accomplish goals.
- Distraction leads us away from them.
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"The wealth of information means a dearth of something else... a poverty of attention."
HERBERT A. SIMON
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Important highlights from the book "Indistractable"
Time management is Pain management
- Distractions cost us time, and like all actions, they are spurred by the desire to escape discomfort.
- If we want to master distraction, we must learn to deal with discomfort.
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Control the Inputs, not the Outcomes
- Schedule time for yourself first. You are at the center of 3 life domains. Without allocating time for yourself, the other two domains suffer.
- Input is much more certain than outcome. When it comes to living the life you want, making sure you allocate time to living your values is the only thing you should focus on.
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Ask the Critical Question
- External triggers often lead to distraction. Cues in our environment like the pings, dings, and rings from devices, as well as interruptions from other people, frequently take us off track.
- External triggers aren’t always harmful. If an external trigger leads us to traction, it serves us.
- We must ask ourselves: Is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it? Then we can hack back the external triggers that don’t serve us.
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Most people don’t want to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that distraction is always an unhealthy escape from reality
NIR EYAL
5
3 ways of not loosing focus from studying!
Blissful Environment:
One way of not loosing focus from a book should be having a clean , clear and tranquil or blissful environment. Music is key. 🗝️
Making learning colourful:
Make learning organized and fun! Use colours in your notes , make sure you have a routine chart , manage and mark your time for breaks for how long you'll study. Managing time is an aspect of achievement, creativity is skill.
Cutting off from the world and being one with yourself:
Cut yourself off from all devices , shut all socials , turn of your notifications and only use your device for research purposes.
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Sie müssen lernen, Ablenkungen zu vermeiden
"Um das Leben zu leben, das Sie wollen, müssen Sie nicht nur das Richtige tun, sondern auch das Falsche unterlassen."
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Sie können unablenkbar werden
"Indem Sie vier Schlüsselstrategien erlernen und anwenden."
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Focus
Whenever you feel distracted - just ride distractions for 5mins
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