Step #1 — Expand your internal triggers.

Step #2 — Make more time for traction.

Step #3 — Eliminate external triggers. 

Step #4 — Pacts to prevent distractions.

Four psychological factors make satisfaction temporary:

• Boredom
• Negativity bias
• Rumination
• Hedonic adaptation

The following four steps help handle intrusive thoughts:

• Look for the emotion preceding distraction;
• Write down the inter...

The most effective way to make time for traction is through timeboxing: Deciding what you’re going to do, and when you’re going to do it. 

• Focus on inputs - not outcomes
• Schedule time for you
• Schedule time for important relationships
• Sync your schedule with stak...

Email:

• Reduce the number of messages received.
• Schedule office hours, delay when messages are sent, and reduce time-wasting messages from reaching your inbox.
• Spend less time on each message.
• Label emails by when each message needs...

Cues in our environment like rings from devices and interruptions from other people frequently take us off track. That’s why we should defend our focus.

• Remove clutter from view
• Use Instapaper or Pocket. Never read an article in the browser.
• Use FB news feed eradicator, DF Tube, Open twitter notifications directly instead of starting with the main feed

• Effort pact prevents distraction by making unwanted behaviors more difficult to do. Apps like SelfControl, Forest, and Focusmate can help you make effort pacts.
• Price pact is a type of precommitment that involves putting money on the line to encourag...

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. 

Require two things of anyone who calls one.

• First, meeting organizers must circulate an agenda of what problem will be discussed. No agenda, no meeting.
• Second, they must give their best shot at a solution in the form of a brief, written digest.