Indistractable by Nir Eyal

There is so much to distract us these days. We start doing one thing and before we know it, we’re doing something completely different. The bane of my existence is social media. It’s not that I want it out of my life completely, it’s just that I would like to have more of a handle on all of these apps.

The two I find myself going down the deepest rabbit holes on are Instagram, mainly stories, and YouTube. Both apps do have value and I’ve learnt a lot from them, more YouTube than Instagram, but still. The problem is when I find myself tapping away to the next story when I don’t really care about what I’m watching or clicking on the dreaded suggested video once the one I intentionally watched is finished.

I needed a bit of a push to get these distractions under control, and that’s where Nir Eyal’s book Indistractable comes to the rescue.  If it isn’t obvious by now, I love ‘self-helpie’ books and this book is the cream of the crop. I find that authors of some self-help books tend to over-explain or try to prove their intelligence, and this makes getting through some sections feel like a chore. This isn’t the case in Indistractable. It’s simply written, well-structured and flows from one section to the next. It even has actionable steps after each chapter to get you to actually put what Eyal suggests into action.

Distraction comes in many forms, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be tech-related. We can set up ways to restrict our distractions and still find ourselves putting off what we must do. We need to look deeper than our actions and understand why we distract ourselves and stand in our own way. Eyal’s path to indistraction is broken down into four key strategies, internal triggers, traction, external triggers and pacts.  

Internal Triggers

What distracts us tends to have a root cause and we don’t seem to ask ourselves why we are getting distracted often enough. Normally it’s because we’re doing something that makes us feel a bit uncomfortable. Most things necessary for growth make us feel uncomfortable and the people that make the most progress are the ones that get used to this feeling and continue to push against it. That’s why our distractions seem to be the same things, like Instagram and YouTube for me. They’re easy and comfortable, which makes it easier to escape something uncomfortable.

Evolution even favours dissatisfaction over contentment and that’s why we’ve made the progress we have. We lean into those things that we feel have to be done. There’s always a new normal to reach that previously seemed unattainable. Once we reach it, it becomes mundane and comfortable, and we end up wanting more. We have to get used to the discomfort if we want to master distraction.

We’ve got to change how we feel about internal triggers and Eyal has a useful way to reimagine it:

Step 1: Look for emotion preceding distraction. This is usually how we feel about the task we’re meant to be doing, feelings like anxiety, restlessness, or feeling incompetent.

Step 2: Write down the internal trigger. Writing things down to reflect on them is recommended so often and yet we don’t do it enough.

Step 3: Explore the negative sensation with curiosity and not contempt. Explore your triggers with curiosity and ask yourself why you do that thing before you distract yourself.

Step 4: Be extra cautious during liminal moments. Liminal moments are the transitional moments between tasks. This is the ideal time to pick up your phone and suddenly the time has flown by.

What we say to ourselves really matters and if we just change the way we look at our tasks the easier they will become. I’ve dealt with this when I want to write this blog and film a new video. I know that doing these things will help me learn the most and make progress in the direction I want to go in, but I still pick up my phone or keep clicking the next video on YouTube.

Writing down how I feel before picking up my phone and telling myself that I’m working towards something, has caused me to stop myself when I feel I want to be distracted. I’ve always been annoyed with myself when I let so much time slip by, but I’m starting to shift my perspective and focus on relieving the pressure of the task to take away that fear and anxiety I feel before I get started.

Time for Traction

We want to make these changes, but are we putting the systems in place to help us achieve them? You’ve got to know what the distraction is distracting you from so you can set up a way to avoid it. This is where scheduling and planning come in. We’ve got to plan and make time to live our values.

“According to Russ Harris, author of the Happiness Trap, values are ‘how we want to be, what we stand for, and how we want to relate to the world around us.’ They are attributes of the person we want to be.”

The best way is to time-box your day. Have your day planned out so you know what you should be doing at each moment. I watched a video by Captain Sinbad about this and he said it was so helpful to have every activity in his daytime allocated. Time for yourself and growth is a priority, and you should look after yourself when scheduling before you try to accommodate everyone else. We need time to stop and take a break to help prevent burnout. This includes family time and unwinding.  Eyal has some great chapters on tips and tricks to prioritise family and loved ones. He emphasises their importance and that we shouldn’t squeeze them in if we have time left over.

Once you have your schedule it doesn’t mean you’re set. You’ve got to reflect on it weekly and make the changes necessary until you have a schedule that you’re comfortable with.

Recently I just changed my schedule, and it has taken some time to get used to it. I started waking up at 5 AM so I could go to the gym every day and still have time to work on the things I’m interested in after work. The only problem was that my body took about a week to get used to it. I was feeling sluggish and lethargic when I was meant to be doing the things I wanted to. Luckily, I quickly got used to it and I was able to schedule my afternoons to help prevent distraction.  

Hack Back External Triggers

There are so many external triggers constantly going off, it’s difficult to stay on track. We need to take control of these triggers and determine when it suits us to be alerted about an email or a notification on our phones. I try to hack these triggers back by keeping my phone on silent and always face down if it’s near me. When I see that notification light flashing on my phone, it will distract me until I pick it up. Once that notification has gotten my attention, it leads to me checking all other notifications while I’m there. I’ve tried to hack back more and change the notification settings for some of my apps. It’s a great way to limit temptation and take control of your surroundings.

How many useless apps do you have on your phone? I knew I had many, but I just never got around to cleaning them up. After reading the chapter on hacking back your phone I uninstalled all unused apps and rearranged them to help prevent distraction. I also learnt that Apple has a ‘Do Not Disturb’ function that only lets messages with the word ‘urgent’ in them come through to your phone. There are also apps you can download to stop you from using your phone for periods of time too. There are so many ways to control those urges if you really want to control them.

One Chrome extension I started using right away was DF Tube. This extension lets you watch the video you came to watch, but it takes away all the videos down the side along with suggested videos. The YouTube rabbit hole was one of my problems and by making this simple change, I don’t spend nearly as much time as I used to on there. He mentions so many helpful extensions and apps that help you prime your environment for less distraction.

Pacts

This part of the book is very similar to the methods used by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. We’ve got to make it difficult for ourselves to slip up if it’s something we really want to achieve. We can have an accountability partner, which is a mutually beneficial relationship where you’re both working towards a goal. If you decide you’re going to start going to the gym with a friend, you will turn up because you know they will be there. We tend to follow through when there’s someone who can be let down. We can even assign monetary commitments to tasks we need to get done. Eyal committed to paying his friend $10,000 if he didn’t finish his book by a certain date. Although this seems extreme, if it’s something you really want to get done, then that should be enough motivation to do it.

I liked the idea of aligning our identity with our actions. This is something I’ve done when I decided to stop drinking. If I identify as someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, I’m less likely to be tempted or even think about it. Identifying as a certain person can be a great way to motivate you to stick to the path. You could identify as an author, a videographer or someone who works out frequently. Outwardly expressing that this is who you are, changes your mindset and holds you accountable. You begin to think about whether you’re doing enough to identify as that type of person.

I found this book helpful in limiting my big distractions from YouTube and Instagram. After reading it, I’m more aware of when I get distracted and this helps me stop myself in my tracks. I’ve downloaded some of his suggested apps and Chrome extensions to help me when I want to get some work done. There are so many tips and tricks I didn’t cover and they’re all so practical and simple to apply. This is one of the better self-help books that makes you feel like you’ve learnt something after reading it.