Nir Eyal, an expert in behavior design and author of 'Indistractable,' shares his insights on overcoming procrastination and distraction. He emphasizes the power of understanding internal triggers, linking them to feelings of discomfort. By identifying these emotions, you can regain control over attention. Nir introduces the '10 Minute Rule,' allowing scheduled distractions for a limited time to improve focus. The conversation dives into the psychology behind procrastination and suggests techniques like time boxing for better productivity.
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insights INSIGHT
Time Management is Pain Management
Time management is pain management, since all human behavior is driven by escaping discomfort.
We use distractions to escape internal triggers like loneliness, boredom, or guilt, rather than hunger.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Master Internal Triggers
Identify your internal triggers by writing down the sensations you feel right before distraction.
Reframe these triggers as signs of something positive, not as negative experiences you need to escape.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Scheduled Worry Time
Schedule worry time to deal with anxieties and doubts later, preventing them from derailing your work.
This helps compartmentalize worries, allowing your brain to relax and focus on the task.
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How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
Nir Eyal
In 'Indistractable', Nir Eyal delves into the root causes of distraction, arguing that it starts from within and is driven by the desire to escape discomfort. The book offers a four-step, research-backed model to help readers master internal triggers, manage time effectively, hack back external triggers, and prevent distractions with pacts. Eyal also discusses how distraction affects various aspects of life, including work, relationships, and parenting, and provides novel techniques to overcome these challenges and live a more focused life.
The War of Art
Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Steven Pressfield
In 'The War of Art', Steven Pressfield identifies the internal force of 'Resistance' that hinders creative endeavors. The book is divided into three sections: 'Resistance: Defining the Enemy', 'Combating Resistance: Turning Pro', and a final section that discusses the role of the muses and the battle between the Self and the Ego. Pressfield provides practical advice on recognizing and overcoming resistance, emphasizing the importance of professionalism, discipline, and continuous work in achieving creative success.
In this moment, behaviour and habit design expert, Nir Eyal discusses how to beat procrastination and distraction. One of the first major steps is being able to master the internal triggers that are trying to pull your attention away. Nir believes that to do this you need to try and understand the underlying feelings behind these urge. As he says, time management is pain management, and all human behaviour is about trying to escape discomfort. Nir says that finding these underlying feelings can be achieved by writing down the sensations you feel just before distraction, this allows you identify them and then reframe them to your advantage. Because, if you don’t master these internal triggers, they become your master. Another major step to beat procrastination is by actually scheduling time to be distracted. Nir calls this ‘The 10 Minute Rule’, which allows you to give in to any distraction in your scheduled time, but only for 10 minutes!
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