Productivity has many enemies: too many meetings, external triggers like interruptions from coworkers, and multitasking the wrong way, to name a few. But more often than not, it’s mental traps that trip us up. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: 4 Mental Traps That Kill Productivity https://www.nirandfar.com/productivity-mindset/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

Labeling yourself has risks. Give yourself space to change and grow. Recently, after I gave a virtual presentation on my book Indistractable, a listener wrote something in the Zoom chat that drove me bonkers: “This is great but wouldn’t work for me. I’m a Gemini.” Insert face plant. You’d be surprised how often I hear this rationalization or something like it. Sure, only hard-core astrology followers would find any justification in that listener’s statement—but the sad thing is, to some degree, we all use a form of it. Most people hawk “This just wouldn’t work for me” as a valid explanation for not trying something new. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on:  Labeling Yourself is Keeping You Down, Do This Instead  https://www.nirandfar.com/labeling-yourself/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

Even the most productive person can’t have it all. At least, not all at once. You can search for the best productivity apps to make you more efficient and focused. You can implement productivity hacks and cut distractions. But you still might feel like there simply are not enough hours in the day for everything you need to get done. Something has to give. You have to prioritize some activities over others—or else you’ll be spread too thin to dedicate yourself to anything fully. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Not Enough Hours in the Day To Slay Your To-Do List  https://www.nirandfar.com/not-enough-hours/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

Here’s how to get more out of your day without overtaxing your brain. Everyone knows that multitasking destroys productivity, right? Haven’t we all seen studies and read articles telling us that it’s impossible to do two things at once? In some ways, that’s true. The evidence is pretty clear that humans are awful at performing two complex tasks simultaneously. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Surprise! There’s a Right Way to Multitask  https://www.nirandfar.com/multitask-the-right-way/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

Nir’s Note: This article originally appeared in The Harvard Business Review Subscriptions are hot (and not). Companies and investors love subscription business models since they generate recurring revenue that translates to predictable cash flow. The more money a company is likely to make in perpetuity, the higher its share price. From 2012 to 2019, the subscription economy grew more than 300%, and 75% of companies selling directly to consumers said they would offer subscription services by the following year. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on:  3 Reasons Why Subscription Businesses Fail  https://www.nirandfar.com/why-subscription-businesses-fail/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

Taking a hard look at how we socialize helps us spend time the way we truly want. The coronavirus pandemic gave us a pause to ask ourselves if we really should go back to the old way of doing things. Asking ourselves some potentially uncomfortable questions about the way we get together could help us make important changes now that the world is entering the new normal. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Are We Really Having Fun at Bars or Just Escaping Reality? https://www.nirandfar.com/why-do-people-go-to-bars/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

I once tried a digital detox. It failed miserably. When I realized I was distracted during quality time with my daughter, I blamed my smartphone and made some extreme changes. I replaced my smartphone with an old-school flip phone so I couldn’t be tempted to use email, Instagram, and Twitter. But I found it too difficult to get around without GPS and the addresses saved inside my calendar app. I missed listening to audiobooks while I walked, as well as all the other handy things my smartphone could do. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Skip the Digital Detox—Abstinence Won’t Work (But This Does)  https://www.nirandfar.com/digital-detox-failure/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

They’re part of the secret of becoming Indistractable. Got a few minutes? Then why not use them to implement these quick fixes that cut distraction and aid productivity? I uncovered these productivity fixes while researching how to combat distraction and increase productivity for my book Indistractable, and I’ve relied on them ever since. From adjustments to your phone, desktop, email, and more, these productivity hacks all take less than 30 minutes to complete, and they’ll help you thwart those external triggers that are usually the culprit for your struggle with distraction. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: 8 Productivity Hacks You Can Do in 30 Minutes https://www.nirandfar.com/productivity-hacks/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

Manifesting is bull. There, I said it. According to Oprah, manifesting is bringing something tangible into your life through attraction and belief—i.e. if you think it, it will come. It encourages people to bring a goal to life by making vision boards, writing in manifestation journals, chanting positive affirmations, and speaking it into existence. Cue eye roll. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: The Surprising Science of “Manifestation” https://www.nirandfar.com/science-of-manifestation/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support

Since writing Indistractable, I’m often asked what tools and apps I personally use to get the most out of my day. But after years of research into the psychology of productivity, focus, and the causes of distraction, I’ve learned that there is no one magic, best productivity tool. Rather, the best tool is the one you’ll actually use,which is why I only rely on a few to be at my best. You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Best Productivity Tools: 6 That Stuck With Me https://www.nirandfar.com/best-productivity-tools/ Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nirandfar/support