Nir Eyal, an expert on technology and psychology, says that we all need to learn to be less distracted into activities that don’t help us achieve what we want to each day. Unwelcome behaviors can range from social media scrolling and bingeing on YouTube videos to chatting with colleagues or answering non-urgent emails. To break these habits, we start by recognizing that it is often our own emotions, not our devices, that distract us. We must then recognize the difference between traction (values-aligned work or leisure) and distraction (not) and make time in our schedules for more of the former. Eyal also has tips for protecting ourselves from the external distractions that do come at us and tools to force us to focus on bigger-picture goals. He is the author of the book Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (https://www.amazon.com/Indistractable....

This article originally aired on HBR IdeaCast on September 24, 2019.

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Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
1:33 – Distraction is Habitual
6:09 – Four Ways to Become Indistractable
11:29 – Managing External Distractions
14:43 – Time Boxing/Schedule Syncing
19:37 – Making Pacts with Yourself and Others
22:23 – Distraction at Work Is a Symptom of Cultural Dysfunction
26:24 – Outro


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