In the current world with devices and bad things happening around the world, It is very easy to get distracted. And some of us are doing Work From Home and yeah now there's nothing to worry about and you can get easily distracted and can't able to focus more. This lack of focus is not only on work/learning but also on many places like our relationships, Spending quality time with friends, and family. And even more, we are so distracted that we are not providing enough time on focusing ourselves.

This book clearly gives you an idea of why and how you are distracted by the baits of modern technologies and many more. And he provides a clear and simple architecture on how you can remove those distractions and become more focused on your life.

This book was recommended to me by Harishankaran Karunanidhi the Co-Founder of HackerRank on one of our IDP calls (Individual Development Planning).

The Indistractable Modal

In this book, the author considers these 4 factors which can affect one's focus.

1. Master Internal triggers

It is almost quite self-explanatory. These are the triggers that come from us without any external distractions which break our focus from what we do and start to procrastinate.

It is just another way our brain attempts to deal with pain. If you leave your intended work and start using mobile, then mobile usage is an escape from reality. Only by understanding our pain, we can begin to control it and find better ways to deal with negative urges.

It isn't about the distraction. It is about how we respond to it. So if you are a person who wishes to be more productive but felt distracted, start focusing on why you get distracted. And how you deal with them determines who you will be.

How to get rid of them

1. Focus on the internal trigger that recedes the unwanted behavior
2. Write it down alongside the time of the day and review those activities weekly. (The better you notice these, the better you'll be at managing it over time.)
3. Surfing the urge - If I find myself wanting to check my phone, I'll tell myself fine to give in, but not right now. I have to wait just ten minutes. Sometimes giving that short time will make me re-engage in the work I'm doing and in that way, I'm surfing my urge.
4. Reimagine the task - Reimagine a difficult task into a fun and challenging activity to play. Play doesn't necessarily have to be pleasurable, it can free us from discomfort -  Which let's not forget, is the central ingredient driving distraction.

The great thinkers and tinkerers of history made their discoveries because they were obsessed with the intoxicating draw of discovery. The mystery pulls us in because we want to know more.

Self-control - What we say to ourselves is vitally important. Labeling yourself as having poor self-control actually leads to less self-control. Remind yourself that obstacles are part of growth.

2. Make time for traction

People protect their property in all sorts of ways - vaults, locks, security systems, and more. But most do little to protect their time. If we don't plan our day, someone else will.

The trouble is, we don't make time for our values. We unintentionally spend too much time in one area of life at the expense of the others

Focus on your values. Values are "How you want to be, What we want to stand for and how we want to relate to the world around us". Values are not the end goals. They are guidelines for actions.

You can't call something a distraction unless you know what it's distracting you from. To find this, the Author created a way to simplify and visualize the three domains we spend our time.

You

Taking care of yourself must be the core. The other two depend on your health and wellness. If you are not taking care of yourself, then

1. Your relationship suffers
2. Your work suffers (you can't give your full potential)

Relationships

Loneliness, according to researchers, is more dangerous than obesity.

Family and friendships live our values of connection, loyalty, and responsibility. They need you and you need them. Everyone benefits when we hold time on our schedule to live up to our values and do our share.

Work

Syncing your schedule with stakeholders is critical for making time for traction in your day.

And for more info visit Nir Eyal's blog post. The author also suggests conventional Time Boxing.

For Habit Tracking, I did a month-long research based on my strict requirements and finally, I'm using Habitify (with Lifetime access) It has all the best practices and working principles from many resources (Like Habit Stacking from the book "Atomic Habits").

I usually tried Time Boxing by watching some youtube videos and it wasn't working out for me after some time. Unrealistic scheduling and change of plans made me lose hope in that method. Anyhow, I tried to follow it casually alongside my habit tracking. This book gave me a perfect guide to ace it.

He recommends setting aside 15 minutes every week to reconsider the activities we scheduled based on the previous week's experience and consider changes of plans if there are any. This worked like a magic for me till now.

(And this next point hit me very hard).

If you are even doing another productive task irrespective of what you intended at that time, then "you are distracted".

For example, Checking mail (A seemingly productive task) - If it's done when you intended to spend time with your family, then you are distracted.

3. Hack back External Triggers

A study found that receiving a notification but not responding to it was just as distracting as responding to a message or call.

External triggers aren't always harmful. It's the question that helps you isolate the good and bad triggers. External trigger often leads to distraction. Filter it out and mute the unwanted notifications.

Distractions and interruptions lead to mistakes. (Read the book for more serious research and analysis on some serious issues in various industries and how they rectified them just by removing distractions)

So, when you are focused on a task. Defend your focus by letting the world know that you are busy. For example

1. Updating Slack status at work as 💡 Focusing and turning off notifications for some time.
2. Open-office floor plans are good for collaborative work culture but it increases distraction. If you are at the office add a small visible paper card near your table or monitor (Saying Busy or Focusing) to let coworkers know so that they'll come after some time.

4. Prevent Distraction with Pacts

Precommitments

Precommitments will be more effective, once you addressed the first three aspects. Precommitment involves removing a future choice in order to overcome our impulsiveness.

Ulysses pact - (A really funny and a better way to explain how precommitments helps) but

Make a choice in the present that binds us to or “locks us in” to an action or decision in the future, usually by means of a structured system of external constraints or incentives.

Effort Pacts

A kind of precommitment that involves increasing the efforts required to perform an undesirable action.

(Yeah, I can hear some of you. Some of these concepts are similar to the book "Atomic Habits")

I've been using the Forest app to create effort pacts for almost three years. In this app, you can add a commitment time (Max 2 hours) and plant a tree. It makes me not use my phone for that time. If I wish to break it, then the tree dies. Yes, it is just virtually. But it also gives me a +1 push to complete my task without being distracted. (Silly but worked for me and many 😉)

Price Pacts

A price pact is a type of precommitment where you put money on the line to encourage us to do what we say we will.

Either you can bring an accountability partner, Sign a contract to give a huge sum of money to them if you didn't accomplish this task. or add some constraints in a similar fashion all by yourself.

(Yeah, Once again similar to Accountability Partner from "Atomic Habits")

Identity Pacts

One of the most effective ways to change your behavior is to change your identity.

How do you know someone is a vegetarian? "Don't worry they'll tell you". Change "vegetarian" to anything, The joke would still ring true.

By assigning a moniker to yourself, You will increase the likelihood of following through with behavior consistent with what you call yourself.

It should now be clear why this book is titled Indistractable. By thinking of yourself as indistractable, you empower yourself through your new identity. It's time to be indistractable and proud!

I would really recommend you to read the book Indistractable written by Nir Eyal for more info.

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Thanks to @jonesxavier001, @i_rishisundar, and  @Sri Hari for reviewing this article.

If there is any feedback feel free to comment here or you can personally ping me on social media.

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