Indistractable by Nir Eyal

(Note and apology: Blogger is the worst. I give up trying to get my notes on this terrific book to format correctly. You win. I'll just have to grimace when I come back to this post for reminders and inspiration. <Sigh.>)

Indistractable is the latest book I’ve found through The Marketing Book podcast and finished.If you’re in marketing and not a listener of this podcast, go subscribe now. If you’re not a podcast listener but are looking for a good title in marketing or sales, visit the podcast website. Much of my weekend reading/listening is done during long Saturday or Sunday runs. It’s rare I’m not listening to this podcast (which drops each Friday) on one of those trips. (Thanks Doug!) 

I read in themes. A few years back, I had depressing run of titles on the demise of my chosen industry (here’s looking at you, The End of Advertising, Killing Marketing, etc., etc.). I had to prescribe myself a healthy dose of memoirs from comics after that. The voices and stories of Billy Crystal, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, to name just a few, really did the trick.

Indistractable is the finale in a suite of titles on deep learning and focus I’ve been reading over the last month. I’ll get to posting my notes from the other titles soon, but it’s only fitting I start with this one because hearing The Marketing Book podcast episode (September 2019) with Nir Ayal is what got me on the topic. 

Eyal says the dominant employees of the future will be those who can exert the most willpower and build their ability to not be distracted (and therefore, to get things done).

As the author of Hooked, Eyal knows firsthand how things today are built to distract us and pull us into infinity loops. He suggested that we have the power to fight that-- and he does so while suggesting that we all have an indefinite reserve of willpower to call on in that fight (the findings about a shallow, expendable reserve of said willpower pops up in the older titles I read on the subject). We all have the ability to choose a life where we are able to get things done but we have to train ourselves to do so. This is the same point made repeatedly in Ultra Learning.

“Being indestractable is largely about making sure you make time for traction each day and eliminating the distraction that keeps you from living the life you want—one that involves taking care of yourself, your relationships, and your work.”

Quotable: 

• Roman philosopher Seneca: “People are frugal in guarding their personal property, but as soon as it comes to squandering time, they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”
• “If we don’t plan our days, someone else will.”
• “Distraction isn’t about the distraction itself; rather, it’s about how we respond to it.”
• ”The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”
• “We can cope with uncomfortable internal triggers by reflecting on, rather than reacting to, our discomfort.” 
• “But remember: finding novelty is only possible when we give ourselves the time to focus intently on a task and look hard for the variability.”

Key points I’ll want to recall:

• We’ve long believed that motivation was led by pleasure and pain. Actually, pleasure has little to do with it. “Simply put, the drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause of all our behavior, while everything else is a proximate cause.”
• Eyal’s tips on training yourself to push past discomfort:

1. Watch for the discomfort that precede distraction.

2. Write it down.

3. Explore your sensations. Acknowledge when it comes up, think about it and place on “leaves on a stream” and watch them float past.

4. Beware liminal moments. “Surf the urge” and wait ten minutes to check phone, walk for coffee, whatever.

• Reimagine the uncomfortable task as something fun. He quotes Ian Bogust at Carnegie Mellon: “Fun is the aftermath of deliberately manipulating a familiar situation in a new way.” 
• Be kind to yourself: this is what it’s like to get better at something. “You’re on your way.”
• Author suggests thinking of our lives in three domains: YOU, RELATIONSHIPS AND WORK. He suggests time boxing to focus energies on all these areas. Think of it as a scientific study or experiment each week; learn and adjust.
• Cites a Stanford study that reinforced the power of identifying as a voter vs “I vote.” In similar way, he suggests you prevent distraction with identity pacts. “ The perception of who we are changes what we do.“

Eyal includes chapter takeaways - short one or two line summaries - at the end of the book. As it nicely summarizes, “living the life you want requires not only doing the right things but also avoiding doing the wrong things. ...Traction moves you toward what you really want while distraction moves you further away. Being indistractable means striving to do what you say you will do.”

Final thoughts from the summary: 

• “Stop trying to actively suppress urges – this only makes them stronger. Instead, observe and allow them to dissolve.“
• “Reimagine the task. Turn it into play by playing “foolish, even absurd“ attention to it. Deliberately look for novelty.”
• “Reimagine your temperament. Self – talk matters. Your will power runs out only if you believe it does. Avoid labeling yourself as “easily distracted and “or having “addictive personality.“