How to unlock your productivity superpower - based on Indistractable by Nir Eyal

How many of you feel like you had a really busy day or a week, but you look back at what you have accomplished or whether you completed the tasks you set out to do and feel underwhelmed? If you are one of them, you are not alone.

We live in a world where fewer people starve to death than die from diseases of affluence like obesity and diabetes. Our problem is an abundance of everything, including information. We are constantly being bombarded with information of various kinds. And this creates one of the major productivity killers - distractions.

I came across this book from the celebrated author, speaker, investor, and thought leader - Nir Eyal, titled "Indistractable". There is a great course on?Mindvalley, an online learning platform that focuses on life transformation on this topic by Nir Eyal and there is a short 1-hour?introduction?that I listened to. I thought I would share my key takeaways with you all so that you can decide for yourself if you want to check out this book or the Mindvalley course.

Nir introduces a new word into our vocabulary and defines an indistractable person as one who is able to identify what distracts them and is able to correct or control that and stay focused.

He uses an interesting quote - a mistake repeated more than once is a decision.

A distractible person keeps getting distracted by the same things again and again, and it is a choice or a decision. An indistractable person is aware of what distracts them and does something about it. Nir asks us each to consider this - what am I going to do today to avoid getting distracted tomorrow?

Before we can understand how to be indistractable, we need to understand what is distraction. The opposite of distraction is not focus, but traction, which has its roots in the Greek word trahere?which means to draw or pull. Distraction means to be pulled away from your tasks or activities. Nir says that the?most dangerous, and pernicious form of distraction is to prioritize the urgent and easy stuff at the expense of the important and hard stuff. And this happens to the best of us and we end up feeling unproductive after a busy day.

External triggers only account for about 10% of our distractions. Overwhelmingly, distraction starts from within caused by internal triggers. Internal triggers are uncomfortable emotional states we want to escape. And distraction is often a response to our mental discomfort.

Nir describes a 4 step process to become indistractable.

• Step 1: Mastering internal triggers
• Step 2: Make time for traction
• Step 3: Hacking back external triggers
• Step 4: Prevent distractions with pacts?

I will not go into each of them in detail, but I will share with you my key takeaways.

Being indistractable starts by identifying the internal triggers which are the cause for almost 90% of our distractions, and mastering them. Nir suggests the 10-minute rule for this and introduces the concept of?"surf the urge".?This involves setting a 10-minute timer when you get distracted, acknowledging the urge or the trigger consciously, and letting it pass. In about 10 minutes, you will be able to focus back on your task and get over the trigger without getting distracted.

?Another key technique to unlocking super-productivity and becoming indistractable is to make effective use of your calendar. Nir discourages us from letting to-do lists control our life. A to-do list can create a negative self-perception over time as we feel like we are continuously falling behind on our tasks and not accomplishing what we set out to do. Instead, use your calendar and set up implementation time for everything you want to accomplish. This should include not just things in your work domain, but also for your relationships, and for YOU.?

Nir especially stresses the importance of setting up time for reflective work that requires deep thinking, analysis, and strategizing, and not just reactive work which requires you to respond to requests or inputs coming from various sources of work - emails, slack messages, tickets, meetings, and others. The book and the short introduction to the course on?mindvalley.com?are full of practical suggestions that you can implement to unlock productivity while reducing stress and gaining better control of your life.?

?Time is the most precious and limited commodity we all have, and we have no choice but to be more productive. But, that does not mean getting busy or putting in more hard work, which can only degrade the quality of our work and our lives. It is exactly the opposite. I see this as a time to be intentional about what we want to do and do them well by prioritizing the right set of activities, and yes -?be indistractable.

There are several other great resources on this topic. One of my all-time favorite books on the topic of productivity is?Deep Work. Another great read is?Atomic Habits.

What do you think about this? Share your ideas and thoughts.

?