# Shortform-Indistractable  Author:: Nir Eyal ## Highlights > Identity pacts are a precommitment to the identity you want to have. These pacts naturally align your behaviors with the desired identity.For example, make being indistractable an integral part of your identity by making a pact to describe yourself as someone who is indistractable. For example, you’re not someone who can’t tolerate distracting notifications—you’re someone who doesn’t tolerate them. > Price pacts attach money to your precommitment as an incentive to stick with what you said you would do. > An effort pact is a precommitment that makes it more difficult to do something undesirable. > You can make yourself accountable to others—for example, asking a friend who works from home to come work in your home office so you both stay focused. > Require preparation: The meeting organizer must send out a short agenda that details the problem and their best suggestion for a solution. Prior to the meeting, attendees should use this information to brainstorm solutions. These two steps ensure that everyone will hit the ground running at the meeting. > each trigger an honest assessment by asking yourself: Does this trigger serve me? > No Blank SpaceYou must schedule everything you do, because it’s the only way to accurately gauge your indistractability—that is, how often you do what you planned. It doesn’t matter so much what your schedule looks like—it matters that you stick to it. > 2) It helps you stick to what you’re meant to be doing. You decide what you'll do and when you’ll do it. > 1) It helps you balance your responsibilities. Limiting the time you can spend on an activity stops you from working on it “until it’s done” as you might with tasks on a to-do list. > Timeboxing is a way of organizing your calendar by dedicating blocks of time to specific activities. > Schedule regular indistractable time with your kids and partner. This time is a commitment, not something that can be pushed aside for another activity or interrupted by your email or social media. > Think about who you want to be and the qualities you want to have, and what value-aligned activities you can schedule. For example, for your value of “mindfulness,” you might schedule 15 minutes of gratitude reflection in the morning. For your value of “staying healthy,” you might schedule an hour-long walk every morning. > Schedule your basic needs such as sleeping, eating, and grooming. This helps you compare how you should care for yourself with how you actually care for yourself. > Any behavior that happens at a time it’s not scheduled is a distraction, even if it feels productive. > The natural solution to distraction-filled days is creating a schedule.Build your schedule around the three responsibilities that take up all of your time—you, your relationships, and your work—and your values in each. > It’s important to think of your willpower as an emotion that comes and goes rather than a resource that runs out.If you think of willpower as a resource, you might give up on an overwhelming project because you “need a break.” On the other hand, if you think of willpower as an emotion, you find a way to manage it in that moment, such as completing a small or easy part of the project to get a boost of motivation. > Create play. Come up with different challenges. These should include limitations, which spark creativity and engagement. For example, if you have several essays to write, you might aim to write 3,000 words every day or set time limits to beat. > Making your situation engaging decreases internal triggers such as boredom and frustration, which curbs your urge to escape into distracting behaviors. This process has two parts:Dive deeper into the situation. Break the situation down into its smallest elements and examine them. This helps you find new perspectives and challenges. For example, if you’re bored at your job in a coffee shop, closely examine each element of making a perfect latté—espresso type, cream content, steaming temperature, and so on. > Look out for transitions. Distraction often happens when your brain is in the process of shifting from one activity to another. In these moments, tell yourself you’ll give in to the distraction in 10 minutes—usually, the urge passes by then. > Note the trigger. Keep a “distraction notebook” where you write down the details of your triggers—the time of day, where you were, your emotions, what you were doing when you felt distracted, and the distracting action you took. > Identify the trigger. When you’re about to switch over to a distracting activity, ask yourself: “What discomfort or feeling triggered me to do this?” Usually, you’ll find that the source is a negative emotion like anxiety, boredom, or lack of control. > The root of distraction is inside you. Humans are motivated by freedom from discomfort—mental and physical discomfort triggers you to find escapes. > There are four elements of the indistractablity model:Control your internal triggers.Build your schedule around your values.Reduce external triggers.Create precommitments. > Distraction: Actions that pull you away from what you want and don’t help you with your goals. > Traction: Actions that push you in the direction of what you actually want and help you accomplish goals. > Every one of your actions is spurred by an internal trigger, such as boredom, or an external trigger, such as an Instagram notification. These actions either reflect traction or distraction. > Contrary to popular belief, humans aren’t motivated by punishment and reward—we’re motivated by freedom from discomfort. When we feel physical or mental discomfort, we naturally search for ways to escape it. > The indistractable model has four parts: Control your internal triggers. Build your schedule around your values.Cut out your external triggers.Create precommitments. > Being indistractable means that you understand your distractions and control them instead of letting them control you. When a trigger pushes you toward distraction, you’ll take a moment to examine your feelings and your behavior and figure out how to change your actions to better align with your values. --- Title: Shortform-Indistractable Author: Nir Eyal Tags: readwise, books date: 2024-01-30 --- # Shortform-Indistractable  Author:: Nir Eyal ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > Identity pacts are a precommitment to the identity you want to have. These pacts naturally align your behaviors with the desired identity.For example, make being indistractable an integral part of your identity by making a pact to describe yourself as someone who is indistractable. For example, you’re not someone who can’t tolerate distracting notifications—you’re someone who doesn’t tolerate them. > Price pacts attach money to your precommitment as an incentive to stick with what you said you would do. > An effort pact is a precommitment that makes it more difficult to do something undesirable. > You can make yourself accountable to others—for example, asking a friend who works from home to come work in your home office so you both stay focused. > Require preparation: The meeting organizer must send out a short agenda that details the problem and their best suggestion for a solution. Prior to the meeting, attendees should use this information to brainstorm solutions. These two steps ensure that everyone will hit the ground running at the meeting. > each trigger an honest assessment by asking yourself: Does this trigger serve me? > No Blank SpaceYou must schedule everything you do, because it’s the only way to accurately gauge your indistractability—that is, how often you do what you planned. It doesn’t matter so much what your schedule looks like—it matters that you stick to it. > 2) It helps you stick to what you’re meant to be doing. You decide what you'll do and when you’ll do it. > 1) It helps you balance your responsibilities. Limiting the time you can spend on an activity stops you from working on it “until it’s done” as you might with tasks on a to-do list. > Timeboxing is a way of organizing your calendar by dedicating blocks of time to specific activities. > Schedule regular indistractable time with your kids and partner. This time is a commitment, not something that can be pushed aside for another activity or interrupted by your email or social media. > Think about who you want to be and the qualities you want to have, and what value-aligned activities you can schedule. For example, for your value of “mindfulness,” you might schedule 15 minutes of gratitude reflection in the morning. For your value of “staying healthy,” you might schedule an hour-long walk every morning. > Schedule your basic needs such as sleeping, eating, and grooming. This helps you compare how you should care for yourself with how you actually care for yourself. > Any behavior that happens at a time it’s not scheduled is a distraction, even if it feels productive. > The natural solution to distraction-filled days is creating a schedule.Build your schedule around the three responsibilities that take up all of your time—you, your relationships, and your work—and your values in each. > It’s important to think of your willpower as an emotion that comes and goes rather than a resource that runs out.If you think of willpower as a resource, you might give up on an overwhelming project because you “need a break.” On the other hand, if you think of willpower as an emotion, you find a way to manage it in that moment, such as completing a small or easy part of the project to get a boost of motivation. > Create play. Come up with different challenges. These should include limitations, which spark creativity and engagement. For example, if you have several essays to write, you might aim to write 3,000 words every day or set time limits to beat. > Making your situation engaging decreases internal triggers such as boredom and frustration, which curbs your urge to escape into distracting behaviors. This process has two parts:Dive deeper into the situation. Break the situation down into its smallest elements and examine them. This helps you find new perspectives and challenges. For example, if you’re bored at your job in a coffee shop, closely examine each element of making a perfect latté—espresso type, cream content, steaming temperature, and so on. > Look out for transitions. Distraction often happens when your brain is in the process of shifting from one activity to another. In these moments, tell yourself you’ll give in to the distraction in 10 minutes—usually, the urge passes by then. > Note the trigger. Keep a “distraction notebook” where you write down the details of your triggers—the time of day, where you were, your emotions, what you were doing when you felt distracted, and the distracting action you took. > Identify the trigger. When you’re about to switch over to a distracting activity, ask yourself: “What discomfort or feeling triggered me to do this?” Usually, you’ll find that the source is a negative emotion like anxiety, boredom, or lack of control. > The root of distraction is inside you. Humans are motivated by freedom from discomfort—mental and physical discomfort triggers you to find escapes. > There are four elements of the indistractablity model:Control your internal triggers.Build your schedule around your values.Reduce external triggers.Create precommitments. > Distraction: Actions that pull you away from what you want and don’t help you with your goals. > Traction: Actions that push you in the direction of what you actually want and help you accomplish goals. > Every one of your actions is spurred by an internal trigger, such as boredom, or an external trigger, such as an Instagram notification. These actions either reflect traction or distraction. > Contrary to popular belief, humans aren’t motivated by punishment and reward—we’re motivated by freedom from discomfort. When we feel physical or mental discomfort, we naturally search for ways to escape it. > The indistractable model has four parts: Control your internal triggers. Build your schedule around your values.Cut out your external triggers.Create precommitments. > Being indistractable means that you understand your distractions and control them instead of letting them control you. When a trigger pushes you toward distraction, you’ll take a moment to examine your feelings and your behavior and figure out how to change your actions to better align with your values.