Indistractable

“Indistractable helped me realize technology was not the real reason I got distracted and struggled to get things done.

Somehow, I kept getting distracted, even without the tech that I thought was the source of the problem.

living the life we want requires not only doing the right things; it also requires we stop doing the wrong things that take us off track.

After all, the time you plan to waste is not wasted time.

•    We need to learn how to avoid distraction. Living the lives we want not only requires doing the right things but also necessitates not doing the things we know we’ll regret.

Whether prompted by internal or external triggers, the resulting action is either aligned with our broader intention (traction) or misaligned (distraction). Traction helps us accomplish goals; distraction leads us away from them.

Socially, we see that close friendships are the bedrock of our psychological and physical health.

The curse is not that Tantalus spends all eternity reaching for things just out of reach, but rather his obliviousness to the greater folly of his actions. Tantalus’s curse was his blindness to the fact he didn’t need those things in the first place. That’s the real moral of the story.

We are compelled to reach for things we supposedly need but really don’t. We don’t need to check our email right this second or need to see the latest trending news, no matter how much we feel we must.

Fortunately, unlike Tantalus, we can step back from our desires, recognize them for what they are, and do something about them.

Distractions will always exist; managing them is our responsibility.

Even when we think we’re seeking pleasure, we’re actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting.

Without understanding and tackling root causes, we’re stuck being helpless victims in a tragedy of our own creation.

The distractions in our lives are the result of the same forces—they are proximate causes that we think are to blame, while the root causes stay hidden. We tend to blame things like television, junk food, social media, cigarettes, and video games—but these are all proximate causes of our distraction.

Solely blaming a smartphone for causing distraction is just as flawed as blaming a pedometer for making someone climb too many stairs.

Unless we deal with the root causes of our distraction, we’ll continue to find ways to distract ourselves. Distraction, it turns out, isn’t about the distraction itself; rather, it’s about how we respond to it.

distraction is always an unhealthy escape from reality.

Only by understanding our pain can we begin to control it and find better ways to deal with negative urges.

•    Understand the root cause of distraction. Distraction is about more than your devices. Separate proximate causes from the root cause. •    All motivation is a desire to escape discomfort. If a behavior was previously effective at providing relief, we’re likely to continue using it as a tool to escape discomfort. •    Anything that stops discomfort is potentially addictive, but that doesn’t make it irresistible. If you know the drivers of your behavior, you can take steps to manage them. Chapter 4 Time Management Is Pain Management At first, I didn’t want to believe the inconvenient truth behind what really drives distraction.

distraction is just another way our brains attempt to deal with pain. If we accept this fact, it makes sense that the only way to handle distraction is by learning to handle discomfort.