4 tips to become indistractable from Nir Eyal

These last few weeks I’ve been a bit distracted.

I’ve got loads of life stuff happening at the moment. I’m selling the family home and finding somewhere new for myself and my kids. It’s exciting but has taken up a lot of my time. My kids haven’t been sleeping well and I have found myself reaching for things to distract me to ‘escape’ from the busyness.

I had a moment this week when I decided I wanted to do things differently. And because the Universe has my back, an advert for a masterclass on distraction popped onto my Instagram feed just at the right time. 

It was from expert Nir Eyal for Mindvalley. I watched the free masterclass which was super helpful and signed up to the course. I figured a good distraction to help me with my distraction is a course on distraction!

I’ve just started the course and it’s been awesome so far. 

If you are having trouble with this at the moment I’ve summarised some tips from Nir that might help.

1. Ask yourself – what am I going to focus on today to prevent me from getting distracted tomorrow? It takes commitment to make changes in habits and routines. But setting the intention is the first step.
2. A mistake repeated more than once is a decision – taking ownership of the things that distract you is the next step.
3. Identify external and internal triggers for distraction. 90% of our triggers are internal, meaning we are motivated towards distraction to avoid the uncomfortable feelings. Nir says that time management is pain management. 
4. Make time for traction. Instead of having an endless to do list, get smart with blocking your time and committed to the time you plan to do things. Planned time isn’t wasted time, meaning you can have time for scrolling social media and Netflix, but it can be planned in!
5. Hack back on external triggers. Get clear on what external triggers can distract you and if that trigger is serving you. 
6. Prevent distraction with pacts. Make pacts with yourself that act as a failsafe to move you towards focused behaviour and away from distracting behaviour. 

How focused are you at the moment? It will always be a work in progress for me but I feel much better for hitting it head on. 

Let me know. It’s good to share and support each other!

Much love

Helen