Habit book notes · Nir Eyal · 2019

Indistractable — the big ideas

Managing distraction by understanding internal triggers, making time for what matters, reducing external triggers and making pre-commitments.

Free — no account needed to read

Frames distraction as a response to uncomfortable internal triggers, and offers four strategies: master internal triggers, make time for traction, hack back external triggers, and prevent distraction with pacts.

The big ideas

Distraction starts inside

Much distraction is escape from boredom, anxiety or other discomfort.

Timebox your values

Schedule time for what matters so you can tell traction from distraction.

Pacts

Pre-commitments — effort, price or identity pacts — prevent distraction in advance.

Key concepts

• Internal triggers
• Timeboxing
• External triggers
• Pre-commitment

Limits

• A practitioner framework with little direct testing of its full system.
• The author earlier wrote about designing habit-forming products, which some readers note as context.

What the research says

• Sirois & Pychyl (2013) — Argued that procrastination is largely about repairing a bad mood now — escaping the unpleasant feeling a task brings — at the expense of your future self. Limits: A theoretical review.
• Bryan, Karlan & Nelson (2010) — Reviewed commitment devices — arrangements people choose now to restrict or penalise their own future choices — and found they can help, but that many people who would benefit do not choose them, and some over-commit. Limits: A review; results depend heavily on design.

Apply this idea

Notice the feeling that comes just before you reach for a distraction, and name it three times this week.

Described in our own words with the source named — not a summary of the whole book.