By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo
The title above is intentionally misspelled by Nir Eyal, the author of this book “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life”, because he wants to highlight the word “distract” which he underlines on the cover of this best-selling book to emphasize that if you follow the advices of the book, it will make you indestructible to distractions. The book is all about overcoming common distractions in life that is caused by discomforts such as wasting time on our smartphones, attending useless meetings, or overeating. The author says, “Discomfort breeds distraction”, which leads to these examples: (1) Boredom creates the urge to check our phones; (2) Social anxiety makes us say “yes” to meeting requests we don’t want to attend; (3) Stress leads to overeating. The solution, the author says is to learn to handle the discomfort through his two-way methods: Surf the Urge and Create Pacts.
Surf the Urge
In 2010 a group of researchers made a study that proves that if you just let the urge pass for at least 10 minutes, you can overcome a habit. Thus, your urges will naturally fall if you act on them or not. The author recommends imaging yourself as a surfer to overcome the urge. The next time you have an urge to check your phone, eat junk food, or indulge in any other type of distraction, imagine you’re a surfer riding your internal wave of discomfort. Feel the wave rise, peak, and naturally subside, like a wave moving towards an ocean shore.
Most waves of discomfort last less than 10 minutes. Therefore, Nir Eyal recommends using the 10‐minute rule: “If I find myself wanting to check my phone as a pacification device when I can’t think of anything better to do, I tell myself, ‘It’s fine to give in, but not right now. I have to wait just 10 minutes.’ This technique is effective at helping me deal with all sorts of potential distractions, like Googling something rather than writing, eating something unhealthy when I’m bored or watching another episode on Netflix when I’m ‘too tired to go to bed.'”
Create Pacts
To help us sustain that battle against urges, pacts are needed to stick to our “urge surfing habit.” The three different pacts are effort, price and identity.
Effort Pacts
Add effort between you and the thing you don’t want to do, so that surfing an urge is easier than giving into an urge. Put your cookies in a drawer with a lock and key with the key placed far from the drawer so it takes effort to get it. Or put your smartphone under a pile of books so it would be tough to get it.
Price Pacts
Put a price on your distractions. For example, if you get distracted by junk food while on a diet, promise a friend you’ll burn a hundred‐dollar bill taped to your bathroom mirror and send him/her a video of you burning the bill.
Download a smartphone usage tracking app and send a screenshot of your weekly usage to a friend each week. If you pass a certain threshold, promise to burn a twenty‐dollar bill and send him/her video evidence.
Identity Pacts
Adopt an identity that does not align with the action you’re trying to avoid. If you’re resisting meat, declare to your family and friends that you’re a vegetarian. If you want to stop answering emails before noon, write, “Sorry, I don’t answer emails before noon” in your email signature. Issuing “I don’t” statements is a great way to nullify distracting urges because you tie it up with your identity and we all have that strong urge to keep our word to protect our identity.
