Indistractable

I almost didn’t read this book. On first glance I thought it’d be another collection of tips and tricks for avoiding your phone–block websites, turn off push notifications, go live in a log cabin to reclaim your attention and your life from being hacked by evil social media platforms. The usual.

Not that those tools aren’t useful, but they only mask symptoms instead of addressing root causes. Ultimately you find a way around the blocker, or get distracted by something else.

One of my coaching clients wanted to try some of the workbook exercises included with Indistractable (available here). I was pleased to see that Eyal had gone beyond simple tactics and developed a deeper, more thorough model of distraction.

So I picked up the book. Eyal dives straight in to the psychology behind distraction, noting that most of our behavior is caused by pain avoidance, not pleasure seeking. He claims, “only by understanding our pain can we begin to control it and find better ways to deal with negative urges.”

Eyal develops his model and shows you how to become an indistractable person in a clear way, with a good mix of ideas and tactics. He only layers on the website-blocker advice after developing solid fundamentals, which is where it should be. Solid read.