Why?

At one moment of my life, I realized how easily I can be distracted by small things and fall into infinite scrolling in the middle of my studies, work, and life. Falling into the distraction trap is bad because it makes me feel anxious, as I just forget what I was doing before fell into it.
When I was doing trivial tasks, i didn’t really notice effects of it. But once I started doing relatively hard coding projects, I realized – I should be 100% focused or otherwise I just spend my time doing monkey work.
So.. I found this book.

Most of us lose focus not because of technology

Nir Eyal split triggers that lead us into disctraction into two types: internal and external triggers.

By internal triggers, we mean discomfort and related states and thoughts. For example, if you don’t like some person and you need to stay with them in the same room, or you had a stressful call in the morning and now you need to do tasks – it’s natural that it would be harder to get & keep focus.

Even when we think we are seeking pleasure, we’re actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting.
If a person is looking to escape from reality, which isn’t comfrotable, they will find a way to – with drugs, alcohol,video games, social media, etc

By external triggers, we mean iPhone notifications, alarms, and so on.

If you are in discomfort, it’s much easier to fall into the external triggers trap.

Stuck switching between different tasks ? Fell into disctraction’s trap

If you don’t know what to do exactly – you will do something easy and addictive.

It’s easy to fall into a trap of disctration when you’re switching between tasks and have some “buffer time” , even for seconds. For example, while cooking a breakfast and your eggs are boiling, you open your phone for a minute and…. got you! Or waiting for chatgpt to answer and switching between other tasks and… forget what you were doing. What about scrolling instagram,news,messages while waiting for your friend?

The antidote to impulsiveness is forethought

Problems with planning lead to disctraction.
There are traction and distraction.
Traction is when you go on your planned path.
Distraction when you switch to another road.
How can you say that you’re on your way – on traction – if you haven’t planned your way before?
You can’t.
So plan it.
Example:
10:00 – 12:00 Study
14:00-15:00 Answer work emails
If you’re doing something other within these time frames – you’re distracted.

What does living a focused life give you?

• A peaceful state of mind
  As long as you control your incoming information buffer and stay focused, you won’t be overloaded with too much information
• Enjoy the moment
  While you’re walking in a park or spending time with your kids – be in the moment, be focused.
• You spend less time doing the same things and get even better results.
  It’s like going to the gym and doing excersies on specific muscles. You’re focused on biceps, and they grow faster.
  
  

We’re looking for something that we don’t really need

Have you heard about Tantalus’s curse ? It’s a story of a man who was perpetually distracted.

What are we looking for when we scroll throught the internet? Important news? You would know them without looking for them. Somebody would tell you.

The world has always had distractions – and always will

When books first started to exist, philosohpers said they lead to distraction, as people’s own thoughts were replaced by books. Music, TVs, phones, laptops, AI – we’ll always find something new that can distract us.

Random

Even selfless acts, like helping someone, are motivated by our need to escape feelings of guilt and injustice.

Strict restrictions may be harmful as you want them more. “no-no-oh,yeah”. I’d think and maybe would do in 10 min.

Look for the emotion preceding distraction.Write down the internal trigger.Explore the negative sensation with curiosity instead of contempt.

Rewards like slot-machines keep us engaged

Belive in yourself that you’re indistractable. Without belief , you’re weak.

You’d be amazed how many things become irrelevant when you give them a little time to breathe.
In a group chat, tell me your finalized thoughts.
Cut down on unnecessary meetings by asking for a bit of effort on the part of the organiser. Make it harder to call a meeting.
WE commit more errors when juggling many tasks and we also take longer time to complete the tasks