How To Control Your Attention – Indistractable Book Summary. In order to be successful in life or to get good results in any work, we need to control our attention and focus in one place without distractions. This is why author Nir Eyal says in his book “Indistractable” that all our distraction starts from discomfort.

We keep checking our phones randomly because we feel bored. We eat overeating or junk food only when we feel stressed. Whenever we are bored, anxious, or stressed, our mind feels very uncomfortable at this stage. And relieves oneself from being busy in this distraction.

So to fight this distraction and stay focused, the author said distraction has been going on for many years, not today. Instead of blaming technology or the phone, we need to understand the main cause of distractions. We have to deal with the discomfort situation. Which is the root cause of all our distractions.

And for this, the author has shared some methods and techniques. With the help of which we can learn to focus and concentrate on our goals by removing all our distractions.

1. The 10 Minutes Rule-

Whenever we tell ourselves that we will not do this or try to control ourselves, we want to do more. Most people do this to stay away from distraction. Wants to forcefully focus on what is wrong. Here the author says needlessly to say that I will not be distracted. Rather say it will distract you but after a while. And here comes the 10-minute rule.

Suppose you are reading or doing some important work and suddenly a notification comes on your phone. Where your friend has shared a meme with you. Now he wants to check your phone. But you are saying to yourself “No, I will not check my phone. So your desire will continue to increase. Which will make you feel more discomfort.

Here you have to tell yourself-” All right. I will check my phone but 10 minutes later. I will focus on my work for 10 minutes. “According to the author, the urge of distraction lasts only 10 minutes. And after holding your urge for 10 minutes, it gradually decreases.

In 10 minutes we will see that we became so focused on our work. That we forgot to check our phone. It is really a very powerful technique. Whenever we feel distracted, we have to apply the 10-minute rule.

2. The Power of Pre-commitments-

How To Control Your Attention – Indistractable Book Summary. In this book, the author talks about three types of pre-commitments.

Identity Pact-

We act as we think. Our identity is very powerful in our own eyes. When we talk to ourselves we need to be fully aware of what we are using. For example- if someone tries to quit smoking and if someone offers him a cigarette then he replies- “I can’t smoke.” These words show the person’s behavior that he wants to smoke but is trying very hard not to smoke.

And if that is the answer he says – “I do not smoke”, here the person is connecting smoking with his identity. He tells himself and the people in front that he doesn’t smoke. After which it is very difficult to take any action by changing the identity. For this reason, the author suggests that we identify ourselves as indestructible people. So that we can easily fight our distractions.

Price Pact-

For most people, money is the main motivation to do anything. We are automatically motivated when we use the money to improve ourselves. Because we never want to lose our money. The author follows a method to work out. This is called Burn or Burn Method.

If he doesn’t work out, he’ll burn dollar 100. He was always motivated to work out to save 100 dollars. And he never missed his workout. I would suggest here that you do not waste your money. You can give that money to someone. To remember this, the amount of money should be such that you have the fear of losing it.

The Effort Pact-

In this pact, we double our efforts to stay away from our distractions. So we have to put a lot of effort to fulfill our undesirable urges. For example- we want to reduce our use of social media. So we have to uninstall all the apps that distract us. But don’t think that we will never use social media again. Because it is almost impossible to do so.

We need to uninstall it thinking that whenever we want to use these apps we can reinstall them and use them again. Repeatedly downloading, first installing, then uninstalling is a very effortless task. So, automatically we will continue to avoid these efforts. So that our use of social media will be very low.

3. Plan Ahead-

The author says that if we plan, we will be able to know better about traction and distraction. Traction means taking all the actions that lead us to our goal. And distraction is all those actions that take us away from our goal. For example, if we want to have a healthy and fit body, then exercise will lead us to the goal in this case. And eating junk food is a distraction for us. Because distraction will not help us in this case.

The author says- “The time you plan to waste is not wasted time”. Better a poor horse than no horse at all. That means we can fix any time of the day that we will use the phone or go somewhere, etc. The author is not telling us to avoid distraction. Rather he says to set a time when we will enjoy our distraction.

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4. Reimagine your Task-

The main reason for being easily distracted is boredom. Whenever we get bored in our work, we keep looking for brain distraction that will make us instantly happy. But we don’t need to be distracted to make our work enjoyable from the beginning. For which the author says that before doing any work, it is necessary to think about how to make that work enjoyable. If we think about it, many ideas will come to our minds.

5. Practice Self-Compassion

Distraction will come into our life. Maybe even after following all these tricks, we will feel distracted. This is where we need to practice self-compassion. Self-compassion means accepting one’s own pain, suffering, and failure and dealing with them positively. Through self-compassion we can bounce back from any distraction and focus on our work again.

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How To Control Your Attention Indistractable Book Summary tell usThat means we can never escape distraction. Distraction will come. But, in the meanwhile, we have to focus on our work while maintaining consistency.