Jim

“Living the life you want requires not only doing the right things but also avoiding doing the wrong things.”
― Nir Eyal, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

“In order to live our values in each of these domains, we must reserve time in our schedules to do so. Only by setting aside specific time in our schedules for traction (the actions that draw us toward what we want in life) can we turn our backs on distraction. Without planning ahead, it’s impossible to tell the difference between traction and distraction.”
― Nir Eyal, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

“Similarly, email’s uncertainty keeps us checking and pecking. It provides good news and bad, exciting information as well as frivolity, messages from our closest loved ones and from anonymous strangers. All that uncertainty provides a powerful draw to see what we might find when we next check our inboxes.”
― Nir Eyal, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

“Unfortunately, distraction is contagious. When smokers get together, the first one to take out a pack sends a cue, and when others notice, they do the same. In a similar way, digital devices can prompt others’ behaviors. When one person takes out a phone at dinner, it acts as an external trigger. Soon, others are lost in their screens, at the expense of the conversation. Psychologists call this phenomenon “social contagion,” and researchers have found that it influences our behaviors, from drug use to overeating.”
― Nir Eyal, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life