Be "Undistractable"

When you make a promise to someone, do you keep your words? Of course, you do.!! But why don't
you keep many promises you make to yourself?

We, in this era of modernization and new technologies, are so messed up that a single sound of a notification can disturb our focus and can divert our minds. Disturbance in our focus and diversion of our minds will not let us achieve our desired goals and also we won't keep many promises to ourselves. Let's discuss why do we get distracted and how can we overcome these distractions. 

I mentioned about the modernization and new technologies because these are the things we blame for distracting us. Back in the '90s, people were less distracted from their work as compared to today because the development of new technologies was less and the adoption of modernization wasn't there. But at present, the technologies (basically here I am talking about mobile phones, laptops, iPad, tabs and all) are the daily part of human life. Some of us take technologies as a boon whereas the others take it as a bane. People who know how to use it or how much to use it or when to use it takes technologies as a boon and those who don't have any idea when and how to use it or who are over addicted take it as a bane. 

It is simple, we are not focused and dedicated to our work that's why we get distracted. Here the new question arises is why are we not focused then? Don't we want to achieve our desired goals or we don't want to keep our words or what? Suppose let me put a case here to explain how and why distraction occurs. We blame our mobile phones, Netflix and many more such things for distracting us right? But why we in the first place go for those things? If we have work to complete, why we don't keep our phones on silent or why don't we close the wifi. Why do we watch Netflix instead of going to your scheduled workout? Here, in this case, distraction occurs because we are not serious and we take our work for granted.

While meeting anyone, if you are busy with your phones or with your own thoughts, the other person will never be with you again because you are distracting the meeting with your personal thoughts and phones. 

While reading a book, if you keep checking your phone or keep thinking about hanging out with your friends, you will not be able to complete it on a promised date and time.

While studying make sure your main focus is on your studies instead of thinking about the girl or boy you meet a few days back in social media or about your future which will surely sink if you keep distracting yourself.

Or when you try to be fully present with your family, friends and find yourself busy somewhere else can make a negative impact on your relationships as well.

Everyone reading this is well familiar with the things that I have mentioned above, but also we keep repeating these things again and again and are being distracted.
 
An American author Nir Eyal who is known for his bestselling book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, in a podcast of The Diary Of A CEO by Steven Bartlett explained about his new book Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. He also shares how he regained and sustained focus while writing this book. I would like to share some of his teachings which he shared in the Podcast which changed the way I used to think.

• If you really think the smartphones are distracting you and you can't do anything about it, replace it with feature phones.
• If you can't give quality time to your family because you are busy with social media, you can buy an outlet timer and plug it in your internet router and set the time i.e. the internet will shut down automatically (you can also go and plug it out, but instead of doing so, make a little effort to have a quality time with family) between 9pm to 10pm so that you have quality time with your family.    
• Make a schedule and to-do list and strick with it whatever be the condition, until and unless there is nothing so important and serious.

Now I would like to share how can we indistractable by learning and adopting four key strategies from the book Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life :

• To master internal triggers, learn how to deal with discomfort, observe urges and allow them to dissolve, and reimagine the trigger or task. 
• To make time for traction, turn your values into time, schedule time for yourself and important relationships, and sync your calendar with stakeholders.
• To hack back external triggers, defend your focus, send fewer emails, get in and out of group chats at scheduled times, and turn off desktop and mobile notifications.
• To prevent distractions with pacts, plan for when you’re likely to get distracted, make unwanted behaviors more difficult, and call yourself “indistractable.”

Now finally I would like to explain in simple words how can we overcome these distractions. 

• Make a schedule for a day or a week and follow it sincerely until and unless you don't have an emergency.
• If anything you have written in the schedule to do, do it anyhow don't make it tomorrow work.
• Spending more time on social media might give you comfort or pleasure, but it is taking your valuable time and giving nothing important for your better future. But if your spending 10 to 12 hours on your phones or laptops for a good purpose that might be you are influencing the lives of others and making changes then it's not a bane for you.
• Make notification settings for the apps that you used the most so that while doing any important task, you won't be distracted by the notifications.
• If you go for a cheat day (to all the gym lovers) and have a sweet, it doesn't mean you can have anything throughout your day. Strick to your schedule. 
• If you tried to focus for a day and it doesn't work, it doesn't mean you have to give up and say I can't do it. Overcoming your comfort zone will only help you to stay focused and achieve your words.
• If you are facing a problem of focusing even after replacing your phones, try doing meditation. It will take time but will be helpful to you in the long run.

"Living the good life requires not only doing the right things but also not doing the things we know we’ll regret. Being indistractable, according to Eyal, is about understanding the real reasons why we do things against our best interests."