Moneycontrol Startup Conclave Highlights: Use technology to block out technology: Nir Eyal on conquering distractions

“The world is going to only get more distracted... One has to decide to take control of your time and attention, says Nir Eyal.

-- Master internal triggers

-- Make time for traction

-- Hack back external triggers

-- Prevent distraction from past

“Use technology to hack back external triggers of distractions…. Use technology to block out technology… Two-thirds of people never change notification settings, for instance,” says Nir Eyal.

You cannot call something a distraction unless you know what it is distracting you from. My mantra, whenever I get distracted, is to take a deep breath and tell myself again and again that this is what I do to get better.

You need to spend less time communicating and more time concentrating. You have to schedule your days or someone else will do it. You have to turn your values into time. If your entire day is spent doing reactive work. You are running fast to nowhere.

Making a simple to-do list is not of any use. One has to create a to-do list with inputs like time in it to make the output of doing a task successfully.

Time management is pain management because all human behaviour is driven by one thing and that is the desire to escape discomfort. Writing down your sensation like anger, stress, and loneliness will help.

Ninety percent of the distraction comes from inside our own heads. These are called internal triggers. Uncomfortable emotional states that we seek to escape, such as anxiety and boredom. We choose to distract ourselves from these feelings. Therefore, understanding the root cause of the problem is the most important, which are often just feelings or internal triggers.

I took so many years to write this book on not getting distracted because I kept getting distracted.

So, I wrote this book for myself more than anyone else.

The problem today is not an information shortage, it is an attention shortage

Distraction is an action that pulls you further from your goals.

Just because it is a work-related task, does not mean it is not a distraction.

For years, I would get to work and set a goal and decide not to get distracted. But also, just think about checking my email...That is the most dangerous form of distraction. The distraction that does not even let you realisethat you are off-track.

“Sometimes, some products will be so engaging that they can create distraction…. We keep getting in our own way, we keep getting distracted... The one superpower that I want is to be indistractable,” says Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable.

“It is very difficult to live with the most successful man, they are not normal,” says Sudha Murty.

A child knows how to breathe, how to cry. I think there are certain characteristics of human beings that are best acquired from very early days. That happens because of family, early teachers, of environment you live in, the philosophy that you have imbibed, and role models.

Put the interest of the community ahead of personal interests in the short and medium term and you will be a winner in the long term… Infosys was run on this principle.

“I enjoy the company of people who are happy; who thought that Infosys was their company,” NR Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys.

Extremely important that the founder has the imprint on his/her soul on how deliberations take place in the company.

Because I was a leftist to begin with and came from a family of eight children and a lower-middle-classfamily, we were taught that sharing is caring.

When you see examples of commitment to the company, my view was that the best way of deriving happiness and joy is to share whatever little fruit is coming out of this exercise with as many people as possible. That is why we distributed as much as $20 billion among our people.

Human relationship is based on faith and trust. That's the primary job of parents -- to bring a certain sense of calmness of the environment at home. You have to be authentic, but you should not panic.

So, during such times of uncertainty, I would crack jokes in the office, and to start on something new and then talk to them about how other people have gone through than we are going through, how God is with us.