Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Nir previously taught as a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies since 2003 and was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Reviewas, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” Bloomberg Businessweek wrote, “Nir Eyal is the habits guy. Want to understand how to get app users to come back again and again? Then Eyal is your man.”He is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.What we covered in this episode:
What motivated Nir to write Indistractable
The one topic that hadn’t been written about
Focusing on what works in practice and not just in theory
How the book helped work, life, family and health
Why we get in our own way
What it’s like to see your own book on the shelf
Who Nir really wrote the book
Why yellow is the best colour for a book and podcast
Understanding what causes distraction
The role of intent in separating traction and distraction
Why you shouldn’t write a to-do list
Focus on what is important rather than easy
How work tasks can also be distraction
The internal and external triggers of distraction
The shocking 90% of distractions that come from within us
How we have to master our internal triggers
The secret hack of planning our time rather than to-do’s
The myth of will power of a depleting resource and the one group for whom its true
Why you should avoid seeing yourself as a victim
Changing the narrative we tell about ourselves
Living to your own values rather than other peoples
Making time for traction by turning values into time
Being generous with your money and stingy with your time
The importance of planning time for fun and interacting with people
Dividing work into reflective vs reactive work
Using your calender rather than email to determine your day
The tyranny of the to-do list
How to a get to a higher level of team productivity
Using communication tools like a hot-tub
How to manage your boss
The role of culture in supporting its people to be Indistractable
How BCG changed their business culture
Work hard and go home – the lesson from Slack
Why focus is the superpower of the century
How to approach meetings
Why 80% of meetings have no agenda
The surprising number for the optimum number of people in a brainstorm
The only reason to have a meeting
The homework required before every meeting