I read Indistractable for October's book club.
My motivation -
- The good reviews on Amazon
- Learning new ideas on a topic that I had already previously read about
- The need to get back into the habit of forming and expressing opinions - a process I missed when I was active in the book club's previous edition.
Most of the thoughts and ideas expressed in this book overlap with ideas in books by Cal Newport (Digital Minimalism and Deep Work) and Oliver Burkeman (Four Thousand Weeks). Nevertheless, this book served as a reminder and reinforcement of ideas that I once held but were now waning.
Distraction VS. Traction
I had never considered Traction to be the opposite of distraction.
In part 2 of the book, the author focuses on how we can increase Traction by deliberately scheduling tasks that serve our goals.
This approach of planning ahead reminded me of a technique Cal Newport introduced in his book - Deep Work.
He recommended using a sheet of college-sized ruled paper to make daily plans for deep work. I adopted this idea. It is successful most of the time, and it does help in setting expectations for the day ahead.
Bullet Time
Another idea that resonated with me from this book is what I call "Bullet Time." When faced with distraction, it is recommended to act as an observer and notice every minutia of what caused oneself to move to work to distraction.One of Bricker's favorite techniques is the "leaves on a stream" method. When feeling the uncomfortable internal trigger to do something you'd rather not, "imagine you are seated beside a gently flowing stream," he says. "Then imagine there are leaves floating down that stream. Place each thought in your mind on each leaf. It could be a memory, a word, a worry, an image. And let each of those leaves float down that stream, swirling away, as you sit and just watch."
Absurd attention to detail
Work can be challenging, and we embrace distraction as escapism.The author suggests an interesting approach to taking an almost comical attention to detail for the task at hand.
the idea is to pay such close attention that you find new challenges you didn't see before. Those new challenges provide the novelty to engage our attention and maintain focus when tempted by distraction.
Fun is looking for the variability in something other people don't notice. It's breaking through the boredom and monotony to discover its hidden beauty.