Indistractable

This is very much a book for now as people are so easily distracted. While I expected this book to focus heavily on our addiction to smart phones, it explores the reason behind it and other distractions. While its quite technical it is written in an accessible manner. It's definitely made me think about my habits and how to be more present!

This book is full of interesting studies and facts to help you understand why you are being distracted and gives you simple solutions to help improve how you spend the time you have.

I would recommend this to anyone who is struggling with high screen time or work/life balance. It is really relatable and non-judgemental, the author himself admits to falling victim of so many of the struggles that we face today such as checking social media when spending time with his child. A lot of the findings really resonated with me especially the part about lying awake at night stressing about not being able to get back to sleep! I have put Nir words in to effect and now those hours at 2am are not full of stress and I fall back to sleep much quicker!

Many thanks to Netgalley and ... who provided me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and found it an original subject perfect for me because I am easily distracted. I'm the kind of person who has five-plus tabs open on her browser.

The book is full of tips on how to avoid being distracted and furthermore includes extra information on Nir Eyal's website, which I will be referring to. A good marker of a book is when the reader wants to re-read it which I do. I'll probably have a look over my list next year and re-read some of the books I've been reading.

I'm not going to mark it down because of what I'm about to write but I did find some of the elements amusing such as having a notice up on an office desk or cubicle letting others know not to distract me. I would never have gotten away with that at the offices I worked at though each to their own.

This is a book that is needed for 2019, the here and now, a lot of us get easily distracted by our phones and this helps us to understand our habits. Some of it is a bit technical and needs a bit of concentration but it makes sense if you read carefully. Good read for anyone.

As with every self help book that has ever been published, it’s not about reading it. The success of it lies in applying the revelations therein that we always really actually knew but conveniently ignored.

So a book written solely about to avoid ourselves being distracted shouldn’t really be needed. We all know what we need to do – it’s pretty obvious we need to get off Facebook, stop reacting to incoming emails like we’ve just been tasered, and heavily cull the current time-vampire that is Netflix (or as it used to be known, TV).

This book goes a lot deeper than such a simple lame message and discusses the psychology of why we facilitate our own distractedness. It also looks at the human relationship cost of being distracted.

But it’s one thing knowing why, but it’s another thing learning what you can do about avoiding being distracted. This book contains lots and lots of tips and tricks…or for those of you who prefer 21st century words, hacks, to prevent ourselves from distracting ourselves. Many in truth are more relevant to high performing professionals and organisations but there’s still enough here to help everybody who suffers from procrastination and being distractible.

There are a number of genuinely useful, novel techniques here.

Nir spends a lot of time, particularly towards the end of the book, on nurturing our children to be more present and not distracted. A very welcome insight, although clearly of limited applicability to those with young children. Now, this is new stuff and if you’re in that situation this book really is a must-read…and then apply.

The book points to some useful downloads from Nir’s website as well.

All in all, it’s a useful book with some insights which are different from any other similar books

Where has this book been all my life?! Full of practical advice in how to be present in the world, choose what you want & feel better about ignoring the rest. Even better it’s all backed up by science. Read it & take control of you life.

2019 has been a year of benefitting from a number of sage books on focusing and dealing with modern information overload. "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life" is a welcome addition to this congo line. Employing a smooth, helpful prose style and a comprehensive, logical structure, Nir Eyland addresses first the roots of distractibility, highlighting the new triggers of social media and email, before sensibly recommending internal analysis, trigger research, and time blocking as the fundamental steps in taking time back from our distractions. He then offers plenty of useful ways of “hacking back” time, including two that intrigued me: finding online work stint buddies and setting out challenging self-pacts. If you’ve known for ages that something is wrong with how you spend your time, this is the book for you.

Really enjoyed this practical and well-researched book about trying to avoid a modern curse - that of constant distraction. Some of the techniques suggested were familiar, but I found myself highlighting many sections, and I also enjoyed how Eyal scrutinised and challenged some of the contemporary cliches around whether tech harms children, for example.

Firstly just to mention I haven't read all of this book yet. I have read more than half and will definitely be finishing it at some point soon, just maybe not in time for publication date. I hasten to add that my failure to finish this book is in no way a reflection on the book itself, it's just that it is always more tempting to put a non fiction book aside in order to finish the fiction books.

I have found what I’ve read so far really interesting. It’s an easy to read book, not too dry. There are plenty of real life situations given as examples to prove points and theories. Like all books of this type research is cited often. That is the only part of non fictional self help books that I’m not too keen on, the constant reference to who said what in which research paper and from which educational institution they worked at the time. That for me is distracting but I accept that if you’re using someone else’s research to give as an example you have to credit them properly. I just wish all the credits could be at the end of the book, out of the way.

Once the author moves on to the subject of distraction in the workplace, this tends to be where I’ve given up reading. Maybe I’m a little out of touch but there seems to be a cavernous difference between office culture in the UK and the US. Apparently ten million people log on to Slack every day – I’ve heard of it, but that’s about as far as my knowledge, let alone experience of this (app?) goes. I think I’m probably going to skip this section as I found it doesn't really apply to my situation.

As you read through the book you are advised to download additional materials to help you get yourself organised and less distracted. If you buy the book, there is a code for you to enter onto the website for the book so that you can freely download the additional resources. However as this is a proof copy for review I wasn’t privy to this.

I have also been pointed in the direction of a few mobile apps that I’ve tried out. They’re really good and I have enjoyed using them.

Towards the end of the book there is a section headed How To Raise Indistractable Children. “What? where’s that, let me see that” goes the cry of every harassed parent and teacher in the land. I’ve had a quick speed read of it as I write this review and it does appear to give some fascinating insights. Perhaps a reason to buy this book based on this section alone.

All in all it is quite a good book with lots of helpful tips along the way. At the end of each chapter there are key points bulleted and in bold for you to remember and perhaps jot down as you work your way through the book. Like all self help books though, at the end of the day, you can read it as much as you like but until you put some of the ideas into action and practice on a daily basis you aren’t going to change your distractable little ways without some hard work and a will to change.

I think quite possibly I’m going to go back to the beginning of the book, take my own advice and work through each chapter relevant to me and start putting the advice and tips into practice.

In the age of the smart phone, it can feel incredibly hard to focus on anything. Even as I write this review, I have my iPad open beside me, my phone buzzing away as I have a conversation with my sister. Focus and attention are rare commodities in the modern world, with so many push notifications, addictive apps and mobile devices vying for them, there's rarely any left for deep work, family time or other constructive hobbies and pursuits.

What I liked about this book is Eyal doesn't try to persuade you that technology is the root of all evil. He recognises the the massive benefits of the computing power we have in our pockets or wear on our wrists, and encourages us to use them in a constructive way, and to recognise the psychological underpinnings of why a push notification is like crack for the brain, and how to change the bad habits formed in the last decade of smart phone use, so that we can have our technology serve us rather than vice versa.

Some of the techniques are your more basic time management strategies - time blocking, single focus etc - while others are more on the meditation and mindfulness end of the spectrum. The broad range of techniques means there's bound to be something that you can apply to your own life. I'm not one for writing lists to myself about how I feel when I get a craving to look at my phone, but I love the idea of time blocking, and the psychology of addiction (or is it addiction?) stuff is fascinating.

The book is also broken down into different sections relating to different parts of your life. Indistractable work, relationships, parenting - it's not just about being a super productive working machine, it's about an all round approach to your life that will improve the quality of your day to day experiences and reduce the amount of time spent mindlessly scrolling on your phone.

My favourite section was the 'Hack Back' ideas, where you take the features of your phone or other devices that have been causing the bad behavioural patterns and hack them to work for you in a positive way. There are a couple of apps I'm definitely going to download and start using. And once they've embedded in my routine, I might come back to this for a second read through, to see what else I pick up.

I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What is surprising about indistractable is that, given the book provides so many techniques on not being distracted, it’s not just a list of to do’s, but is written in a way which makes for an engaging read.

Nor is it a catalogue of quick fixes, which advocates keeping clear of modern technology, but guides you in harnessing it so that you work more effectively.

Essentially indistractable aims to put you in control of your life, rather than your life controlling you.

Explaining the reasons why we become distracted also adds another layer to your methodology.

At the end of each chapter is a summary which not only helps to reiterate the contents of the chapter, but aids in breaking down all the concepts into bite-sized chunks for easy absorption. As this is a book where you need to go back or link one set of ideas to another, the summaries are a great way of pulling everything together.

Having actual case studies made it easy to connect with the techniques, because every reader will recognise something of themselves within the descriptions.

By addressing not only work life, but the importance of quality time with the family, engaging with this book should help in every aspect of a busy person’s world. indistractable gives you permission to step back and create a healthy space in which to live productively.

Here is a book that I feel would benefit a lot of people in today’s society. We are all at faulty when it comes to being distracted and this book enlightens us on why.
An easy to follow book that you can read more than once and also a book you can dip in an out of too.

This is a well written, accessible guide on how we become distracted and the ways we can avoid it in the future. I found the author’s tone engaging and the anecdotes he provided were relatable. A really useful guide for those wishing to take back control over their lives.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ecopy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

When a young academic bought herself a pedometer, she started becoming obsessed with walking. She found herself walking up and down stairs in the middle of the night, playing walking 'games' and even entering competitions. This affected her work and her marriage. Luckily, she began to realise that this was an escape from other problems and started to slowly.overcome her addiction.

Usually, distractions like this are an escape, and it is important to work out what the real problems are. Eyall gives great advice on how to do this in this useful book, especially on how to stop being distracted by the ubiquitous social media. He also provides advice on raising 'Indistractable' kids. I found this very helpful.

I received this free ebook from Net Galley in return for an honest review.

We live in a world where distractions exist around every corner, and I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes procrastinate. It's a timely and pretty important book as the modern age of technology appears to have become like opium to some. So what can we do to become more productive you ask? Well, Stanford Professor Nir Eyal is about to tell us in an understandable, conversational way how to get more done and there is plenty of technical detail included for those of us who enjoy knowing the ins and outs. Of course, it heavily focuses on social media given it is one of the habits most of us seem to have that takes our attention away from more important issues; I must admit that I rarely use social media as it simply doesn't hold my interest for very long, but I can see that this would help those who have let social sites take over their lives and could be applied to other situations easily too.

Time is a finite resource and that means we should spend it wisely. I liked that Eyal admitted to falling victim to the dreaded time stealing monster himself and shares the solutions that helped him to overcome this. Being interested in psychology I particularly appreciated the parts in which he described the psychology behind the forming of habits, how to break them and how just being free of them will impact our lives for the better. He discusses how to implement the solutions to make use of them in everyday life and I found the book to be extensively-researched with case studies throughout to illustrate some of the points he makes. He also places bullet-point summaries at the end of each chapter to remind us of key points. Overall, it offers a refreshingly different approach to time management than other books on the subject.

Indistractable is a helpful, comprehensive guide that should be on the reading list of all of those who wish to spend their time in a better manner. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC.