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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Nir Eyal
Read between
October 11 - October 13, 2019
The time we spend with our friends isn’t just pleasurable—it’s an investment in our future health and well-being.
Work can help people live their values of being collaborative, industrious, and persistent.
Using a detailed, timeboxed schedule helps clarify the central trust pact between employers and employees.
persistent distraction is often a sign of organizational dysfunction.
The Fogg Behavior Model states that for a behavior (B) to occur, three things must be present at the same time: motivation (M), ability (A), and a trigger (T). More succinctly, B = MAT.
“Suddenly, there was a way for anyone to jump into your phone when they wanted your attention,” Pierce continued. “Push notifications proved to be a marketer’s dream: They’re functionally impossible to tell apart from a text or email without looking, so you have to look before you can dismiss.”
A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance found that receiving a cell phone notification but not replying to it was just as distracting as responding to a message or call.
“the mere presence of one’s smartphone may impose a ‘brain drain’ as limited-capacity attentional resources are recruited to inhibit automatic attention to one’s phone, and are thus unavailable for engaging with the task at hand.”
Is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it?
If the trigger helps us do the thing we planned to do in our schedule, it’s helping us gain traction. If it leads to distraction, then it isn’t serving us.
To receive fewer emails, we must send fewer emails.
Most emails we send and receive are not urgent.
teams who brainstormed individually before coming together not only generated better ideas but were also more likely to have a wider diversity of solutions as they were less likely to be overrun by the louder, more dominating members of the group.
“What we fear most is usually what we most need to do.”
The evidence is pretty clear that humans are awful at performing two complex tasks at once. Generally speaking, we commit more errors when juggling many tasks at the same time, and we also take longer—sometimes double the time—to complete the tasks.
Use multichannel multitasking like listening to articles while working out or taking walking meetings.
By avoiding the feed, I’m much more likely to use social media mindfully while still allowing time to connect with others proactively.
preventing ourselves from sliding into distraction.
removing a future choice in order to overcome our impulsivity.
A “Ulysses pact” is defined as “a freely made decision that is designed and intended to bind oneself in the future,”
Such precommitments are powerful because they cement our intentions when we’re clearheaded and make us less likely to act against our best interests later.
An effort pact prevents distraction by making unwanted behaviors more difficult to do.
In previous generations, social pressure helped us stay on task—before the invention of the personal computer, procrastinating at our desks was obvious to the entire office. Reading a copy of Sports Illustrated or Vogue or recapping the details of our long weekend while on the phone with a friend sent clear signals to our colleagues that we were slacking off.
“people are typically more motivated to avoid losses than to seek gains.”
Losing hurts more than winning feels good. This irrational tendency, known as “loss aversion,” is a cornerstone of behavioral economics.
A price pact is effective because it moves the pain of losing to the present moment, as opposed to a far-off future.
It’s critical to know how to bounce back from failure—as we learned in chapter eight, responding to setbacks with self-compassion instead of self-criticism is the way to get back on track.
“People may be more likely to vote when voting is represented as an expression of self—as symbolic of a person’s fundamental character—rather than as simply a behavior.”
The authors of the study attributed the difference to the “psychological empowerment” that comes with saying “I don’t” rather than “I can’t.” The results were similar to those in the voting study: “I can’t” relates to the behavior, while “I don’t” says something about the person.
By aligning our behaviors to our identity, we make choices based on who we believe we are.
“Even when they are not embedded in years of tradition, simple rituals can help us build personal discipline and self-control.”7
a certain kind of work environment can actually cause clinical depression.
This factor was found in environments where employees were expected to meet high expectations yet lacked the ability to control the outcomes.
The second factor that correlates with workplace depression is an environment with an “effort-reward imbalance,” in which workers don’t see much return for their hard work, be it through increased pay or recognition. At the heart of both job strain and effort-reward imbalance, according to Stansfeld, is a lack of control.
Who is on a team matters less than how the team members interact, structure their work, and view their contributions.
In her TEDx talk, Edmondson defines psychological safety as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”
we’re all reluctant to engage in behaviors that could negatively influence how others perceive our competence, awareness, and positivity.
leaders must “model curiosity and ask lots of questions.”
“Although an ‘everything in moderation’ message when discussing screen time with parents may be most productive, our results do not support a strong focus on screen time as a preventative measure for youth problem behaviors.”
the human psyche needs three things to flourish: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
AUTONOMY—VOLITION AND FREEDOM OF CONTROL OVER THEIR CHOICES
Mayan parents give their kids a tremendous amount of freedom. “Rather than having the mom set the goal—and then having to offer enticements and rewards to reach that goal—the child is setting the goal. Then the parents support that goal however they can,”
It may be the case that children give up control of their attention when it’s always managed by an adult.”
kids can become conditioned to lose control of their attention and become highly distractible as a result.
Whenever children enter middle school, whenever they start leaving home-based classrooms and go into the more police-state style of schools, where bells are ringing, detentions are happening, punishment is occurring, they’re learning right then that this is not an intrinsically motivating environment,” he says. Robert Epstein, the researcher who wrote “The Myth of the Teen Brain” in Scientific American, has a similar conclusion: “Surveys I have conducted show that teens in the U.S. are subjected to more than ten times as many restrictions as are mainstream adults, twice as many restrictions as
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it’s no surprise that they should then want to turn to an environment where they can feel a lot of agency and a lot of autonomy in what they’re doing,”
“In internet spaces, there tends to be myriad choices and opportunities, and a lot less adult control and surveillance,” says Ryan. “One can thus feel freedom, competence, and connection online, especially when the teenager’s contrasting environments are overly controlling, restrictive, or understimulating.”
COMPETENCE—MASTERY, PROGRESSION, ACHIEVEMENT, AND GROWTH
Companies making games, apps, and other potential distractions are happy to fill that void by selling ready-made solutions for the “psychological nutrients” kids lack.
“it should be no surprise to us that at nighttime [they] would rather turn to an activity where they can feel a lot of competence.”
