Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPClassic: Nir Eyal on Being Indistractable

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

We live in a world of habit-forming technology and constant distraction, but how can we harness the power of habit and limit these disruptive interruptions? Expert in behavioral design and bestselling author, Nir Eyal, has the answers. Nir’s high-level understanding of how to motivate and manipulate human behavior is helpful for people looking to build habit-forming products, create habits that stick, and for those looking to become indistractable and lead more productive lives. In this episode, Hala and Nir chat about Nir’s 4-step hook model to build habit-forming products, why habits are good for businesses, Nir’s strategies to become indistractable, and why Nir considers indistractability the ultimate secret weapon.  Topics Include: - What is behavioral design? - The goal behind Nir’s book Hooked - Defining what a habit is - Why are habits good for business?  - Four-step hook model  - How is the hook model different from traditional feedback loops? - Defining paid and earned triggers  - Lewin’s Equation and why it’s important that a product is easy to use  - The three different types of rewards - The five fundamental questions to build habit-forming products - Why did Nir write Indistractible? - Nir on why indistractability is the ultimate secret weapon - Four parts of the indistractable model  - And other topics… Nir Eyal is an author, public speaker, consultant, and investor. Nir is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir is an expert in behavioral engineering and has lectured at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. Nir also works as a consultant helping companies build engaging products and services. His writing appears in publications including the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, TechCrunch, and Psychology Today. Nir received his BA from Emory University and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Sponsored By: Castbox - Listen and Subscribe to Young and Profiting on Castbox - https://youngandprofiting.co/castbox Credit Karma Personal Loans - Go to creditkarma.com/loanoffers to find the loan for you Shopify - Go to shopify.com/profiting, for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features Jordan Harbinger - Check out jordanharbinger.com/start for some episode recommendations Wise - Join 13 million people and businesses who are already saving, and try Wise for free at Wise.com/yap Resources Mentioned: YAP Episode #34: How To Be Indistractable with Nir Eyal: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/34-how-to-be-indistractable-with-nir-eyal/  #YAPLive: Focus is the New Productivity with Nir Eyal and Ethan Kross on Clubhouse: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/yaplive-focus-is-the-new-productivity-with-nir-eyal-and-ethan-kross-on-clubhouse/  #YAPLive: Unlocking Peak Performance with Steven Kotler (Cut Version): https://www.youngandprofiting.com/yaplive-unlocking-peak-performance-with-steven-kotler/  Hooked by Nir Eyal: https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788    Indistractable by Nir Eyal: https://www.amazon.com/Indistractable-Control-Your-Attention-Choose/dp/194883653X/ Nir’s Website: https://www.nirandfar.com/  Nir’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nireyal/  Nir’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nireyal  Nir’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neyal99/?hl=en  Nir’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nirandfar/    Connect with Young and Profiting:  YAP’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting/     Hala’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/     Hala’s Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/yapwithhala/     Hala’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/yapwithhala  Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/@halataha   Website: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/  Text Hala: https://youngandprofiting.co/TextHala or text “YAP” to 28046 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. You can crush your fingers and all your toes during a data center migration. You can knock on wood, pluck a dozen four leaf clovers or look to your lucky stars for a successful office expansion.

You could hold your breath, shut your eyes, and say all the well wishes to help avoid cyber attacks. But none of that truly helps you. Because next level moments need the next level network. With the security, reliability, and expertise to take your business further. AT&T Business. The network you can rely on. You're listening to YAP, Young and Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn,

and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halla Taha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast, and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right

questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of XFBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and bestselling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhanced and productivity, how to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button, because you'll love it here at Young & Profiting Podcast. What's up, Yap Fam?

I want to take a quick moment to remind you of our text community powered by slick text. To join, all you got to do is text Yap to 28046 and you'll be able to text me directly. You can ask me any question you want at any time. And the best part is you'll get discount codes, exclusive content, and it's so much fun. You don't want to miss out. Just text YAP to 28046. And by the way, this is for US listeners only. This week on YAP, we're chatting with leading expert in behavioral design near AL.

This YAP class, it gets from episode number 34, which was recorded way back in 2019, but it's still super relevant. And if you're a regular yap listener, near might be familiar because he's been on the show three times. I did a one-on-one clubhouse live with him, and I did one with Nier Al and Ethan Cross on Focus and Productivity in August of 2021, and that was an amazing episode. And if you're not familiar with near, he's a leading expert in behavioral design and the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Hooked, as well as Indistractable.

Near has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has a partner, Institute of Design, and he's sold two technology companies since 2003. His writing appears in the Harvard Business Review, the Atlantic, TechCrunch, and Psychology Today. Look, younger profitors, if you want to talk about habit forming or limiting distractions, near is the guy. He spent years working in the video gaming and advertising industries, and so he understands

how to motivate and manipulate human behavior at a super high level. And so I'm super excited to share this conversation with you. And the best part is, be short in the original interview so that you can listen to share this conversation with you. And the best part is we shorten the original interview so that you can listen, learn, and profit faster. In this episode, we app about why habits are good for business and we go deep into near four-step hook model to build habit forming products. We also chat about why near believes

that indistractability is the ultimate secret weapon and the strategies to become indistractable and lead a more productive life. If you want to master your habits and become indestructible, keep on listening. Let's get right into it. So from my understanding, you really invented this field. You're the father of behavioral design. Can you provide more context into what this exactly is? Yeah, well, I don't know if I can say I'm the father of behavioral design, but I appreciate it. I really decided that you're the father and behavioral design.

Okay. Happy researching. I've been dumped. Yeah, there's a lot of people who have influenced the field. And so I appreciate that. But yeah, there's a lot of folks in the book that I credit their research as well. I think what I've done is to take a lot of,

very old consumer psychology research that's 50, 60, 70 years old and applied it to a new field. Because what we've seen is now possible through these devices that we carry around with us every day in our pockets is that technology has become so persuasive in the same time that has become so pervasive. And so that means that this formula has resulted in the opportunity to change people's behavior and to change our own behavior

And so behavioral design is really understanding how to shape our behavior through our technology How can technology facilitate behavior now? I wrote hooked for two reasons I wrote hook number one because I wanted to help entrepreneurs I've been a two-time entrepreneur. I'm not some academic that only does research studies like I've been in the field started two companies I know how hard it is to get people to change their behavior and use a product like the ones that I'm sure many of your listeners are making that would truly benefit them if they only used it, right?

That's such a big problem. And so that's really what fascinates me so much about this field is, you know, what if we could use technology to help people do the things they want to do? But for lack of good product design, don't do. Wouldn't it be great if we could design the kind of products that didn't depend upon spammy advertising and expensive marketing? What if people use the products because they wanted to, not because they had to, and they used them on their own, not because you were sending them more spammy messages? So that's really the goal of behavioral design is to help people do things they want to do,

but for lack of good product design, they don't do. Got it. And so just to recap for my listeners or to define it, it's really the intersection of technology, psychology, and business. It's very interesting. Right. And it's important. You mentioned a word that I just want to clarify. You know, the book I wrote hooked how to build habit forming products is not called how to build addictive products And so we never want to create addiction addiction is not the same thing as a habit an addiction is a persistent compulsive dependence on a behavior or Substance that causes harm to the user

So we would never want to add dick people addiction is unethical now It is also sometimes the unfortunate consequence the unfortunate byproduct of any product that is an analgesic, any product that solves pain will be addictive to somebody if it's used by a sufficiently large number of people. But that should never be our intent to add to people. That's an unfortunate byproduct. Our goal as product designers, as behavioral designers, is really about helping people form healthy habits in their lives.

Got it. Okay, so let's start off with your hooked model. I think in order to provide some context to my listeners, can you first define what a habit exactly is? Yeah, so a habit is a behavior done with little or no conscious thought. It's about half of what you do every single day, day in and day out is motivated through these habits. And this is very evolutionarily beneficial, right?

The fact that our brain can switch onto autopilot and help us do so many things at the same time or with little or no conscious thought helps our brain think about other things and solve other problems while we're driving in traffic or walking to work or washing the dishes. We do these things habitually with little or no conscious thought. And so if we can use that power, right?

If you can use the power of habit to help people shape their lives in ways that improve their lives and improve your bottom line, that's very good. Okay, so speaking of bottom line, why are habits good for business? Yeah, that's a great question. So there are many reasons that habits are good for business. So one of them is that habits increase customer lifetime value. The longer someone uses a product, the more frequently they use a product, the more valuable each and every customer becomes to the company. Another reason is that habits supercharge growth. That when you think about, you know, what makes a product go viral, it's not good enough

that a product is just spread from one person to the next. Because if that doesn't happen quickly, if you don't have what's called a short viral cycle time, meaning the amount of time that elapses between the transmission of one person telling another about the product, if that doesn't happen frequently, then you're never going to have viral growth because you're constantly churning customers as well, right? People are also stopping the use of your product. And so in order to get that escape velocity and get exponential growth, you need the product to be transmitted frequently enough, which means that only the kind of products that are used habitually, these kind of daily use type products, those are the kind of products

that ever have a hope of spreading and growing virally. And then third and perhaps most importantly, habits are a barrier to competition. It's a huge competitive advantage to have a habit around a product. Now, your business needs to have some kind of barrier, some kind of moat, because if you don't, what happens is you're constantly competing on price and features and price and features and you're beating up the competition on these two factors. But when a product has some kind of sustainable competitive advantage, in this case, a habit, that's no longer the case. Because people will use a product or service out of habit

and they won't even consider the competition. I'll give you an example. When it's time's when I need to give a presentation in front of a large audience, I will ask the crowd to raise their hands if they search with Google in the past 24 hours. And 99% of the rooms, hands will go up. And then I'll say, well, raise your hand for me

if you search with Bing, the number two search engine. Who searched with Bing in the past 24 hours? And maybe one hand will go up, typically a Microsoft employees hand, if they have it in the room. And so why is that? It's because those geniuses and mountain view have such better technology,

the algorithm is so much better, nobody can replicate it. No, it's purely a habit. Because when we Google something, we don't sit and ask ourselves, hmm, I wonder if Google makes the best search engine. No, we don't even give the competition a chance. We just use the product with little or no conscious thoughts. So if you form a habit with the product, it's very difficult to get you to switch because you don't even consider the alternatives. You don't consider the competitors. And so that becomes a huge, huge competitive advantage. Thank you. That was so well broken down and so interesting. So previously mentioned in your book, you describe a four step hook model. The components are trigger action, variable

reward and investment. Can you describe the hook model at a super high level and maybe we can dig deeper into each step after that. Absolutely, yeah. So the four steps I'll walk through it really quick at a high level here. So, and this is basically the outline of hooked is working through these four steps of the hook model for any business, frankly.

Any business that's used with sufficient frequency, that is a prerequisite that I should mention. If a product is a one time use product, or if it's a product that's bought but not used, right? So if you sell some kind of server software that nobody knows exists unless servers on fire or something, then you don't need to have it. That's a one-time.

The customer doesn't need to use it to benefit from it. Or like a fancy vacation, right? Right, so yeah, exactly. So shopping for a vacation when you're in market can become a habit. Lots of people will check travel deals every day, habit vacation when you're in market can become a habit. Lots of people will, you know, check travel deals every day Eventually when they're in market, but yeah, going on the vacation doesn't occur with sufficient frequency So assuming you have a product that is used with sufficient frequency now

By the way, we can also talk about what do you do if your product is not used with sufficient frequency? What do you do then? Well, you can both on habit forming experiences. You can both on a content consumption habit, right? You can both on a community habit into a product that is not used with sufficient frequency, but we can get more into that later on. But just to outline the four steps of the hook model, the first step is a trigger. A trigger is some kind of cue that tells us what to do next.

And these triggers come in two forms, external triggers and internal triggers. External triggers are things in our environment that tell us what to do next. The pings, the dings, the rings, anything in your environment that tells you what to do. The next type of trigger is called an internal trigger. An internal trigger is where the information is stored as a memory or an association inside the user's head. And this typically takes the form of an uncomfortable emotional state. So all human behavior is motivated by the desire to escape discomfort, all human behavior. We used to think that it's about pleasure and pain, it's actually not.

It's just pain all the way down. That all behavior, whether it's using your product, whether it's getting a snack, whether it's putting on a coat, whatever might be is motivated by the desire to escape discomfort. It's called a homeostatic response. So that means that all products and services, in order to be used habitually, they have to attach themselves

to that uncomfortable sensation. So when you're lonely, you check Facebook. When you're uncertain, you Google. When you're bored, you check YouTube, stock prices, sports scores, Reddit, lots of different products and services cater to boredom. So that's probably one of the most important things that you can do if you're building a habit-forming product, probably the fair for a step is to understand what internal trigger you're going to attach your products used to. The next step of the hook is the action phase. And the action phase is defined as the

simplest behavior done in anticipation of a reward. So as a simplesting the user can do, to get relief from that psychological discomfort, a scroll on Pinterest, pushing the play button on YouTube, a quick search on Google, right? All of these things are very simple actions, done in anticipation of an immediate reward. So your goal as a product designer is to figure out how to reduce the friction, reduce the steps to get the reward, which leads us to the third step of the hook, which is the reward phase. The reward phase is where the itch is scratched, where the user gets what they came for.

And not only is this a reward where we give the user where they came for, the reward tends to take the form of a variable reward. So some type of mystery, some type of uncertainty, some type of variability keeps us checking, keeps us engaged, keeps us wanting more. So some products want to insert variability, right? If you think about why people use a product that caters to boredom, well, it's because it introduces uncertainty. When you watch a good movie, you read a good book, see a good video on YouTube, scroll

your feed. There's uncertainty around that experience, and it's really good at catering to the internal trigger of boredom. Other products want to take inherently variable situations and give the user agency in control. So for example, with Uber or Lyft, the fact that you can check the interface while you're waiting for your cab and it tells you how far away that Uber cab is gives you greater agency in control over something that's already variable. There's already uncertainty around, you know, can you get to where you're going on time?

Are you going to make your flight at the airport based on when your Uber driver arrives? So some products want to insert variability, other products operating conditions of uncertainty, and want to give the user greater agency and control. But all of these products have at their core. The engine is this variable reward, this uncertainty that scratches the user's itch, but leaves them wanting more. And finally, the last step of the hook, and maybe the most overlooked is the investment phase. The investment phase where the user put something into the product in anticipation of some kind of

future benefits, some kind of future reward. It can take the form of data, content, the acquisition of a skill, reputation, followers, anything I put into the product that makes it better and better with use. And this is really an amazing property because what this means is that for the first time in the history of business, a product, the more it is used, the more it appreciates and value. That's a really big deal. If you think about it, everything in the physical world depreciates

with wear and tear, right? The more you use it, it, your desk, your clothing, your car, the more you use it, the less valuable it becomes. But habit-forming products do the opposite. The more data, the more content, the more followers, the more reputation, the more we use a product, the more we accrue these elements, and the product becomes more and more valuable the more we use it.

That's revolutionary. So that's the point of the investment phase is that it improves the product becomes more and more valuable the more we use it. That's revolutionary. So that's the point of the investment phase, is that it improves the product with use through stored value. The other thing it does, the investment phase increases the likelihood of the next pass through the hook by loading the next trigger. So something that the user does to bring themselves back. So for example, when I send someone a message on Slack

or WhatsApp or any number of other messaging platforms, when I send someone a message on Slack or WhatsApp or any number of other messaging platforms, when I send someone that message, there's no immediate reward. Nothing really happens that second. What I'm doing is I'm investing in the platform because I'm likely to get a reply. And that reply comes coupled with an external trigger in the form of a notification that brings me through the hook once again. Trigger action reward investment. So that's why there's this loop that through these four steps,

this is how customer preferences are formed, how our taste are shaped, and how these habits take hold. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead, learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast.

The Millionaire University podcast is a show that's changing the game for aspiring entrepreneurs. Hosted by Justin and Tara Williams, it's the ultimate resource for those who want to run a successful business and graduate rich, not broke. Justin and Tara started from Square One, just like you and me. They faced lows and dug themselves out of huge debt.

Now they're financially free and they're sharing their hard earned lessons with all of us. That's right, millionaire university will teach you everything you need to know about starting and growing a successful business. No degrees required. In each episode, you'll gain invaluable insights Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community

and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community

and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and Community and make 10K plus month, this podcast has it all. So don't wait, now is the time to turn your business idea into a reality by listening

to the Millionaire University podcast. New episodes drop Mondays and Thursdays. Find the Millionaire University podcast on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Your dog is an important part of your family. Don't settle when it comes to their health. Make the switch to fresh food made with real ingredients that are backed by science with NOM-NOM. NOM-NOM delivers fresh dog food that is personalized to your dog's individual needs. Each portion is tailored to ensure your dog gets the nutrition they need so you can watch

them thrive. NOM-NOM's ingredients are cooked individually and then mixed together because science tells us that every protein, carb and veggie has different cooking times and methods. This packs in all the vitamins and minerals your dog needs, so they truly get the most out of every single bite. And nom nom is completely free of additives, fillers, and mystery ingredients that contribute to bloating and low energy.

Your dog deserves only the best, and nom nom delivers just that. Their nutrient packed recipes are crafted by board-certified veterinary nutritionists, made fresh and shipped to your door. Absolutely free. Nom Nom meals started just $2.40, and every meal is cooked in company-owned kitchens right here in the US, and they've already delivered over 40 million meals, inspiring clean bowls and wagging tails everywhere. Ever since I started feeding my dog Nom Nom, he's been so much more energetic, and he's getting older,

he's a senior dog, but now we've been going on longer walks, and he's much more playful. He used to be pretty sluggish and sleeping all the time, but I've definitely noticed a major improvement since I started feeding him Nom Nom. And the best part, they offer a money back guarantee. If your dog's tail isn't wagging within 30 days, they'll refund your first order. No fillers, no nonsense, just nom nom. Go right now for 50% off your no risk 2 week trial at trinom.com slash app. That's trinom.nom.com slash That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom.

That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom.

That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom.

That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom. That's trinom.nom. That's trinom.nom.nom. by utilizing millions of businesses worldwide. Whether you sell edgy t-shirts or offer an educational course like me, Shopify simplifies selling online and in person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Shopify is packed with industry-leading tools that are ready to ignite your growth, giving you complete control over your business and brand without having to learn any new skills in design or code. And Shopify grows with you no matter how big your business gets. Thanks to an endless list of integrations and third-party apps,

anything you can think of from on-demand printing to accounting to chatbots, Shopify has everything you need to revolutionize your business. If you're a regular listener, you probably know that I use Shopify to sell my LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass. Setting up my Shopify store just took me a few days. I didn't have to worry about my website and how I was going to collect payments and how I was going to trigger abandoned cart emails and all these things that Shopify does for me with just a click of a button, even setting up my chat bot was just a click of a button. It was so easy to do.

Like I said, just took a couple of days. And so it just allowed me to focus on Like I said, I just took a couple of days. And so it just allowed me to focus on my actual product and making sure my LinkedIn masterclass was the best it could be. And I was able to focus on my marketing. So Shopify really, really helped me make sure that my masterclass was going to be a success right off the bat. It enabled focus and focus is everything when it comes to entrepreneurship. With Shopify single dashboard, I can manage my orders and my payments from anywhere in the world. And like I said, it's one of my favorite

things to do every day is check my Shopify dashboard. It is a rush of dopamine to see all those blinking lights around the world showing me where everybody is logging on on the site. I love it. I highly recommend it. Shopify is a platform that I use every single day and it can take your business to the next level. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. Again, go to Shopify.com-profiting all lowercase to take your business

to the next level today. Again, that Shopify.com-profiting Shopify.com-profiting all lowercase. This is possibility powered that Shopify.com, such profiting, Shopify.com, such profiting all lowercase. This is Possibility powered by Shopify. Awesome. So, how is this hook model different than traditional feedback loops or habit loops, such as the model that was popularized by the book, Power of Habit by Charles Duhig. Yeah, so the biggest difference is that the traditional three-part habit loop is really about behavioral habits in our day-to-day lives.

But there's a great deal of difference between a habit loop that's applied to your life versus one that's applied to your user's life. So the hooked model is really made for product design. It's not about personal behavior changes for product designers. And so there's a lot of aspects that you have to consider in terms of how would you design a habit for someone else as opposed to for yourself. For example, considering people's internal triggers. And that's nowhere in Charles's book. By the way, Charles is a journalist, both he and I have to get credit to the academics who actually did this research. So neither of us came up with these steps. We're reporting and popularizing the hard work of many, many

academics. So external triggers, how do you send a notification, for example, that will be acted upon? Well, there's some real insights there about how do you appropriately send a notification to make sure it's acted upon and it feels like it's magic versus something that feels like spam. And so that takes an understanding of the internal triggers in order to send the external triggers, the minute the user feels their pain point, their itch, their internal trigger. When it comes to the action phase, the insights around making the action as easy as possible, designing your user interface in a way that saves the user as much friction and effort as possible will increase the likelihood of them doing the behavior.

Variable rewards are nowhere in anybody else's habit loop, but of course when we see products that we use every day, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Slack, they're full of these slot machine-like variable rewards. I mean, every single one of them has this element of mystery variability, this scanarian mechanic of bringing us back through operant conditioning. And then finally, the investment phase, also that doesn't appear in anybody else's habit model that is this idea of putting something into the product to make it better and better with use. This is where big data, artificial intelligence, machine

learning really becomes very valuable for this exact reason. Because for the first first time products of all sorts can get better with use, right? Even companies that were traditionally not thought of as tech companies today are, every company is a tech company today because if you're collecting user information, if you're customizing the experience, which you should be, everybody should be doing this, if you're customizing the experience in some way, then you are using this piece of the hook model to improve the product with use. Got it. And so in addition to internal and external triggers, I know you also talk about paid and earned triggers. Could you just break that down for our listeners? Sure. So there's many different types of external triggers. Remember, external triggers are these things that tell us what to do next.

Some piece of information that prompts the next action. And so when you think about earned triggers versus paid triggers, an earned trigger is something that you yourself own. So if you have earned the customer's trust in a way that they want to hear from you in the future. For example, if you make an app that reminds people to exercise or meditate or save money or learn a new language, and the user welcomes that notification, that ping, that ding, that ring, that tells them what to do next, well, you have earned that right. And so you essentially own that trigger

in the customer's mind. Now, as opposed to a paid trigger, if you buy the notification from somebody else, right, if you have to go through Facebook or Google or an advertiser, platform to send an external trigger, well, you're basically renting that user's attention. You don't own the user's attention,

you haven't earned the right to mess with them, you're basically renting it from someone else. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It just happens to be really great when you don't have to pay someone else to access your customer. So, the idea is that we want to take those paid triggers and quickly convert them into no longer requiring us to send these external triggers by creating our own habit, by creating a product that people want to use on their own without needing these notifications. Certainly, not the ones that we have to buy from someone else. And in regards to the action step,

why is it important to make sure that the product is really easy to use? Right, so one principle that we've known for decades now, it's called Luan's equation, is that behavior is a function of a person in their environment. And so this goes back over 100 years, and it's pretty much common sense, right? That what you do is a function of the environment around you. If you see a donut on the kitchen counter when you go into your kitchen for breakfast,

whereas if you have, you know, the healthier option, the eggs in the fridge, but the donuts right there ready for you, and it's easy to go ahead and eat the donut, and you're in a rush, so you're super motivated to eat the donut quickly, as opposed to having to fry up an egg, you're going to eat the donut, because it in a rush, so you're super motivated to eat the donut quickly as opposed to having to fry up an egg, you're gonna eat the donut because it's easier to do that behavior. So the environment shapes our behavior and we see this all over the place, right? The environment is a huge, huge factor in people's behavior.

We like to think that we are fully in control of our our behavior and it's not that we can't take steps to control our behavior, but without forethought, we are very much at the whim of our environment. So that means that if you are designing a product that is helping people do something that they themselves want to do, but they're not doing it, then it's only because of one of three reasons.

And this comes out of the work of BJ Fog, Stanford, who says that behavior is a function of motivation, ability, and a trigger. So we talked about those triggers earlier. Motivation is the energy for action, how much we want to do something. An ability is how easy it is to do that behavior, right, the capacity to do that behavior, because the easier something is to do,

the more likely we are to do it. So whether it's because something is easy, because it is physically easier to do, or because it's mentally easier to do it. So whether it's because something is easy, because it is physically easier to do, or because it's mentally easier to do, or because it's less costly, any of these factors of ability make a behavior more or less likely to occur based on how easy or difficult the behavior is. And so even my new changes, seconds of low time

in your app, a website that's too crowded with too many triggers and confuses the user, not building enough trust and causing the user to have to think and second guess whether they want to do business with you. All of these factors decrease the user's ability and therefore make it less likely that the user will do what they and you want them to do. And when you were talking about rewards, you mentioned the fact that they really need an element of mystery or a degree of novelty. And in your book, you also talk about how rewards come in three different types. Tribe, hunt, and self, I believe. That's right.

Can you? Very good. Thank you. You're an happy people there. That's great. Can you unpack that and just describe these different types of rewards? Because I thought this was one of the most fascinating parts of your book. Sure.

So I talk about variable rewards as this engine of the hook model. I'll tell you the story of how this was kind of discovered, so to speak. So B.F. Skinner was a psychologist, a father of behaviorism. He was the father of operand conditioning. And he did some really fascinating experiments back in the 1950s and 60s, where he took these pigeons and he put them in a little box and he gave them a disc to peck at and every time they peck at the disc they would get a little food reward, the little food pellet and so very quickly he could train these

pigeons to peck at the disc whenever they were hungry. Now mind you, he wasn't creating automotons, right? He wasn't creating little puppets. He could only get the pigeons to peck at the disc if they were hungry. Meaning there had to be an internal trigger of hunger in order for the pigeon to be motivated to peck at the disc. Just like with us, people aren't puppets on a string. We can't make people do something they don't want to do. They have to have some kind of internal trigger, some kind of need, some kind of itch in order to do that behavior. Okay? trigger, some kind of knee, some kind of itch in order to do that behavior. But then Skinner found something very interesting happened when he ran out of the food pellets. So one day he literally ran out of them.

He didn't have enough food pellets. And so he couldn't afford to give the food pellet every time the pigeon pecked at the disc. He could only afford to give it to the pigeon once in a while. And that meant that if the pigeon pecked at the disc, sometimes they would get a reward. But then if the pigeon pecked at the disc again, they wouldn't receive a reward. And to Skinner's amazement, he saw the pigeons increase the rate of response. They would peck at the disc more often when the reward was given on a variable schedule

of reinforcement. And so it turns out that in all sorts of experiences that you find most habit forming, most engaging, the things that capture our attention and won't let go, you will find this element of mysteries, this variable reward. And these variable rewards come in three types. Rewards of the tribe, rewards of the hunt, and rewards of the self. Rewards of the hunt are things that feel good, that have this element of mystery, and come from other people. So cooperation, partnership, competition, all of these things feel good, come from other people and have this element of mystery.

It's what makes social media so engaging. Stack overflow, if you've ever used that for any engineers listening, right? It's this social Q&A site, Kora, a lot of companies use this social reward. You see that all of the place. The next type of variable reward is called rewards of the hunt. And this is about the search for material possessions or information. So when you think about what makes the news so habit-forming, right? Why do people read the news every day?

Nobody wants yesterday's news, right? That's old news. That's not fun. The first three letters of news is any W. New. It has to be what we don't know, the uncertainty, the search for information. That's what the rewards of the hunt is all about.

I can also be, of course, the search for money. When you think about variable rewards, you think of gambling, slot machines, right? What makes a slot machine so engaging? Why can nobody stop watching a spinning roulette wheel? Because there's uncertainty around what's gonna happen. And so that same psychology is what keeps us scrolling and scrolling on the internet as well.

And then finally, rewards of the self. For words of the self are about the search for these variable rewards that feel good, but don't come from other people and aren't about these material or information rewards. These things feel good in and of themselves. They're what's called intrinsically pleasurable. The search for mastery, consistency,

competency, control. Best example online is gameplay, right? When you play Candy Crush or Angry Birds or any number of these other games, you're not winning anything in terms of material possessions at least. You're not even playing with other people, many of these games, but there's something fun about getting to the next level, the next accomplishment, the next achievement. So when you think about checking email, right? Email is probably the mother of habit forming technology. It uses all three types of variable rewards. It comes from other people, so you have rewards at the tribe.

It's about rewards at the hunt, right? What's in each email? It's a good news as a bad news. And then there's this element of finishing checking your inbox, right? So looking at each one of those unread messages, opening it, clearing them away, these are examples of rewards of the self, a sense of mastery, control, competency. That's very interesting.

So to recap this section of the interview, can you just describe some of the questions that we should use when we're thinking about developing a product that forms habits? Absolutely. So if you're building the kind of product that needs to build a habit, if your business model depends upon bringing people back on their own,

then you have to ask yourself these five fundamental questions. If number one, what's the internal trigger? What's the user's itch that you are product is addressing? And does it occur with sufficient frequency to bring them back and form a habit? Second, what's your external trigger? What's the information in their environment that prompts them to action? The third question is, in the action phase of the hook,

what's the simplest thing the user can do to get relief from their psychological discomfort with your product? Fourth, what's the variable reward? Does the product scratch the user's itch and yet leave them wanting more? And then finally, the investment phase, what's the bit of work the user does to increase the likelihood of the next pass through the hook?

Awesome. Let's shift gears to your new book. This is namely on distraction. It's called indistractable. So first, help us understand the breadth of this distraction problem. Why are people so distracted? Why did you decide to write this book? Yeah, so you know, this book kind of came out of my own personal struggle with distraction.

You know, I noticed that after I had written hooked, I was finding myself with some bad habits that I didn't like. I remember one particular occasion I was with my daughter and She's an only child and so you know She's the love of our life and we had this book of activities that daddies and daughters could do together Mm-hmm and one of the activities was to ask each other this question if you could have any superpower What superpower would you want? and I wish I could tell you what she said But I can't because I was busy on my phone

when she was answering that question. And the next thing I knew I looked up and she was gone. She'd gotten the message that she was less important than whatever I was looking at on my phone. And so I'm embarrassed to tell you that, but that's what happened. And I decided to look, you know, I need to figure this out because if I understand how these products hook us, right, I wrote the book on it, and I'm struggling. Well, then I'm guessing lots of people out there are struggling. And so at first I wanted to write a book about technology distraction, right? Why technology is the problem? I originally thought I was going to call the book unhooked. But then the more I dove into the problem, I realized that it wasn't technology. That was the real

problem. That technology is what's called the proximate cause. It's the surface level cause. The real cause, the root cause, was much more complex and much more fascinating. That it turns out, I intended to write a book about technology distraction. It turns out I ended up writing about the psychology of distraction, is really the topic of the book. What I learned was that it's not just about the technology. Technology is the tool, but it turns out there's so much more going on in topic of the book. What I learned was that it's not just about the technology. Technology is the tool, but it turns out there's so much more going on in terms of the deeper

psychology. And so with when it comes to indistractable, I have another four-part model. I'm very fond of four-part models. And it kind of uses many of the same psychology that I learned writing hooked to try and help us put technology in its place. And so the idea here, you know, every book I read on the topic when I did research about this problem of why don't we do what we say we're going to do, every book basically said the same thing. Like just get rid of the technology. The technology is the problem.

So, you know, go on a digital detox or 30 day plan or whatever. And it doesn't work. And I'll tell you why it doesn't work. I did all this stuff, but you know, I should have known it wouldn't work because I used to be clinically obese at one point in my life. And I remember when I was obese, I would go on all these fad diets, right?

No fast food for a whole month. Well, guess what happened on day 31, right? Well, I'm a heart-hunting guy. I'd eat like crazy, I'd make up for the last time. Because I wasn't getting to the root of why I was overeating. And as anybody who's struggled with overeating knows, it's not about hunger, right, it's not about hunger. Right? It's not about the food itself. It's about the emotional need. And it's an icky, sticky truth.

We don't like to talk about. We like to blame the tech companies for addicting us. And I wanted to do that too. And I wanted to warn people about, like, look, I know from the inside that this stuff is addictive. And it turns out, I can't say that because the science doesn't support it. The science tells us that we use and overuse and sometimes abuse these products because we're filling emotional needs. It's back to these internal triggers that we talked about earlier. That let me tell you, if you can't sit with your daughter without looking at your phone, it's not the phone. That's the problem. There was stuff going on inside me that I didn't want to face, that I didn't want to look at, that I was trying to escape and I didn't have the tools to deal with those uncomfortable

sensations in a healthier manner. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Yeah, bam. If you're ready to take your business to new heights, break through to the six or seven figure mark or learn from the world's most successful people, look no further because the Kelly Roach show has got you covered. Kelly Roach is a best-selling author, a top-ranked podcast host, and an extremely talented marketer. She's the owner of Not One, but six thriving companies, and now she's ready to share her knowledge and experience with you on the Kelly Roach show. Kelly is an inspirational entrepreneur and I highly respect her.

She's been a guest on YAP. She was a former social client. She's a podcast client. And I remember when she came on Young and Profiting and she talked about her conviction marketing framework. It was like mind blowing to me. I remember immediately implementing what she taught me in the interview in my company and the marketing efforts that we were doing. And as a marketer, I really, really respect all Kelly has done, all Kelly has built. In the corporate world, Kelly secured

seven promotions in just eight years, but she didn't just stop there. She was working in nine to five. And at the same time, she built her eight-figure company as a side hustle and eventually took it and made her full-time hustle. And her strategic business goals led her to win the prestigious Inc. 500 award for the fastest-growing business in the United States. She's built an empire, she's earned a life-changing wealth. And on top of all that,

she maintains a happy marriage and a healthy home life. On the Kelly Road Show, you'll learn that it's possible to have it all. Tune into the Kelly Road Show as she unveils her secrets for growing your business. It doesn't matter if you're just starting out in your career or if you're already a seasoned entrepreneur. In each episode, Kelly shares the truth about what it takes to create rapid exponential growth. Unlock your potential, unleash your success, and start living your dream life today. Tune into the Kelly Road Show available on Apple Podcast,

Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, Yap fam. As you may know, I've been a full-time entrepreneur for three years now. Yet media blew up so fast. It was really hard to keep everything under control, but things have settled a bit, and I'm really focused on revamping

and improving our company culture. I have 16 employees, so it's a lot of people to try to rally and motivate, and I recently had best-selling author Kim Scott on the show. And after previewing her content in our conversation, I just knew I had to take her class on masterclass, tackle the hard conversations with Radical Cander to really absorb all she has to offer. And now I'm using her Radical Cethod every day with my team to give in solicit feedback, to cultivate a more inclusive culture,

and to empower them with my honesty. And I can see my team feeling more motivated and energized already. They are really receptive to this framework, and I'm so happy because I really needed this class. With Masterclass, you can learn from the best to become your best anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace. And we all know that profiting in life doesn't just mean thriving in business.

With masterclass, you can brush up on your art skills or your cooking skills or even your modeling skills. With over 180 classes from a range of world class instructors, that thing you've always wanted to do better is just a few clicks away. On Masterclass, you'll find courses from many app-a-all star guests, like Chris Voss and Daniel Pink.

I've been taking their sales and negotiation classes and I've been feeling like a real shark lately. I've totally leveled up my sales skills. How much would it cost you to take a one-on-one class from the world's best? A lot. But with Masterclass annual memberships, it just cost you $10 a month. I have to say the most surprising thing about Masterclass since I started this incredible

journey on the platform is the value. For the quality of classes, instructors, the platform itself is beautiful, the videos are super high quality, You can't beat it. Gain new skills and as little as 10 minutes on your phone, your computer, tablet, smart TV, and my personal favorite way to learn is their audio mode to listen on the go. That way, I can multitask while I learn.

Get unlimited access to every class and right now as the app listener, you can get 15% off when you go to masterclass.com-profiting. That's masterclass.com-profiting for 15% off an annual membership. Masterclass.com-profiting. And to that point, you talk about how this is not a new problem and how like, you know, 2,500 years ago, Socrates and Plato were talking about about this concept can you just explain the history behind some of this yeah absolutely i mean this is one of the things that fast and you know we

think that facebook invented distraction and it is not a new problem literally twenty five hundred years ago socrates and play to are talking about across the other tenancy that we have to do things against our better interest i mean it is part of the human condition and it's part of being an adult is that, you know, we live in a world today that has so many good, interesting, fascinating things, vying for our attention. And that's a good thing, right? Do we want Netflix to make more boring shows, right?

Do we call up Netflix? They say, hey, can you stop making your show so entertaining? That would be great because they're distracting me. No, I mean, part of being a grown-up is learning how to put this stuff in its place. And I think what disturbed me about the popular narrative that I bought into at one point is that we slough off responsibility and we expect it to be fixed for us.

Well, I got news for you, this stuff ain't going away. It's always been a part of the human condition and it always will be part of the human condition. If anything, technology is only gonna make things more distracting, not less. And so if we don't learn how to become indistractable now, if we don't teach our kids how to become indistractable, then I really do think the world is going to buy for Kate into people who know how to manage their behavior, who know how to manage their attention, and do what they say they're going to do, and people who

just get tugged around by other interests because the fact is, you know, I can tell you from the inside, if you don't take steps to become indistractable, these companies are going to get you. They're too sophisticated, they're too good, that if you don't take steps to put this stuff in its place, not only, you know, the frivolous social media or gaming companies, I'm talking about the workplace technology, Slack and email, your phone, it's going to get you unless you understand how to put it in place. And so half the book is about things that you yourself can do, right? This four-part, indistractable model.

The other half of the book realizes that you operate in an environment, right? That your behavior is dictated in many parts by other people. So the second half of the book is about how do we have an indistractable workplace, Right? How do we create a culture that doesn't make people desperate for distraction? It turns out that what I learned in this and we talk about this more, but you know I learned that distraction at work is not about the technology. It's about a dysfunctional company culture Then I also talk about how to raise indistractable kids and finally I talk about how to have an indistractable relationship What do you do when you sit around the table and some of your friends decide it's a good time to take out their phone when you were hoping you would have quality time together?

Or what do you do if you're spouse or you're seeking a friend to get another, is on their device instead of coming to bed. What do you do in those circumstances? So I really try to look at these many different facets of this problem of distraction and give a holistic and yet tech-positive and empowering solution. I'm not one of these chicken little alarmists that tells you technology is melting your brain. I love technology. It's great. I mean, I couldn't have written my books. I couldn't have benefited so many ways in my life. Had it not been for the amazing power of technology? I mean, look at us talking right now with these amazing technologies. Let us do all these things we do.

And so it's a tech-positive book, and it's also an empowering book that helps people get the best out of technology without letting it get the best of us. Yeah, and I think it's a perfect time for something like this, because as you said, companies are only getting more sophisticated. And I don't think people realize how complex it is behind the scenes and how much they're targeted. Yeah, and we can use it for good. I still believe that, you know, by and large,

I don't want to live in a world without what you're building. I think it's great that you have the option to have great products that engage us. I mean, we want the products we use to be engaging. That's not a problem. That's progress. We want awesome products that help us. I think it's going to be up to us though,

unless you are a child, I think children deserve special protection. I think the people who are pathologically addicted deserve special protection. But for the rest of us, it's up to us. It's going to be our responsibility to learn how to deal with these things healthfully. You have called indistractability a superpower.

Why do you think that that is the ultimate secret weapon of today? Because one could argue that creativity or emotional intelligence or being able to adapt is more important today. I would argue that all the creativity in the world, all the adaptability, all the leadership skills, don't get you very far if you don't execute on your dreams. And so you can't execute on your dreams unless you do the work. And so it's not good enough just to have desire and aspirations. If you want to make a difference in the world, you have to get your butt in the chair and do the work. And that's hard. It's hard. And it's not comfortable. And we haven't been taught how to focus, how

to stay on task and do what we say we're going to do. Not only that, it's so much more difficult these days when we have so many good things to distract us, right? Like, oh, I just want to watch YouTube for a minute. Or let me just Google something. Or even the most insidious things are, you know, those tasks that feel like work, we call it pseudo work. Like, I'll just check email for a minute because that's kind of something I need to be doing.

It kind of feels productive. And this is why we had this explosion of messaging today. Not because people need to send these messages with a Harvard Business Review found that 25% of the emails that the average Office worker receives they should not have received and about 25% of the emails they send they should not have sent The reason we have this delusion of emails is because people are using Technology to fulfill their voids to fulfill these uncomfortable emotional sensations of having to do the work

The solution is it's two big solutions. The solution is do pseudo work or call a meeting. That's what we do. When at the end of the day, to really move our life and the world forward, we have to do focused work. We have to come up with novel solutions to hard problems. Well guess what, you can't do that unless you have focused time. But we don't have any focused time in our days anymore. We're constantly reacting and we have no time to reflect. And so that's what I want

to change is I want to give us the skill set to put our ideas into action. The reason I call it a superpower is imagine for a second what your life would be like. If everything you said you would do you did. Imagine in the domain of your life right when it comes to taking care of your body, your health, getting enough sleep, reading books that can improve your life. Think about in the domain of your relationships how much closer would you be with your significant other, your kids, your friends if you were there for them and you were fully present you made time for these people. In your work how much more effective if you were there for them and you were fully present, you made time for these people.

In your work, how much more effective would you be at work if you actually finished everything on your to-do list every day, instead of moving it to the next day and the next day and the next day? Right? How unbelievably different would our life be if everything we said we would do, we actually did. That's why I think it's a superpower. Yeah, that is powerful. How can we stop being distracted? What are your top tips for that?

Yeah, so it's not so much tips and tactics as it is a strategy. I mean, I do give a lot of tactics, a lot of things that you can do today, like, you know, very quick hit tips. But that's not the most important aspect of the book. The thing I want you to remember are these four parts of the indistractable model, because if I give you the strategy and that is seared into your brain, you'll come up with the tactics for yourself. The strategy here is to understand that all action is either traction or distraction, right? You notice both those words end in the same word.

They both end in the word action. Traction is any action that you do that moves you towards what you want in life. It's things that you do with intent. The opposite of that, the opposite of traction, is distraction. Traction is any action that you do that moves you off track. Think about a number line. The right is traction, the left is distraction. What spurs action? What makes us do something that is either traction or distraction? Think about two arrows pointing towards the center of that number line.

Those two arrows represent either internal triggers or external triggers. And of course we talked all about this when we talked about hooked, how all our behaviors are spurred by either internal triggers or external triggers. So now we have four parts. We have internal triggers, external triggers. So now we have four parts. We have internal triggers, external triggers, traction, and distraction. So all we have to do to become indistractable is work on these four basic elements. First, we have to master these internal triggers. Understand the discomfort that drives us to seek escape through distraction as opposed to traction.

And so there's really only two things we can do about mastering our internal triggers. We can either fix the source of the problems, figure out why we feel bad, why we are looking for escape in this manner, or if we can't fix the source of the problem, we have to learn ways to cope with that discomfort. And so I give many different ways to do exactly those two things. How do you either fix the problem or learn tactics to cope with that discomfort? There's a lot of myths out there in folk psychology that need to be overturned, like the ego depletion myth, this horrible myth that people run out of willpower, that it's like a gas tank, turns out

that's totally not true. Unless you believe it's true. And so it's really harmful. I do a lot of turning over of apple cards in this book because there's a lot of untruths out there that people need to know are not true because these untruths are really hurting them, like this idea that you run out of will power. It's not true at all unless you believe it is. So that's the first step. We have to master these internal triggers. Next, we have to make time for traction.

Right? We talked about traction versus distraction. We have to make time for traction. We talked about traction versus distraction. We have to make time for traction. That means we have to make time on our calendars for the things that we need to do. So many people, they don't even know the difference between traction and distraction because they didn't plan what they wanted to do. So here's the thing I want your listeners to remember, is that you cannot call something a distraction unless you know what it distracted you from.

You can't complain about all these things, distracting you, the television, the radio, the YouTube, whatever, Facebook, unless you know what it is you wanted to do in that time. So this comes down to putting on our counters what we want to do and then more importantly, so that's kind of basic. You've heard that advice before. What people don't do is that they don't synchronize their schedules with the various stakeholders in their life. You know, a lot of us, we talk a good game. We say we value certain things, but if I can't see your values on your schedule in terms of how you spend your time,

it's just, just vaporware, right? It's just talk. So to walk the walk, we need to actually make time for our values on our calendars, turn our values into time. The third thing we do is that we need to hack back these external triggers. So external triggers are these things in our environment that either lead to traction or distraction. So we have to ask ourselves this critical question, this is kind of my version of the Marie Kondo, you know, doesn't bring you joy question. The question that I want people to ask is for every external trigger in your life, is this trigger serving you or are you serving it?

If it's serving you terrific, that's great. Like if you have a notification that tells you, hey, it's time to go to the gym or, you know, it's time for this meeting and that's what you plan to do with your time terrific. But if that external trigger is leading you to distraction, you have to figure out how to hack back, how to remove it from your life. Not just in your technology, but I also give you insights on how to do this during meetings, how to do this in the workplace as well. You know, one of the greatest sources of workplace distraction more than our technology is other

people, right? In open floor plan offices, you have people stopping by your desk and say, hey, how's it going? Want a chat? Well, yeah, I do. But not right now. So actually, I have in the center of indistractable, there's a card stock insert that you can rip out and fold to put on your screen. That's a big red sign that says, I'm indistractable right now.

Please come back later. That tells your coworkers that you are indistractable. Please don't bother me right now, right? In a polite way. So there's all these tactics that you can use. But what I really want you to understand is this large strategy of, is the trigger serving me or am I serving it?

And then finally, the last step of the indistractable model is to prevent distraction with PACT. And PACT are these ancient technique. I mean, we have the Eulissi's Pax, is probably the oldest example of Eulissi's in the Odyssey written by Homer, 2,500 years ago. He uses this pre-commitment. He binds himself to the mast of his ship

to make sure that he's not tempted to do something he doesn't want to do. And so we can use these same type of Pax. We have three types, price packs, effort packs, and identity packs to help us prevent us from doing something we don't want to do. Something we'll later regret. And so I give you all kinds of techniques

for how to do that as well. And so those are the four steps to becoming indistractable. Master internal triggers, make time for traction, hack back external triggers, and finally, prevent distraction with packs. And so this is kind of the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more to say about it, but I want to kind of give you at least the four parts.

Well, thank you so much for that preview of your book. I'm sure it's going to be great when it comes out. So when does it exactly come out? So September 10th is when it's available. And if you're hearing this before September 10th, 2019, then you can actually get on my website. If you go to indistractable.com, I managed to negotiate this with my publisher. If you live in North America, so you, as in Canada, you can actually get the entire

text of indistractable in a PDF. If you pre-order it, if you pre-order it today, you won't get the physical book until September 10th, but you will get a PDF emailed to you immediately if you pre-order by entering your order number into indistractable.com. You also get all kinds of other goodies like a distraction tracker, a schedule maker, a workbook, a video mini-course, all kinds of other goodies. My list of recommended tools and resources as well, so lots and lots of stuff at indistractable.com.

Fabulous. And where can our listeners go to find out more about you and everything that you do? Yeah, thank you. So my website is called neer and far.com. And neer is built like my first name. So it's n-i-r-n-far.com. My first book is hooked, How to Build Habit Forming Products. And for the second book, you can go to indistractable.com.

Great. Well, Neer, you have a brilliant mind. And I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure. This is a lot of fun. How a lot.

Thank you so much. Now, pleasure. This is a lot of fun. How a thank you so much Now wasn't that an awesome conversation Near is absolutely brilliant and the actionable advice he gave in this episode is crucial to master as we will continue to be Inundated with distractions in years to come the distractions are only gonna get worse Near makes the case that Interstractability is the ultimate secret weapon to have today, and I have to agree. Listen, if you're not able to focus and get stuff done, it doesn't matter if you're adaptable, it doesn't matter if you're a Greek leader, or even if you're the smartest person

on the planet. If you can't sit down, focus, and get stuff done, the rest of it doesn't even matter. So here's a piece of advice surrounding Interistractability that works really well for me. Near talked about the importance of focus time and he said that you have to make time for traction, meaning you physically have to block off time in your calendar where you're indistractable. This reminded me of my episode Unlocking Peak Performance with Stephen Kotler. And that, he taught me that the sweet spot to get into a flow state is 90 to 120 minutes of uninterrupted concentration. This sets you up to get into a flow state where you're focused, highly productive, and creative. And believe me, when you're really zoned in, the time just flies by and you'll get so much done. So I highly encourage you

to give that a try. Mark off 90 to 120 minutes of uninterrupted, concentrated, focused work where you're indistractable. And limit those external triggers by putting it in your office calendar so your team knows what you're up to. And now I love to use work-focus mode on my phone. So my iPhone has this setting where I can put on work-focus mode. And the only people who can call me is my assistant, my boyfriend, and my mom when they have an emergency. So go ahead and limit those external triggers and I hope you guys become indestructible.

And if you're looking for more content with Near, go back into the archives. We have several episodes with him and check out our clubhouse episodes with him. They are amazing. We have one specifically on habit forming. We also have one on productivity with Ethan, Cross, and near as well. All right, young and profitors, if you love this episode,

make sure you take the time to drop us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform, Apple Podcasts, Cast Boxer, wherever you listen to the show. You guys can also reach out to me on Instagram and Twitter at Yapathala or LinkedIn. Just search for my name. It's Hala Tah. Thanks so much for listening and shout out to my amazing Yap team. This is Hala signing off. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project.

And every week we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting-edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture, and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a try this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness without spending a lot of time energy or money. Suggestions such as follow the one minute rule. Choose a one word theme for the year or design your summer.

We also feature segments like know yourself better where we discuss questions like are you an over buyer or an under buyer? Morning person or night person, abundance lever or simplicity lever? And every episode includes a happiness hack, a quick, easy shortcut to more happiness. Listen and follow the podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift. Whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby,

or counting your breaths on the subway. You're inhaling and long exhale. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or paid subscription starting at 12.99 per month. Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or paid subscription starting at 12.99 per month.