Bella's Blog

Must learn to deal with discomfort

1. What is the internal trigger?

2. Write details [how you felt, time of day]

3. Explore sensation

After schedule, ask these 2 questions:

1. When did I get distracted?

2. Are there any changes I need to make?

Batch listen to articles on your commute or during your workout

Precommitments:

Effort pact

Price pact

Identity pact

“Even when we think we’re seeking pleasure, we’re actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting”

“ten-minute rule.” If I find myself wanting to check my phone as a pacification device when I can’t think of anything better to do, I tell myself it’s fine to give in, but not right now. I have to wait just ten minutes”

“we must learn a powerful technique called a “precommitment,” which involves removing a future choice in order to overcome our impulsivity”

“Timeboxing enables us to think of each week as a mini-experiment. The goal is to figure out where your schedule didn’t work out in the prior week so you can make it easier to follow the next time around”

“Next, book fifteen minutes on your schedule every week to reflect and refine your calendar by asking two questions: Question 1 (Reflect): “When in my schedule did I do what I said I would do and when did I get distracted?” Answering this question requires you to look back at the past week”

“Timeboxing uses a well-researched technique psychologists call “setting an implementation intention,” which is a fancy way of saying, “deciding what you’re going to do, and when you’re going to do it.” It’s a technique that can be used to make time for traction in each of your life domains. The goal is to eliminate all white space on your calendar so you’re left with a template for how you intend to spend your time each day. It doesn’t so much matter what you do with your time; rather, success is measured by whether you did what you planned to do…keeping a timeboxed schedule is the only way to know if you’re distracted. If you’re not spending your time doing what you’d planned, you’re off track”

“Triggers can now be identified for what they rightly are: tools. If we use them properly, they can help us stay on track. 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”

“Doesn’t fun have to feel good? Not necessarily, Bogost says. By relinquishing our notions about what fun should feel like, we open ourselves up to seeing tasks in a new way. He advises that play can be part of any difficult task, and though play doesn’t necessarily have to be pleasurable, it can free us from discomfort—which, let’s not forget, is the central ingredient driving distraction”

“Researchers tell us attention and focus are the raw materials of human creativity and flourishing. In the age of increased automation, the most sought-after jobs are those that require creative problem-solving, novel solutions, and the kind of human ingenuity that comes from focusing deeply on the task at hand”

“All behaviors, whether they tend toward traction or distraction, are prompted by triggers, internal or external”

“I decided to make a price pact with myself. After making time in my timeboxed schedule, I taped a crisp hundred-dollar bill to the calendar on my wall, next to the date of my upcoming workout. Then I bought a ninety-nine-cent lighter and placed it nearby. Every day, I had a choice to make: I would either burn the calories by exercising or burn the hundred-dollar bill”

“To hack back, schedule time in your day to catch up on group chats, just as you would for any other task in your timeboxed calendar. It’s important to set colleagues’ expectations by letting them know when you plan to be unavailable. You can put them at ease by assuring them that you will contribute to the conversation during an allocated time later in the day, but until then you shouldn’t feel guilty for turning on the Do Not Disturb feature while doing focused work”

“The solution to this mania is simple: only touch each email twice. The first time we open an email, before closing it, answer this question: When does this email require a response? Tagging each email as either “Today” or “This Week” attaches the most important information to each new message, preparing it for the second (and last) time we open it. Of course, for super-urgent, email-me-right-now-type messages, go ahead and respond. Messages that don’t need a response at all should be deleted or archived immediately”

“the message to let people know you are indistractable. Customize an indistractable auto-reply using Apple’s Do Not Disturb While Driving feature. It’s worth noting that reclaiming your phone’s external triggers does require a bit of maintenance. For instance, every time we install a new app, we need to adjust its notifications”

“After all, the time you plan to waste is not wasted time”

“If we want to master distraction, we must learn to deal with discomfort”