right so life is kind of hard these days
for lots of reasons but one of them is
that we live in an epidemic of
distraction we're always surrounded by
fancy technology phones that ping us
every five seconds and a world of games
and tv shows at our fingertips there's
absolutely nothing wrong with this stuff
but it becomes a problem when it's
distracting us from the things that we
actually want to do and there's broadly
three reasons why we get distracted from
the stuff that actually matters to us
number one is that it's just too boring
we're trying to do something important
but it's just really not fun and so
we're going to get distracted by
anything that comes our way number two
the thing we're trying to do is just too
hard we're working on something
important but we've hit a roadblock we
can't figure out what to write next or
where the missing semicolon is that's
stopping the code from working or get
our fingers to do what we want them to
do while playing the guitar as soon as a
distraction comes our way we rejoice and
number three the distraction is just too
prominent most of us work with our
phones at our desk and a laptop sending
us notifications for every little thing
even with the best of intentions it's
genuinely hard to stay focused when
we're being bombarded by these
distractions all the time so now that we
know the enemy let's figure out ways
that we can fight these distractions so
that they don't stop us from doing the
things that actually matter to us tip
number one is somewhat counterintuitive
but that is to embrace welcome
distractions now i draw the distinction
here between welcome and unwelcome
distractions an unwelcome distraction is
like a notification from instagram that
someone has i don't know liked my post
or something that's really not adding
any real value to my life and if i click
on it i'm just gonna end up doom
scrolling through instagram that would
be an unwelcome distraction but a
welcome distraction is something that i
actually want to be distracting me and
so what i mean is for example when i was
at university studying for my med school
exams i would be studying in my room but
then i would leave my door open and i
would have a doorstop wedged my door
open at all times because i would
welcome the distraction from my friends
and from my med school colleagues and
they'd come in and have a little bit of
a chat now the yes those were
distractions but they were welcome
distractions like kind of the point of
university yes was to pass the exam but
the bigger point of university was to
make friends and to have a nice time and
all that kind of stuff and you know if
i'd been distracted by a friend
maybe i would get like 0.002 less on the
exam but given that that work was not
going to be the thing that makes me fail
the exam i would rather be distracted by
my friends or by my family or in the
future hopefully if i'm working from
home and i have kids i would enjoy i
would welcome being distracted by the
kids because that's kind of the point
and the way i think about it is that you
know when i'm on my deathbed in a few
years time will i wish i had worked
harder and been more focused or will i
wish that i had
had spent more time being distracted by
friends and family i don't know tip
number two for combating distractions is
to optimize for enjoyment so you know
how we talked about one of the main
reasons why we get distracted is because
the thing that we are being distracted
from is just too boring what we want to
do is try and make the thing a lot more
fun like we almost never get distracted
if we're having a great time watching a
great film or a tv show or playing a
video game or hanging out with our
friends or doing something that's
genuinely fun like it's very difficult
to get distracted from that we tend to
get distracted from the things that are
boring or the things that are hard and
so if we focus on optimizing for fun
then we can reduce the risks of us being
distracted from the thing and there's
loads of ways to make whatever we're
doing more fun uh one of my favorite
ones involves charting progress so
one of the reasons why games like video
games are fun is because you get a very
clear sense of progress you kill the
animal the beast the boar whatever like
in a non-mean way and your experience
bar goes up and then you level up and
then you get more skills and so
applying this concept of gamifying stuff
to whatever we're trying to do just
genuinely makes it more fun so for
example if you're studying for an exam
like treating it as a points tally or
like a score or like a traffic light
system i've got more details on my
retrospective revision timetable video
which will be somewhere over there if
you're trying to make progress in
learning how to code or starting a
business or whatever then you give
yourself milestones like little
milestones that you can then take off
and that leads to that sort of dopamine
release of yes i've accomplished
something and it that makes us feel like
the thing that we're doing is more fun
because it actually does become more fun
by the fact that we're charting our
progress through it yeah a bunch of
other stuff it's all going to be in the
book i'm researching all this stuff
these days but sign up to the mailing
list to find out more uh as as details
come out tip number three is to
basically throw away the phone like even
if we're having fun and the phone is
bombarding us with notifications oh like
on hinge line contender that kind of
stuff it's generally very hard to stay
focused even if we're like super focused
and in the flow and you know having
having a great time um what i normally
do if i'm really struggling with a phone
i just chuck it behind me onto the sofa
or wherever more often than not what
i'll do i just i'll just have it face
down and on aeroplane mode so yeah if
it's on airplane mode it's not gonna
ping and if it's face down that i'm not
even gonna see the screen and then when
i'm taking my brakes i'll pick it up
take it off airplane mode and then be
like oh hello lots of notifications
ignore all of them put it back down and
start kind of doing the thing that
actually matters to me tip number four
is to control your environment now like
at the moment my desk is pretty messy
and it's very easy to get distracted
when there is a messy desk with a load
of stuff going on because as soon as the
thing that i'm doing becomes boring or
becomes challenging i can be like oh i
wonder you know what this lens is doing
on my desk or you know i'll play play
with my deck of cards a little bit or
i'll open that box that i haven't
unboxed yet and like the more crap that
i have on my desk the more likely i am
to get distracted and so
an easy tip for not getting distracted
just to have a clean desk this is
actually not very hard um i personally
find it very hard to maintain a clean
desk which is why i have a few months
ago signed up to a wework co-working
space in cambridge link in the video
description if you want to check it out
it's really good so i go there basically
every day and
it helps keep me focused because then
i'm sitting at a table with only my
laptop and my airpods and i have nothing
on the desk to distract me whereas i get
distracted all the time when i'm at home
and so you know going to a library going
to a coffee shop going to a co-working
space going somewhere outside of your
environment whereby where you're less
likely to get distracted because there's
no stuff all around you that is often at
least i find for me a really good way of
combating distraction now as a quick
aside you know how we talked about that
if a thing is fun you're less likely to
be distracted while doing it one app
that takes this to a whole new level is
brilliant who are very kindly sponsoring
this video if you haven't heard by now
brilliant is a fantastic platform with
online courses in math science and
computer science and they're genuinely
really fun and interactive and they
teach stuff to you in a very engaging
first principled kind of way where it
has just the right amount of challenge
and just the right amount of fun that is
genuinely like it's hard to be
distracted when you're doing an online
course at brilliant my favorite courses
on brilliant are the computer science
ones and if you're interested in
learning how to code they've got a
fantastic introduction to algorithms and
introduction to python and they've
recently released a brand new course on
scientific thinking which is all about
how we can solve interactive puzzles
using science which is a fun and b helps
level up our brains if that sums up your
street and you want a genuinely
enjoyable learning experience then head
over to brilliant.org forward slash
alley and the first 200 people to use
that link will get 20 off the annual
premium subscription so thank you so
much brilliant for sponsoring this video
and finally tip number five is to
deliberately manage your time and there
is a book called indestructible by a
chap called near eol uh and then in that
he's done all the research around what
makes what makes things distracting and
he says that often you can tell by
looking at someone's calendar how prone
to distraction they are because like if
your calendar if you know let's say it's
11 a.m and you feel like you're getting
distracted and you look at your calendar
and there's nothing in the 11 a.m slot
then you have nothing to do in that time
slot and therefore you have nothing to
be distracted from if that makes sense
and so it's very easy to like pick up
the phone or pick up the playstation or
whatever because we don't have a default
action that we're going to be doing in
that time and so what nuriel says and
what i completely agree with is that if
you time block the things that you
actually want to do earlier in the day
so you know the first thing i do each
morning is i set my daily highlight
which is the one thing i want to get
done today and then i make sure i stick
in my calendar exactly when i'm going to
do that thing so that when it comes to
the time of doing the thing
i know what it is i have to do and
therefore i'm actually less likely to
get distracted from it because i know
what i have to do whereas it's when i
have a big to-do list and i don't know
what to start with or i don't have
clarity or it just feels a bit vague
like i don't know what i don't know
where to get started that is when it
becomes super easy to just get
distracted by picking up the phone or
turning on netflix if you found this
video useful and you're interested in
more tips for time management check out
this video over here which is 10 other
tips on how i manage my time thank you
so much for watching do hit the
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and i'll see you in the next video bye