How To Ditch Your Distractions Once and For All

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

How To, Education

4.3 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There's one thing that all of Helena's personal projects have in common: they remain unfinished. The family photo album is empty, as is her mom's recipe book. And the lavender garden is still unplanted. Helena is not lazy. In fact, she's a busy lawyer who has no problem finishing tasks at the office. But she's also a busy mother raising a family, and free time is hard to come by. So how can Helena banish her distractions? On this episode of How To!, the first in a two-part series on time management, we talk to Nir Eyal, author of Indistractable: How To Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir used to be just as distracted as Helena, but then he figured out some tricks to break free from his stray thoughts. He explains why procrastination isn't a sign of laziness, it's a sign of discomfort. And why it's more important to address your feelings than silence your push notifications.

If you liked this episode, check out: "How To Stop Procrastinating" and make sure to tune in next week to learn how to set the perfect deadline.

Do you have a problem you're focused on? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.
0:22.6	Talk about generational talent.
0:23.7	Coming to headphones near you on can agree not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important
0:21.1	figures. Talk about genius. Talk about generational talent. Coming to headphones near you on April 17th,
0:25.9	with a first guess you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Most people say,
0:31.3	well, give me the tips and tricks. Give me the life hacks. You know, tell me the settings on my phone
0:34.9	that I can use to make it stop distracting me. And that actually, that advice doesn't last for very long.
0:41.0	If you are looking for distraction and you blame it on the things outside of yourself without
0:46.0	thinking about what is prompting me to distraction, you will always get distracted by one thing or another.
0:55.1	Welcome to how to.
0:56.5	I'm science writer David Epstein.
0:58.4	Most of us know how frustrating it is to start something that's important to you and then abandon it.
1:03.5	Maybe you get bored with it.
1:04.8	Or maybe move it to the back burner and eventually just falls off the stove, forgotten forever.
1:09.4	Or maybe you do come back to it from time
1:11.5	to time, but you never actually finish it. I'm looking at you, Spanish language lessons.
1:16.2	Our listener this week has won too many things in the project graveyard.
1:20.9	My name is Helena. I live in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I'm a mom, and for work, I'm a lawyer, and I've spent probably the last
1:30.7	decade plus being really distracted by various things. Let's just start easy. Can you tell us why
1:37.9	specifically you reached out to us? Sure. So I think it was 5 a.m., trying to just get some things done before my son woke up and was
1:48.8	kind of looking out the window and thinking about like one more sort of project I had started
1:54.8	and not finished. In this case, a little lavender garden.
	...

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