Indistractable part 4: Prevent distraction with pacts

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hi everyone Welcome back.

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  This is near a all author of in distractible how

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  to control your attention and choose your life and it

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  is my pleasure to welcome you to this fourth part

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  of this series on how to become in distractible and

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  in this episode we are going to tackle how to

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  prevent distraction.

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  With packs you'll remember, we have this four part model

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  that we call the Indus tractable model that using these

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  four steps, anyone can learn to become in distractible to

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  control your attention and choose your life.

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  And we've talked about the first three steps of mastering

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  the internal trigger, making time for traction, hacking back external

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  triggers. And so finally the fourth step preventing distraction with

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  packs, how do we do that?

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  Well packed are these commitment devices?

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  These are things that we decide in advance to prevent

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  us as a firewall, as a last line of defense

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  to prevent us from getting distracted because remember being in

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  distractible does not only require we keep distractions out, it

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  also requires us to keep ourselves in.

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  And that's what using these packs are all about pre

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  commitments, things that we decide in advance to make sure

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  that when our impulses might pull us towards distraction, there's

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  something that prevents us from going off track.

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  Now these pre commitments come in several different types and

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  they can reduce the likelihood of us getting distracted.

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  And there are three strategies that we can apply.

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  Three types of packs we have in these packs, we

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  have what we call effort packs, we have price packs,

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  and we have what we call identity packs.

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  We're going to walk through for the next few minutes,

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  how to utilize these three types of pre commitment devices

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  to make sure that we can prevent distraction with packs

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  to make sure that we don't get distracted.

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  Now, the first type of pact that we can use

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  is called an effort packed an effort packed prevents distraction

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  and unwanted behaviors by inserting some bit of effort, some

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  bit of friction, some bit of of of of doing

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  that prevents us from going away from what we really

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  want to do.

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  Some bit of friction because we know that in this

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  day and age when we're working, we oftentimes don't have

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  that social pressure that past generations had when they were

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  at their desk.

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  If they were slacking off, if you are reading a

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  magazine or a newspaper at your desk or listening to

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  the radio, everybody would know.

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  But now we can put in our headphones and people

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  don't know whether we're listening to a podcast or Youtube

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  or on a conference call or whether on our screens

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  were calling, we're making sales emails or whether we're scrolling

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  facebook, people have no idea.

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  And so that social pressure is gone.

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  And so what we can have to do is to

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  replace some of those constraints, replace some of that friction

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  that keeps us on task.

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  Now, the ironic thing is that we can actually use

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  tech to make sure that we prevent ourselves from getting

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  getting distracted by tech and so we can use these

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  effort packed in our daily life.

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  What we can also do is to prevent distraction.

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  Using price pacts, Price packs is when there's some kind

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  of cost to getting distracted, when there's some kind of

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  penalty if you will, that if you don't do what

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  you say, you're going to do, there's going to be

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  some kind of cost inflicted on you if you don't,

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  if you were to get off track.

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  And this can be very effective, but only when you

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  can also remove those external triggers that can lead to

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  distraction. I'll give you a good example of a price

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  packed in my own life.

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  For many years.

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  I was clinically obese and I hated exercise, hated it.

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  And so what one day was to make a price

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  pact with myself and I took a calendar and I

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  put it on my wall inside my dresser inside my

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  closet. And every day when I wake up I see

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  that calendar and on that calendar is taped.

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  A $100 bill.

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  Now next to that calendar on a shelf is a

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  big lighter.

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  And every day I have a choice to make I

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  call this the burn or burn technique.

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  Every day I can either burn some calories by taking

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  a walk, doing some pushups, going to the gym, doing

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  something physically active or if I don't burn, those calories

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  have to burn the money.

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  So that's an example of a price packed again.

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  You have to do this last, this is not something

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  that you do first.

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  You have to do this when the distraction is something

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  that requires a temporary amount of willpower, something that is

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  difficult to overcome in that moment that you need to

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  overcome and that price pack can remind, you know, I

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  made a promise with myself, I just need to get

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  over that temporary hump in order to do what it

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  is. I said I was going to do these can

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  be very difficult to start but they're very effective.

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  Making a price packed with yourself or another person can

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  be a very, very effective technique.

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  But remember you have to do this after you've done

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  the other three steps of the indestructible model.

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  Only after you've master the internal triggers, made time for

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  attraction, hack back the external triggers, then you can use

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  packs like this price packed.

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  This works best if you have first learned self compassion

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  that if you beat yourself up and you don't know

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  how to properly use self compassion.

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  This technique can in fact backfire.

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  So make sure you reference my book in distractible, which

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  will tell you exactly how to implement this technique correctly

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  because if you do not do it correctly, don't just

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  watch this video, make sure you get all the techniques

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  and the background on how to use such a technique

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  effectively or it will backfire.

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  Finally, the last type of pact we can use is

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  what we call an identity packed.

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  An identity packed aligns our behavior with our identity.

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  When people have a moniker, when they have some kind

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  of a name, they used to call themselves whether it's

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  a vegetarian or a particular religion or whatever the case

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  might be.

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  When you call yourself a Now, when you have some

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  kind of moniker that you use to identify yourself, that

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  can help you conform to your beliefs because our identity

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  greatly influences our behavior.

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  So by making an identity identity packed by calling yourself

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  by a certain moniker, you are shaping yourself image, what

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  makes it, which makes it much more likely that you

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  will stay on track.

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  You may have noticed that throughout this series, I've been

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  wearing these shirts with different slogans and mantras relating to

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  time and time management.

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  That's because I'm reinforcing my self image as someone who

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  is indestructible.

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  That's my now, that's the kind of person I am.

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  I am in distractible and by sharing it with others

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  by teaching others, by preaching the gospel of how we

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  can all become indestructible.

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  This is how I also influence my own behavior, right?

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  This is how I keep myself on track by teaching

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  others this methodology as well.

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  And so that's very, very effective.

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  It helps you adopt these rituals.

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  If you look at different religions around the world, they

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  all have an element of proselytizing of bringing others into

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  the fold.

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  That's not only to grow the flock, it's also to

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  reinforce the lessons in the people who are already believers

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  to keep them on the straight and narrow.

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  So we can adopt that ourselves by becoming in distractible.

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  So in summary, you have the power to make these

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  pre commitments.

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  You can make effort packs, you can make price packs,

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  you can make identity packs, you can use these packs,

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  these pre commitment devices to make sure that when when

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  you've tried all the other techniques, this is the last

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  line of defense.

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  This is your firewall to prevent you from getting distracted.

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  Now, of course there's a big chunk of getting distracted

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  that's not just about what you do.

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  It also has to do with what other people do.

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  And so in the next video, we're going to cover

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  how to build an indestructible workplace, right?

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  Even if we're in distractible, what if everybody around us

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  is distracted and their distraction is causing us to go

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  off track?

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  How do we build an indestructible workplace?

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  So make sure you join me for that next video

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  and please do follow me on linkedin as well as

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  checking out my website near and far dot com near

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  smell, like my first name.

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  So that's N I R and far dot com.

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  And I will see you on the next video until

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  then stay strong and stay in distractible.