Indistractable

by Nir Eyal;

First and foremost, my deepest thanks to my business and life partner, Julie Li. Her contributions to this project are beyond measure. Julie allowed me to share intimate stories about our marriage, was there to help me test ideas and tactics, and spent countless hours improving this book. We’ve walked this path together every step of the way, and she is my motivation and inspiration for being a better man.

  Next, thank you to Jasmine, my daughter, who not only provided the inspiration to become indistractable but (in her ten-year-old way) was also enthusiastically helpful with the naming, cover design, and marketing of the book.

  And, of course, my parents, Ronit and Victor, and in-laws, Anne and Paul, for their encouragement. Their support and enthusiasm for every one of my crazy projects means so much to me.

  Thank you to the brave people who read very early (and very rough) drafts of this book. Thank you to Eric Barker, Caitlin Bauer, Gaia Bernstein, Jonathan Bolden, Cara Cannella, Linda Cyr, Geraldine DeRuiter, Kyle Eschenroeder, Monique Eyal, Omer Eyal, Rand Fishkin, Jose Hamilton, Wes Kao, Josh Kaufman, Carey Kolaja, Carl Marci, Jason Ogle, Ross Overline, Taylor Pearson, Jillian Richardson, Alexandra Samuel, Oren Shapira, Vikas Singhal, Shane Snow, Charles Wang, and Andrew Zimmermann. Reading an early manuscript is hard work, and I can’t thank you enough for your thoughtful comments and insights.

  Thank you to Christy Fletcher and her team for top-notch representation. Christy is a terrific agent, and I owe her loads of thanks for her counsel and friendship. Thank you to Melissa Chinchillo, Grainne Fox, Sarah Fuentes, Veronica Goldstein, Elizabeth Resnick, and Alyssa Taylor at Fletcher & Co.

  I’d also like to thank Stacy Creamer at Audible, as well as the team at BenBella, including Sarah Avinger, Heather Butterfield, Jennifer Canzoneri, Lise Engel, Stephanie Gorton, Aida Herrera, Alicia Kania, Adrienne Lang, Monica Lowry, Vy Tran, Susan Welte, Leah Wilson, and Glenn Yeffeth, for their efforts bringing this book to market.

  Alexis Kirschbaum at Bloomsbury went above and beyond what any author could ask for in an editor and played a critical hand in improving this book. She and her colleagues, including Hermione Davis, Thi Dinh, Genevieve Nelsson, Andy Palmer, Genista Tate-Alexander, and Angelique Tran Van Sang, deserve my sincere gratitude.

  Thanks to the following people for their help researching, editing, and refining Indistractable: Karen Beattie, Matthew Gartland, Jonah Lehrer, Janna Marlies Maron, Mickayla Mazutinec, Paulette Perhach, Chelsea Robertson, Ray Sylvester, and AnneMarie Ward.

  Particular thanks to Thomas Kjemperud and Andrea Schumann for their assistance running NirAndFar.com. Thank you also to Carla Cruttenden, Damon Nofar, and Brett Red for the graphics in this book, and to Rafael Arizaga Vaca for helping with more projects than I can count. I can’t thank these wonderful people enough!

  Then there are the following people I want to thank for providing moral and intellectual support: Arianna Huffington, for her enthusiasm for this project; Mark Manson, Taylor Pearson, and Steve Kamb, for being consistent coworking buddies and for helping me stay focused while writing this book; Adam Gazzaley, for generously providing the Indistractable.com domain; and James Clear, Ryan Holiday, David Kadavy, Fernanda Neute, Shane Parrish, Kim Raices, Gretchen Rubin, Tim Urban, Vanessa Van Edwards, Alexandra Watkins, and Ryan Williams for sharing insights and giving great advice.

  I have no doubt neglected to include some very important people. Along with forgiveness, I ask to invoke Hanlon’s razor, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” I’m sorry and thank you!

  Finally, and most important, thank you, the reader. Spending your precious time and attention with this book means the world to me. Feel free to contact me if I can be helpful at NirAndFar.com/Contact.

  Contributors

  Thank you to the loyal blog subscribers named below for their help crowd-editing Indistractable. Their insights, suggestions, and encouragement were immensely important in making this book what it is.

  Reed Abbott

  Shira Abel

  Zalman Abraham

  Eveline van Acquoij

  Daniel Adeyemi

  Patrick Adiaheno

  Sachin Agarwal

  Avneep Aggarwal

  Vineet Aggarwal

  Abhishek Kumar Agrahari

  Neetu Agrawal

  Sonali Agrawal

  Syed Ahmed

  Matteus Åkesson

  Stephen Akomolafe

  Alessandra Albano

  Chrissy Allan

  Patricia De Almeida

  Hagit Alon

  Bos Alvertos

  Erica Amalfitano

  Mateus Gundlach Ambros

  Iuliia Ankudynova

  Tarkan Anlar

  Lauren Antonoff

  Jeremi Walewicz Antonowicz

  Kavita Appachu

  Yasmin Aristizabal

  Lara Ashmore

  Aby Atilola

  Jeanne Audino

  Jennifer Ayers

  Marcelo Schenk de Azambuja

  Xavier Baars

  Deepinder Singh Babbar

  Rupert Bacon

  Shampa Bagchi

  Warren Baker

  Tamar Balkin

  Giacomo Barbieri

  Surendra Bashani

  Asya Bashina

  Omri Baumer

  Jeff Beckmen

  Walid Belballi

  Jonathan Bennun

  Muna Benthami

  Gael Bergeron

  Abhishek Bhardwaj

  Kunal Bhatia

  Marc Biemer

  Olia Birulia

  Nancy Black

  Eden Blackwell

  Charlotte Blank

  Kelli Blum

  Rachel Bodnar

  Stephan Borg

  Mia Bourgeois

  Charles Brewer

  Sam Brinson

  Michele Brown

  Ryan Brown

  Jesse Brown

  Sarah E. Brown

  Michelle E. Brownstein

  John Bryan

  Renée Buchanan

  Scott Bundgaard

  Steve Burnel

  Michael Burroughs

  Tamar Burton

  Jessica Cameron

  Jerome Cance

  Jim Canterucci

  Ryan Capple

  Savannah Carlin

  James Carman

  Karla H. Carpenter

  Margarida Carvalho

  Anthony Catanese

  Shubha Chakravarthy

  Karthy Chandra

  Joseph Chang

  Jay Chaplin

  David Chau

  Janet Y. Chen

  Ari Cheskes

  Dennis Chirwa

  Kristina Yuh-Wen Chou

  Ingrid Choy-Harris

  William Chu

  Michelle M. Chu

  Jay Chung

  Matthew Cinelli

  Sergiu Vlad Ciurescu

  Trevor Claiborne

  Kay Krystal Clopton

  Heather Cloward

  Lilia M. Coburn

  Pip Cody

  Michele Helene Cohen

  Luis Colin

  Abi Collins

  Kerry Cooper

  Dave Cooper

  Simon Coxon

  Carla Cruttenden

  Dmitrii Cucleschin

  Patrick Cullen

  Leo Cunningham

  Gennaro Cuofano

  Ed Cutshaw

  Larry Czerwonka

  Lloyd D’Silva

  Jonathan Dadone

  Sharon F. Danzger

  Kyle Huff David

  Lulu Davies

  James Davis Jr.

  Joel Davis

  Cameron Deemer

  Stephen Delaney

  Keval D. Desai

  Ankit S. Dhingra

  Manuel Dianese

  Jorge Dieguez

  Lisa Hendry Dillon

  Sam Dix

  Lindsay Donaire

  Ingrid Elise Dorai-Rekaa

  Tom Droste

  Nan Duangnapa />
  Scott Dunlap

  Akhilesh Reddy Dwarampudi

  Swapnil Dwivedi

  Daniel Edman

  Anders Eidergard

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  Max Elander

  Ori Elisar

  Katie Elliott

  Gary Engel

  David Ensor

  Eszter Erdelyi

  Ozge Ergen

  Bec Evans

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  Shirley Evans

  Jeff Evernham

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  Kathlyn Farrell

  Hannah Farrow

  Michael Ferguson

  Nissanka Fernando

  Margaret Fero

  Kyra Fillmore

  Yegor Filonov

  Fabian Fischer

  Jai Flicker

  Collin Flotta

  Michael Flynn

  Kaleigh Flynn

  Gio Focaraccio

  Ivan Foong

  Michael A. Foster II

  Martin Foster

  Jonathan Freedman

  Heather Friedland

  Janine Fusco

  Pooja V. Gaikwad

  Mario Alberto Galindo

  Mary Gallotta

  Zander Galloway

  Sandra Gannon

  Angelica Garcia

  Anyssa Sebia Garza

  Allegra Gee

  Tom Gilheany

  Raji Gill

  Scott Gillespie

  Scott Gilly

  Wendell Gingerich

  Kevin Glynn

  Paula Godar

  Jeroen Goddijn

  Anthony Gold

  Dan Goldman

  Miguel H. Gonzalez

  Sandra Catalina González

  Vijay Gopalakrishnan

  Herve Le Gouguec

  Nicholas Gracilla

  Charlie Graham

  Timothy L. Graham

  Shawn Green

  Chris Greene

  Jennifer Griffin

  Dani Grodsky

  Rebecca Groner

  Saksham Grover

  Alcide Guillory III

  Roberta Guise

  Anjana Gummadivalli

  Matt Gummow

  Amit Gupta

  John Haggerty

  Martin Haiek

  Lance Haley

  Thomas Hallgren

  Eric Hamilton

  Caroline Hane-Weijman

  Nickie Harber-Frankart

  Julie Harris

  Sophie Hart

  Daniel Hegman

  Christopher Heiser

  Lisa Helminiak

  Alecia Helton

  Mauricio Hess-Flores

  Holly Hester-Reilly

  Andrea Hill

  Neeraj Hirani

  Isabella Catarina Hirt

  Charlotte Jane Ho

  Ian Hoch

  Travis Hodges

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  Abi Hough

  Mary Howland

  Evan Huggins

  Nathan Hull

  Novianta L. T. Hutagalung

  Marc Inzelstein

  Varun Iyer

  Britni Jackson

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  Debbie Jenkins

  Alexandre Jeong

  Amy M. Jones

  Daniela Jones

  Peter Jotanovic

  Cindy Joung

  Sarah Jukes

  Steve Jungmann

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  Sina Kahen

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  Melissa Kaufmann

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  J. Bavani Kehoe

  Karen Kelvie

  Erik Kemper

  Raye Keslensky

  Jenny Shaw Kessler

  Jeremy C. Kester

  Kirk Ketefian

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  Sarah Khalid

  Sam Kirk

  Rachel Kirton

  Vinod Kizhakke

  Samuel Koch

  Alaina Koerber

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  Ezekiel Kuang

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  Dimitry Kushelevsky

  John Kvasnic

  Jonathan Lai

  Michael J. Lally

  Roy Lamphier

  Craig Lancaster

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  Simon Lapscher

  Angelo Larocca

  Norman Law

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  Tory Leggat

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  Audrey Leung

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  Isaac E. H. Lewis

  Belly Li

  Sammy Chen Li

  Philip Li

  Robert Liebert

  Brendan Lim

  Carissa Lintao

  Ross Lloyd Lipschitz

  Mitchell Lisle

  Mike Sho Liu

  Shelly Eisen Livneh

  John Loftus

  Philip K. Lohr

  Sune Lomholt

  Sean Long

  Alexis Longinotti

  Glen Lubbert

  Ana Lugard

  Kenda Macdonald

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  Andy Maes

  Kristof Maeyens

  Lisa Maldonado

  Amin Malik

  Danielle Manello

  Frank Manue Jr.

  Dan Mark

  Kendra Markle

  Ben Marland

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  Judy Marshall

  Levi Mårten

  Denise J. Martin

  Megan Martin

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  Saji Maruthurkkara

  Laurent Mascherpa

  Mark Mavroudis

  Ronny Max

  Eva A. May

  Lisa McCormack

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  Michael McGee

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  Erik van Mechelen

  Hoda Mehr

  Jonathan Melhuish

  Sheetal G. Melwani

  Ketriel J. Mendy

  Valerae Mercury

  Andreia Mesquita

  Johan Meyer

  Kaustubh S. Mhatre

  Stéphanie Michaux

  Ivory Miller

  Jason Ming

  Al Ming

  Jan Miofsky

  Ahmed A. Mirza

  Peter Mitchell

  Mika Mitoko

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  David Morgan

  Renee F. Morris

  Matthew Morrisson

  Alexandra Moxin

  Alex Moy

  Brian Muldowney

  Namrata Mundhra

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  Kevin C. Murray

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  Vaishakhi Nayar

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  Christine Neff

  Jamie Nelson

  Kemar Newell

  Lewis Kang’ethe Ngugi

  Chi Gia Nguyen

  Christopher Nheu

  Gerard Nielsen

  Adam Noall

  Tim Noetzel

  Jason Nokes

  Craig Norman

  Chris Novell

  Thomas O’Duffy

  Scott Oakes

  Cheily Ochoa

 
Leon Odey-Knight

  Kelechi Okorie

  Oluwatobi Oladiran

  Valary Oleinik

  Sue Olsen

  Alan Olson

  Gwendolyn Olton

  Maaike Ono-Boots

  Brian Ostergaard

  Roland Osvath

  Renz Pacheco

  Nina Pacifico

  Sumit Pahwa

  Girri M. Palaniyapan

  Vishal Kumar Pallerla

  Rohit Pant

  Chris V. Papadimitriou

  Nick Pape

  Divya Parekh

  Rich Paret

  Alicia Park

  Aaron Parker

  Steve Parkinson

  Mizue Parrott

  Lomit Patel

  Manish Patel

  Swati Patil

  Jon Pederson

  Alon Peled

  Rodaan Peralta-Rabang

  Marco Perlman

  Christina Diem Pham

  Hung Phan

  Ana Pischl

  Keshav Pitani

  Rose La Prairie

  Indira Pranabudi

  Anne Curi Preisig

  Julie Price

  Martin Pritchard

  Rungsun Promprasith

  Krzysztof Przybylski

  Edmundas Pučkorius

  Călin Pupăză

  Daisy Qin

  Lien Quach

  Colin Raab

  Kelly Ragle

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  Lalit Raju

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  Prashanthi Ravanavarapu

  Gustavo Razzetti

  Omar Regalado

  Scott W. Rencher

  Brian Rensing

  Joel Rigler

  Michelle Riley

  Gina Riley

  Ioana Rill

  Mark Rimkus

  Cinzia Rinelli

  Chelsea Lyn Robertson

  Bridgitt Ann Robertson

  Reigh Robitaille

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  Annette Rodriguez

  Charles François Roels

  Linda Rolf

  Edgar Roman

  Mathieu Romary

  Jamie Rosen

  Al Rosenberg

  Joy Rosenstein

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  Megan Rounds

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  Isabel Russ

  Mark Ruthman

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  Jan Saarmann

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  Jessica Salisbury

  Rick Salsa

  Francesco Sanavio

  Antonio J. Martinez Sanchez

  Moses Sangobiyi

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  Kirk Schueler

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  Dan Silberberg

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  Brian L. Silva

  Zach Simon

  Raymond Sims

  Shiv Sivaguru

  Malin Sjöstrand

  Antoine Smets