• Nir Eyal Profile Headshot

Nir Eyal

NIR EYAL

EPISODE 369: Author, Speaker, and Investor

Nir Eyal Profile Headshot

APPLE

GOOGLE

SPOTIFY

iHEART

PODCHASER

Episode 369 welcomes back Nir Eyal, who writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business.

Find Nir Online:

Link to the book, it’s: http://geni.us/indistractable

Indistractable bonus content is here: http://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable/

Indistractable summary article: https://www.nirandfar.com/skill-of-the-future/

Timeboxing article: https://www.nirandfar.com/timeboxing/

Values article: https://www.nirandfar.com/common-values/

Fomo article: https://www.nirandfar.com/fomo/

Wage slavery article: https://www.nirandfar.com/wage-slaves/

My free habit tracker tool: https://www.nirandfar.com/habit-tracker/

My free schedule maker tool: https://www.nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/

List of my top articles: https://www.nirandfar.com/best-articles/

About Nir:

Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Nir previously taught as a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.

Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies since 2003 and was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Review as, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” Bloomberg Businessweek wrote, “Nir Eyal is the habits guy. Want to understand how to get app users to come back again and again? Then Eyal is your man.”

He is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

Indistractable received critical acclaim, winning the Outstanding Works of Literature Award as well as being named one of the Best Business and Leadership Books of the Year by Amazon and one of the Best Personal Development Books of the Year by Audible. The Globe and Mail called Indistractable, “the best business book of 2019.”

In addition to blogging at NirAndFar.com, Nir’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Time Magazine, and Psychology Today.

Nir invests in habit-forming products that improve users’ lives. Some of his past investments include Eventbrite (NYSE:EB), Anchor.fm (acquired by Spotify), Kahoot! (KAHOOT-ME.OL), Canva, Homelight, Product Hunt, Marco Polo, Byte Foods, FocusMate, Dynamicare, Wise App, and Sunnyside.

Nir attended The Stanford Graduate School of Business and Emory University.

……..

If you enjoyed this interview you may also like my Just Get Started Podcast Interview with Seth Godin, Author, Blogger, and Founder of Akimbo

Share This Podcast - Choose Your Platform!

Listen To The Podcast

Get The Blog

Review On Apple Podcasts

If you enjoy this episode I’d be grateful if you would leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, if you believe I’ve earned it.  Thanks for listening!

Leave a Review

Nir Eyal2023-10-03T20:01:10-04:00

Beginning To Balance

Knowing when to accelerate and when to break is just as important on the highway as it is on our journey in life.

We can’t go full speed ahead all day. We also can’t sit idle for too long and wait for things to happen.

Finding the balance takes time but if we don’t put the time into finding it we’ll never get it right.

How do we find it? Practice.

As a starter exercise, focus on how you get things done.

Do you get distracted easily?

Do you work better in short or long bursts?

Would you rather take a short or long break?

How do you transition from one thing to another?

Do you get more done in the mornings or evenings?

When you answer these questions it begins to shape a plan of action.

Then…

Carve out a fair amount of time to work on a task.

Take a break at a length of your choosing.

Start back on time without procrastination.

Eliminate distractions as best as possible

  • Turn off notifications
  • Turn on “Do not disturb”
  • Close browser tabs
  • Set a timer

Anything that has balance had to maneuver and wobble from side to side until they got their bearings.

Just like the first time you sat behind the wheel of a car, it takes practice to know the amount of pressure we have to put on each peddle to make it start and stop.

The more we practice the greater the opportunity for a balanced life.

Beginning To Balance2023-05-20T20:20:10-04:00

Buzzworthy

I rarely recognized how the noise around me was cluttering my mind and distracting me from creating the life that I wanted.

Have you ever felt this way?

We’re about to do something but the “buzz” in our pocket takes us away from focusing on the things that really matter.

That “buzz” can be a metaphor for any distraction we come across.

The world is noisy, yes, but it becomes much quieter when we realize we have a choice.

There is an “off” button.

We can silence the notifications, we can prioritize our lives, and we can focus on ourselves first so that we can then give more of our true selves to the world.

We can accept what we’ve known all along but have avoided or suppressed while the distractions have overtaken us.

We can start to listen to what we really want.

Then the question becomes, is the noise really coming from the outside, or has it been inside our own heads this whole time?

Buzzworthy2022-07-13T20:33:33-04:00

Free From Distraction

The reason why you often hear people say they come up with their best ideas in the shower is that it’s one of the only times a day when we allow ourselves space to think. 

No phone, computer, tv, kids, etc. 

Thinking finally gets a priority even if that is not the intention. 

When we are struggling to find balance and are looking at ways to discover our happiness, finding space for our minds to think and do nothing but wander and explore could be extremely beneficial.

We just need to block out time on the calendar (start with 5-10 min) and do our best to silence the noise, both around us and in our heads. 

Then, just let our minds take us wherever they want to go without any judgment.

That time will become some of the most serene and wondrous moments of our day.

Free From Distraction2021-10-11T15:24:39-04:00

A Moment Of Silence

We are all bombarded by constant distractions from the moment we awake. Emails, texts, Social media, music, podcasts, TV, etc. It controls us from the onset and never lets up.

Some of it is useful but most of it becomes drawn out and overdone. These distractions have slowly crept more and more into our lives and it’s only getting worse. 

If we know these distractions are inevitable then it might be wise to block deliberate time out each day to find silence. Because when we find silence we start to find ourselves.

Silence can be weird, I know. It’s uncomfortable. Sitting with your thoughts and your thoughts alone. It’s almost become unnatural when it might be the best thing we can do for ourselves. 

The mind can quiet and relax. The mind can focus. 

When the outside world is shut off it allows our inner voice to finally speak up and share what we truly think. If we listen closely and respect the voice inside us then it has the power to open up new doors we haven’t considered before. It might be as simple as an idea to pursue or a thought to hold onto as we go through the day. It might point out some areas we should look to improve or be cheering us on to keep going. It doesn’t matter what it says because it’s all purely honest and authentic.

Each of our voices is unique but the only way we get to hear its true words is to quiet everything around us. 

Sit on the floor and close your eyes, go for a walk in the woods, relax on your back porch. It doesn’t matter how you do it. Find what works for you. 

It also doesn’t have to be for hours. Start with a minute. Progress to 5. Maybe someday get to 10, 20, or 30 minutes. 

If we make a small commitment to taking back ownership of our time and use that to eliminate the distractions then we might start to enjoy the silence. 

It becomes positive fuel for a happy and healthy life.

A Moment Of Silence2021-06-17T08:30:50-04:00
NAVIGATION
SUBSCRIBE

SOCIALS

I love engaging and meeting new people. Please reach out on these socials to connect (if that’s your jam).

Go to Top