This week on the podcast we interviewed former Stanford marketing lecturer and best-selling author Nir Eyal. We invited Nir to share his extensive knowledge and some of the research he conducted to write his book, Indistractable, and our conversation led to some incredible time-saving tips for email marketing that you can also apply to your life and business.
So if you're struggling to find the time for email marketing (or anything that matters to you) and want to know how to eliminate distraction and finally get it done, THIS. IS.IT.
Ready for the penny to finally drop? Because honestly, this is a-mazing stuff!
SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
(3:12) Did a member of the British Royal Family really hold a door open for Nir?
(6:41) What even is 'distraction'?
(11:38) What are the triggers that drive us to distraction?
(13:09) The 4 strategies to becoming indistractable.
(13:36) Why recognising and mastering internal triggers is important.
(15:42) Taking responsibility of your emotional states.
(19:00) Does accountability work?
(23:36) Do consequences and incentives matter?
(25:49) Why time-boxing is better than running your life on a to-do list.
(31:20) Subject line of the week with Nir Eyal.
What even is 'distraction'?
When it comes to email marketing, one of the biggest things that stop course creators, membership owners, and coaches and consultant from getting it done is time. We say we'll get something done, but then we don't. Why don't we follow through? We claim we get distracted, but what even is 'distraction'?
Nir started us off by looking at the word distraction and its opposite, which is the word traction. Traction is any action that pulls you towards the things you do with intent and moves you closer to your values to help you become the kind of person you want to become.
So dis-traction is any action that pulls you further away from your values. Anything can be a distraction if it's not what you plan to do with your time. And yes, that includes those work-related things that make us feel we're being productive!
And according to Nir, this is the most dangerous form of distraction - the one that tricks you into prioritising the easy and the urgent at the expense of the important work you have to do to move your business, your career, and your life forward.
This means that all the things that we typically call 'distracting' (like checking social media or playing a video game) can be traction, as long as we do them according to our values and schedules.
What are the triggers that drive us to distraction?
Nir explains there are two kinds of triggers:
- External triggers. These at the 'calls to action' that come from our outside environment - the things that others ask us to do.
- Internal triggers. These are uncomfortable emotional states that we seek to escape from, like fearfulness, uncertainty, boredom, loneliness, stress, anxiety, etc.
People tend to blame external triggers for distraction. But did you know they only account for 10% of the time we get distracted? The other 90% of the time we get distracted because of something that happens inside of us - it's because of our internal triggers. When we experience uncomfortable emotional states we look for distractions to take our minds off them.
Mind-blowing, right?
The 4 strategies to becoming indistractable
Nir explained there are 4 steps to becoming indistractable, and all of them need to be in place if you want them to work!
The 4 steps are:
- Mastering...
