Book Review 2024.10: indistractable -How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, 217 pages, Paperback, 2019
This is the second of the three books focusing on psychological research that helps us live a life of our choice which I picked up in July consisting of “Dopamine Nation”, “in distract able”, and “Grit”. A shorter book than the 217 pages suggests due to its widespread layout of large pictures, highlights in bold fonts and chapter summaries, what it lacks in length it more than makes up in crisp content weaving in seamlessly concepts and useful tips for adopting the suggested practices.
This book provided me with a few significant introspective moments to understand my distracting habits. The four-factor framework used for analyzing human action -Traction, Distractions, Internal triggers and external triggers is a very simple and useful construct for reflection. The reason why external factors affect some persons more than other became clear, when on deeper analysis the source of distraction is seen to be within the person and not external to them, for all distractions are a desire to escape discomfort caused by the immediate task on hand. Is this the reason we see lesser distractions at higher levels of motivation and competence?
At a conceptual level the author provides a few models and frameworks along with deeper philosophical ideas that underpin human behavior to understand and appreciate what we need to do to lead the life of our choice. Further, the book is full of techniques, tools and apps that are useful for practicing the desired behavior in different settings like lifestyle management, workplace etiquettes, nourishing parenting and in building meaningful personal relationships.
Presented in 35 short chapters organized in seven parts, this book is an easy read as it is written in simple language shorn of technical jargons and peppered with interesting anecdotes that a professional, urban resident can relate to.
Recommend this book for those who are often distracted from their planned work and unable to complete their tasks on time. This book is a good gift item for budding executives, self-driven writers, painters and artists who want to accelerate and race to their defined goals.
Happy Reading
