Distraction is surely one of the oldest complaints, and yet today it can feel like an epidemic. What’s changed? We live in a world engineered to grab our attention: apps ping us with “urgent” notifications, open office plans invite constant interruptions, and our own minds, restless and hungry for novelty, chatter away inside our heads. I’ve wondered: is it really possible to carve out space to think, work, or even relax amidst this storm?

I’ll start by admitting, I used to believe focus was a matter of willpower. The harder I tried to concentrate, the more it slipped through my fingers. So when I first read Nir Eyal’s “Indistractable,” the book didn’t just offer tips; it upended my whole approach. Eyal’s thesis is startlingly simple: distraction isn’t just about what’s happening around us, it’s equally about what’s happening inside us.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” —Viktor Frankl

That quote captures the first lesson that stuck with me: master your internal triggers. It’s easy to blame the phone, the coworkers, or the endless news cycle. But Eyal invites us to start somewhere more uncomfortable—inside.

Here’s where things get uncomfortable. Every time I found myself picking up my phone during an awkward pause in conversation or the first sign of boredom at work, Eyal would prod me with a question: What emotion are you trying to escape? Most of us recoil from anxiety, loneliness, uncertainty, or even just plain boredom. We reach for distractions as a soothing balm, but rarely do we stop to acknowledge the emotion behind the action.

I began conducting a sort of experiment. Whenever I caught myself reaching for my favorite distraction, I’d pause and actually label the feeling. Sounds simple, but it felt revolutionary to say, “I’m restless,” or “I’m anxious,” and just let that hang in the air. Once named, the feeling lost some of its sting. Try it for yourself: when’s the last time you noticed what really triggered your urge to scroll, snack, or fidget? Is it boredom, stress, awkwardness?

Eyal isn’t the first to highlight the importance of emotional awareness, but his genius lies in keeping it practical. He doesn’t recommend endless self-reflection. Instead, he suggests: label the feeling, don’t judge yourself, and redirect your attention toward what you actually intended to do. The gap between stimulus and response can grow wider if we learn to sit in it, even just for a moment.

But here’s a twist you may not have heard: distraction isn’t the true opposite of focus. According to Eyal, the opposite of distraction is actually traction. Traction is anything that moves you closer to your values or your goals—while distraction takes you further away. It’s a subtle but powerful shift in thinking. If I say I want to spend an hour reading or working or enjoying time with my family, but end up doing something else, that’s distraction. Traction, on the other hand, means doing what I planned, when I planned it.

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” —Deepak Chopra

So how do we make more time for traction? Eyal’s second focus technique is deceptively straightforward: plan your day, before the day begins, around your priorities—not around other people’s priorities for you. This is where timeboxing comes into play.

Here’s an idea you won’t see in every book about productivity. Eyal suggests we schedule our entire day—even the “fun” stuff. I began blocking slots on my calendar for reading, exercise, and family dinners, holding these time blocks as sacred as any work meeting. Did it feel ridiculous? At first, absolutely. But here’s the insight: if you don’t plan your time, someone else will.

Ever notice how your calendar fills up with meetings or obligations you never actually chose? How often do the most important things—creative work, exercise, calls with old friends—get pushed to the margins? The truth is, if you don’t defend the time that matters, distractions will colonize it.

I started asking myself, “Are my actions today aligned with what I really value?” Some days, the answer was a hard no. But scheduling blocks for both my work and leisure was transformative. It’s a strategy that recognizes we all have competing demands, and it’s not about squeezing leisure out. Instead, it’s about treating personal commitments with as much respect as professional ones. If you love to draw, read, or walk, why not put it on your calendar? If your family is the most important thing in the world to you, does your calendar reflect that?

Here’s a practical way to start: tonight, block off time for one thing you care about tomorrow—just one. Then honor that slot, fiercely. What happens when you treat your own priorities as non-negotiable? Who, or what, is the first to demand you break that commitment, and how does it feel to say no?

“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” —Henry David Thoreau

The third focus technique, “hack back external triggers,” might be where most people expect to begin, but arriving at this step after exploring internal triggers and timeboxing makes it more effective. Eyal argues that while we can’t control every ping or interruption, we have far more agency than we think.

Start by conducting a simple audit of your digital environment. I found it enlightening to count exactly how many apps had permission to notify me. The answer—over forty—was embarrassing. Most notifications were entirely unnecessary, selling me someone else’s sense of urgency. I silenced nearly all of them. Alarms and critical calls stayed on. Everything else? Muted or deleted.

But external triggers don’t just live in our phones. Colleagues popping by my desk, the ever-present TV, or even well-intentioned family interruptions all count. One trick that helped: during those timeboxed blocks of focus, I put my devices in a drawer, turned on “Do Not Disturb,” and let people know I needed an hour of uninterrupted time. I was surprised by how often those interruptions simply vanished when I made my boundaries clear. Isn’t it strange that we police our own focus so much less fiercely than we police our luggage at the airport?

The insight here is both liberating and a little daunting: distraction isn’t just something inflicted from the outside; it’s often permitted by us from the inside. Choosing to mute, ignore, or step away from external triggers is a habit anyone can build, especially once you’ve clarified what you’re trying to protect—your own time and attention.

Here’s a question worth reflecting on: When was the last time a notification or interruption genuinely made your day better? Which ones are so vital that they deserve to break your focus?

“Most people don’t want to think. Most people just want to be told what to do, because thinking is hard.” —David Foster Wallace

Let’s step into a personal challenge. What if, every day, you did three small things: notice one trigger for distraction, schedule tomorrow’s biggest priority in advance, and cut out one notification? Each practice chips away at the grip of distraction and returns a measure of control.

What I’ve come to realize is that reclaiming focus isn’t about becoming a productivity robot. It’s not about squeezing every second for the highest yield. It’s about choosing what really matters—to me, to the people I care about—and defending that against the endless noise. There’s an unconventional freedom in realizing that distractions are not just technological or environmental, but deeply human. Our urge to avoid discomfort connects us all, but so too does our ability to notice, pause, and choose differently.

We live in a culture where busyness is worn like a badge. But what if, instead of proving how much we can cram into a day, we measured success by how intentionally we spent our hours? What if the calmest, most present person in the room is the one we should emulate?

It’s easy to dismiss these focus techniques as just more productivity hacks. But behind them lies something more powerful—a philosophy of attention as the ultimate act of self-respect. When I practice labeling my emotions, scheduling my values, and protecting my space, I’m saying, in actions rather than words, that my life is worth living on my own terms.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle

If you try these focus techniques, notice not just what you get done—but also how it feels to regain a sense of ownership over your own mind. How does it change your evenings, your conversations, your sense of meaning?

Tomorrow morning, before you reach for your phone, pause. Ask yourself: what emotion am I feeling? Then, look at your day—what one priority will you guard? Finally, purge one unnecessary notification.

What could your life look like if you made these tiny pivots every day for a month, or a year? The changes may be quieter than the noise they replace, but perhaps, like me, you’ll find that the space you reclaim is the space where your best thoughts—and your best life—can finally breathe.