Indistractable

Seneca was writing more than two thousand years ago, his words are just as applicable today.

Other times, we (perhaps unconsciously) sabotage our companies by doing pseudowork, tasks that look like work but aren’t in line with the company’s top priorities.

What does this pushback look like? While often done unknowingly, we find ourselves doing low-priority work, slacking off at our desks, chitchatting too much with colleagues, and generally reducing productive output.

satisfying friendships need three things: “somebody to talk to, someone to depend on, and someone to enjoy.

You can’t call something a distraction unless you know what it is distracting you from. Planning ahead is the only way to know the difference between traction and distraction.

Our most precious asset—our time—is unguarded, just waiting to be stolen. If we don’t plan our days, someone else will.

The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote, “People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time, they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”

In part one, we learned ways to cope with the internal triggers that can drive us to distraction and how to reduce the sources of discomfort; if we don’t control our impulse to escape uncomfortable feelings, we’ll always look for quick fixes to soothe our pain.

Practice self-compassion. Talk to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend. People who are more self-compassionate are more resilient.

What we say to ourselves matters. Labeling yourself as having poor self-control is self-defeating.