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Chapter 1: What is the main focus of this episode on time management?
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Chapter 2: How can we better protect our time from distractions?
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You'll find our full disclosure, disclaimer and link to our financial services guide in the show notes. Kate, welcome to this episode of the Australian Finance Podcast.
It is good to be back, Owen, for a very special episode today, talking about something a little bit different to our normal money and investing content. But in my opinion, just as important because our podcast is all about helping our community invest their time and money better.
And today we're going to deep dive into the time side of things and explore some of the ways we can take back control of our time. schedule our life and spend it in more meaningful ways. Plus, I want to dive into some of the root causes of distractions and why we're putting off some of the less pleasant tasks like doing our taxes and how we can protect our time better.
And I think this episode is going to be important for listeners at any stage in their journey, regardless of what we cover in this episode. It's really important for your wider financial and life journey and maximizing those choices in life because
You can spend all the time you want learning about your finances, but I think if you don't spend time learning to use your time wisely, it can all be a bit worthless at the end of the day. And so to do all of this, we've got bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable, Nir Eyal on the show today, who is an expert in this area. Nir, welcome onto the Australian Finance Podcast today.
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Chapter 3: What are the root causes of distractions that we face daily?
Thank you so much. Great to be here.
Neil, I thought I'd jump in with the first question. I got to admit, when I heard your podcast with Shane Parrish a while ago, I was just like blown away. I thought, geez, this is really fascinating stuff. But one of the things that we talk about on the Australian Finance Podcast is basically how do we protect our money and make money, basically. So we talk about, you know,
building diversified portfolios. I know you're an investor, so you can relate to all of this. But we don't talk much about how do we protect our time. So I thought maybe this is a good way to start. How do we protect our time? And what are some of the strategies? I guess even why do we protect our time? What are some of the strategies? And how do we go about doing this in the first instance?
Yeah, these two topics really do go together like hand in glove. We hear time is money, but I actually think time is more important than money. It's no coincidence that we use the same language to describe time and money, right?
Chapter 4: How does understanding internal triggers help with distractions?
We make money just like we make time. spend money, just like we spend time. We pay attention, just like we pay with dollars and cents. And yet we're so stingy with our money, right? We minimize our taxes. We split checks with our friends if we go out to lunch. We clip coupons. We do all these things to save a buck.
But actually, I think most people have it backwards, that we should be generous with our money and stingy with our time. Why? Because you can always make more money. You can always make more money, right? You cannot make more time, whether you're Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much money you have. They all have the same 24 hours in a day.
We only have so many fixed hours. And so it's absolutely essential that we make sure that we use our time just as efficiently, if not more so, that we do with our money.
It's a fascinating thing, Rob, because I don't think many of us stop to think about that. We kind of get frustrated at how much time we don't have, yet we go and do it on frivolous things and distractions as we're about to get to.
Chapter 5: What strategies can we use to manage our time effectively?
So, Kate, this is your question. I don't want to take it away from you. I know this is the one you wanted to ask, so go for it.
Yeah, if we're thinking about time as a more finite thing and a bit more precious, one of the things that often stops us using it in the way we want is all of those pesky little distractions. And I know when I was reading, well, actually listening to your audio book, you mentioned that distractions will always exist and managing them is our responsibility.
And I was wondering if you could talk a bit more about distractions and what the cost is of letting them just run wild in our lives.
Absolutely. Yeah. So to continue this analogy with with money, we wouldn't sit on the corner and say, here, everybody, take my money. Here's a few dollars. Here's a 10. Here's a 20. We wouldn't just give anybody our money. And yet when it comes to our time, this finite resource, we give it to whoever asks for it. Right. Some stupid things on the news.
OK, yeah, I'll give you my time and attention. The kids want this. The boss wants this. Your phone buzzes and rings and dings. Yeah, sure. Take my time. Take my attention as if it's worth nothing. And that's a big, big mistake because what this leads to is a life filled with regret.
That's ultimately what leads to, because look, fundamentally, there's nothing wrong with going on Instagram or watching television or reading the news. But when it comes at the expense of other things in our life, When it becomes a distraction, that's when it's a problem. So I wrote Indistractable for me more than anyone else. You see, I was very distracted and I needed help.
And in fact, it took me five years to write this book because for four of those years, I was really distracted and it was hard to finish the book.
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Chapter 6: How does timeboxing improve productivity?
But when I dove into the literature, into the psychology literature of why do we get distracted, I changed my life. I mean, there's no area of my life today that's not affected by my ability to do what I say I'm going to do, whether it's eating right. I do that. If I say I'm going to exercise, I do it. If I say I'm going to be fully present with my family, I'm there.
If I say I'm going to work on that big project and achieve my professional goals, I do it. And so this is the skill of the century, because if you think the world is distracting now, it's only going to become more distracting.
So it's absolutely critical that we learn for ourselves how to become indistractable and teach our kids how to be indistractable as well, because this is truly the skill of the century.
You know, if you're not reading the books you say you're going to read, if you're not going to bed on time, if you're not getting enough sleep, if you're not following through on other goals and objectives in your life, this is why. It's not that we don't know what to do. I We all basically know what to do. And if we don't, we Google it, right?
If you don't know how to do something, you can Google it in a second and get the answer. Because we all basically know, right? Who doesn't know how to diet, right? You eat right, you exercise. We know that. Who doesn't know that if you want better relationships with your family, you have to be fully present with people?
Who doesn't know that if you want to excel at your job, you have to do the hard work, especially the stuff that other people don't want to do? Who doesn't know that if you want to achieve financial independence, you have to save and invest, right? We know what to do. We just don't do it. We keep getting in our own way. We keep getting distracted. And so the solution is to become indistractable.
It's to be the kind of person who does what they say they're going to do.
What's the difference there between traction and distraction? I guess this is an important distinction.
Very important.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of creating a time box calendar?
Right. So this is where we start. So what is this word distraction? Well, the best way to understand what distraction is, is to understand what distraction is not. What's the antonym? The antonym of distraction, most people will say, if I say, what's the opposite of distraction? Okay, think for a minute. Most people will say the opposite of distraction is focus, right?
I don't want to be distracted. I want to be focused. Not exactly. The opposite of distraction is not focus. If you look at the origin of the word, it comes from the Latin root trahare, which means to pull. And you'll notice that distraction ends in this word action, A-C-T-I-O-N, reminding us that distraction is not something that happens to us. It is an action that we take, right?
It's not that there was some ping or ding, oh, my iPhone rang and I got distracted. No, I got distracted. It is an action I take. So the opposite of distraction is not focus. The opposite of distraction is traction, right? Okay, traction and distraction. Traction is any action that pulls you towards what you said you were going to do.
An action that you take that moves you closer to your goals, closer to your values, helps you become the kind of person you want to become. The opposite of traction, of course, distraction. Any action that pulls you further away from what you said you were going to do, further away from your goals, further away from becoming the kind of person you want to become. Those are acts of distraction.
So this isn't just semantics. This is really important. Because I would argue that any action can be traction or distraction based on one word. And that one word is forethought.
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Chapter 8: How can we cultivate an indistractable identity?
So many people, they try and vilify, they try and moralize and medicalize distractions. They say, oh, Facebook is super bad for you. It's melting your brain. Video games are hijacking our kids' minds. This stuff is addictive. And I say, hold on a second. Actually, the literature doesn't support that. And it's a very unhealthy attitude.
I would argue that anything you want to do with your time is fine. You want to play a video game? You want to watch a rugby game? You want to go outside, take a walk? Whatever you want to do with your time, it's up to you. It's not up to me. It's up to you how you spend your time. But do it with intent. Do it with forethought. You want to watch something on Netflix? You want to waste your time?
That's fine. The time you plan to waste is not wasted time. So those are acts of traction as long as they are planned for in advance, as long as they're done with forethought. Conversely, what we find is the leading source of distraction, it's not the usual suspects. It's not Candy Crush on our phones. It's not Instagram. That's not the usual distractions.
The most common distractions are the ones we don't even realize are distracting us. Let me give you an example. For years, I would get to work and I would sit down at my desk And I would look at my to-do list and say, oh, I've got that really important task I need to finish, right? I've got that report I need to work on. I've got to finish my taxes, whatever the case might be.
I really got to do that thing I've been delaying. I've been procrastinating. Okay, I'm going to get started. Let me do that. Here I go. Right now, I'm going to get started. But first, let me check some email.
Hmm.
right? Let me just scroll that Slack channel. Let me just check the news real quick. Let me do this stuff that I think is, you know, that's an important task to do. I got to do that sometime today, right? It's on my to-do list. So let me just do that stuff real quick. I'm being productive, right?
Well, if it's not what you plan to do with your time in advance, it's just as much of a distraction as playing video games. So that is the most dangerous form of distraction. The distraction that tricks you into prioritizing the urgent And the urgent work and the easy work at the expense of the hard and important work we have to do to move our lives and careers forward.
So just because something is a work related task doesn't mean it's not a distraction. In fact, that's the worst kind of distraction because you don't even know what's happening. So now we have traction and we have distraction. Okay. So we have these two arrows.
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