The Battle for Attention, Part 2: Getting Back Our Focus—Actively

This is the second part of the blog series, The Battle for Attention. It builds on the ideas in Indistractable by Nir Eyal. The explanations, connections, and conclusions are my own.

In the first part of this series, I argued that attention is often trained through effort—forcing focus, resisting distractions, and treating self-control like a muscle that will eventually be exhausted. But this may not be the most effective approach. Attention can also be cultivated more naturally by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system—the part of the brain responsible for calmness—which facilitates effortless focus.

The challenge with this effortless approach is that it’s difficult to apply when you need to process information deeply without juggling multiple thoughts simultaneously. I love nature walks, and I’ve noticed how they help me achieve the effortless focus that theory describes. But then I sit in front of my laptop and find myself lost in an infinite loop of mental tabs.

These effortless strategies don’t always align with the moments when we need to focus the most (unless you can work while walking in nature or meditating). Eventually, I realized they weren’t enough to train the kind of active attention I needed—the ability to close all mental tabs and focus on just one, at the right moment.

Becoming Indistractable: Recognizing the Bells That Make You Salivate

In Indistractable, Nir Eyal argues that we seek distractions to escape discomfort. What kind of discomfort? Anytime you avoid doing something—even something you want to do—you can blame your discomfort.

Distractions are powerful because discomfort is difficult to manage. Take boredom, for example—our minds resist it so strongly that studies show people would rather endure mild pain than sit in boredom.

Eyal defines distraction as anything that pulls you away from traction—the actions that align with your goals and values. If you don’t clearly define what traction means for you, your brain will default to distractions, as it naturally craves stimuli, particularly social ones.

The first step in reclaiming focus is recognizing what counts as traction in your life. If you don’t know what you’re trying to focus on, distractions will always win. This realization was eye-opening for me: I will always be distracted if I don’t know what I’m getting distracted from.

Most distractions don’t originate from external sources—they come from within. They function like Pavlovian reflexes. In his famous experiment, Russian-Soviet neurologist Ivan Pavlov rang a bell before feeding his dogs, and after repeated pairings, the dogs began salivating at the sound alone. Our brains work similarly—we react to specific triggers, often without realizing it. The second step, then, is identifying both internal and external triggers for distraction.

Instead of resisting the urge to check your phone or procrastinate, Eyal suggests asking yourself:

• What emotion am I avoiding?
• Why do I feel this urge right now?
• Can I sit with this feeling instead of escaping it?

Of course, distractions aren’t only internal. Constant notifications, emails, and interruptions are significant culprits. Identifying and removing unnecessary triggers, creating a distraction-free environment, and training those around you to respect your focus time can make a huge difference.

The Ulysses Pact: Precommitment Strategies

One widely used strategy for training attention is the Ulysses Pact, named after the Greek hero. If you remember the story, Ulysses had his crew tie him to the mast to resist the Sirens’ call. This type of precommitment prevents distraction by limiting choices in advance, making unwanted behaviors harder to engage in.

A modern example of the Ulysses Pact is the Kitchen Safe—a plastic container with a locking timer designed to prevent impulse snacking. Placing a phone inside a Kitchen Safe during focus hours could serve the same purpose—helping you resist the Siren’s call of constant notifications.

This insightful post explores more practical (and sometimes drastic) implementations of this strategy, offering creative ways to reinforce focus and minimize distractions.

I started by turning off non-essential notifications—slowly, one by one—starting with the least meaningful. This gradual approach helped my brain “detox” from notifications until I realized I didn’t need them. Eventually, I set my laptop and phone to Do Not Disturb mode—permanently. I allow only a few essential notifications. Instead of assuming everything should be “on” by default, I began assuming I needed silence by default. At first, the silence felt strange. But after a couple of weeks, something amazing happened:

The silence became mental space.

Negotiating with Your Distractions

When a task feels boring, it’s often because it lacks challenge or purpose. If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’ll find ways to distract yourself because the task feels meaningless. To counter this, get your tractions in order—keep them clear in your mind so that each task has purpose. As for challenge, the issue isn’t necessarily the distraction—it’s how you respond to it. Instead of forcing yourself through boredom, try turning the task into a game, setting clear goals, breaking it into smaller steps, or using curiosity to make it more engaging.

Indistractable emphasizes time-blocking—scheduling every part of your day, including relaxation. It may sound rigid, but think of it as negotiating with yourself: one hour of focus for half an hour of guilt-free distraction. Knowing you’ve set aside time for fun reduces the constant, nagging urge to check your phone. Personally, a tight schedule doesn’t work for me, but allocating specific time slots for certain tasks has helped me build balance. This way, I know when I’ve completed what I was supposed to do for the day—no guilt in stopping after that.

Still, even with triggers, tractions, and time-blocking, staying focused isn’t a one-time fix—it’s a continuous training process. Some days you’ll perform well; other days, you won’t. It’s just like physical training: skipping one session won’t hurt, but skipping multiple will put you in trouble. The key is consistency—building a streak until it becomes a habit.

To make things easier, Eyal recommends precommitment pacts:

• Effort pacts: Using apps like Forest (which plants a virtual tree that dies if you leave the app early) or Freedom (which blocks distracting websites) to make distractions harder.
• Accountability pacts: Making a bet with a friend that you’ll complete a task, or using platforms like Focusmate, where remote partners work silently alongside you.
• Identity pacts: Changing how you see yourself and reinforcing the belief that you are someone who focuses deeply and is indistractable.

Shaping a Distraction-Free Mindset

The battle for attention is an ongoing process, but we can win small victories every day by actively training our focus.

Attention is one of our most valuable assets, and we need to actively cultivate and protect it. Winning the battle for focus doesn’t require superhuman willpower. It requires intention, strategy, and a commitment to creating an environment that supports deep, meaningful focus. By understanding what pulls us away, we can take active steps to regain control.

In the next part of this series, we’ll explore the next level of deep focus: deep work—sustained, high-quality concentration to produce meaningful things. This can truly become a superpower in a world full of distractions. Once we master our attention, we unlock the potential for deeper thinking, greater creativity, and more purposeful accomplishments.