Self Discipline and Self Control: Secrets of Reaching Your Life Goals
Emails, text messages, notifications, and glowing screens leave us with very little to show for all the time we spend looking at them. For many people this experience is highly ungratifying in the short term and terribly frustrating in the long term. They say “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” No one wants to aspire to this terrible aphorism. But without self discipline and self control even the very best of intentions are that—good intentions
So achieving what we aim to do is about setting the right goals. It is also about developing the ability to control our behavior and impulses that so often get in the way of our intentions. By exercising self control, we make an active choice. We forgo our immediate pleasures for the increased opportunity to fulfill our greater goals. It serves as a precursor for sustained behavioral change.
The articles on this page will help you develop the self discipline and self control needed to be more productive at work and at home. We will explore the sources of motivation and examine how to develop and track the habits that help you change your behaviors. and learn the needed tips to combat distraction.
Arm yourself with this toolkit filled with the newest scientific insights, practical tips, and real life examples. With it, you will be able to take better control of your life and increase your potential.
Here you’ll find a wealth of articles to help you understand the importance of self control. Explore and learn how to develop the self discipline needed to accomplish more of what matters.
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Top Articles on Self Discipline
Tame Daily Distractions With a ‘Precommitment Pact’
From Homer to Franzen, productive people lean on precommitments as a proven way to stick to their goals.Famed director Quentin Tarantino “never use[s] a typewriter or computer.” He prefers to write screenplays by hand in a notebook.Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa...
“Digital Body Language” Is Everything: Interview with Erica Dhawan
Nir’s Note: Erica Dhawan is the author of the new book “Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance.” She is an entrepreneur, WSJ best-selling author, and award-winning speaker. Erica is a globally recognized authority on digital...
Good News! Your Willpower Isn’t Limited–Don’t Believe the “Ego Depletion” Theory
Contrary to the “ego depletion” theory, willpower is not a depletable resource if you know how to use it wisely. It’s common to hear people complain about feeling “burned out” or “spent” these days. However, these terms conjure a completely incorrect view of...
Getting Over FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out
Choice Architecture: Your Decisions Aren’t Entirely Yours (Interview with Eric Johnson)
Nir’s Note: Eric Johnson teaches at the Columbia Business School where he is the Director of the Center for Decision Sciences. He has authored some of the most influential research on decision-making, with papers published in leading scientific journals and articles...
The New Norms of Business: Interview with Nathalie Nahai
Nir’s Note: Author, speaker, and host of “The Hive Podcast,” Nathalie Nahai’s work explores the intersection between persuasive technology, ethics, and the psychology of online behavior. Following her best-selling book, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online...
How to Play The Long Game: Interview with Dorie Clark
Nir’s Note: Entrepreneur, speaker and consultant, Dorie Clark is a recognized leader in the field of executive education, a topic she teaches at Duke University Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School. She has developed over 20 LinkedIn Learning courses...
Here Are The 4 Simple Introspection Steps That Will Boost Self Awareness
Can’t Seem to Stick With Your Commitments? Try Making a Pact.
You’ve surely heard the protest chant: “What do we want? “[Insert social change here.]” “When do we want it?” “NOW!” But imagine walking by a protest and hearing this: “What do we want?” “We’re not really sure!” “When do we want it?” “Whenever you get around to it is...
The Real Reason Why You Sabotage Your Own Goals
Recently, as I was clearing the dinner table, I asked my daughter if she could wash the dishes. “I was going to, Dad,” she said. “But now that you’ve asked me to, I don’t want to anymore.” I should have known better. This was a classic example of psychological...
How to Stick to a Schedule Even When You Go Off Track
Struggling to stick to your daily schedule? Don’t let one distraction keep you from what you intended to spend your time on. To regain focus and be more productive, it’s far better to create a weekly schedule using a technique called “timeboxing.” You can’t say you...
Breaking the Cycle: Strategies to Overcome Bad Habits
Bad habits can feel like an unbreakable cycle, trapping us in a loop of unwanted behaviors and frustration. Whether it's checking your phone constantly, smoking, or mindlessly snacking, these habits are often driven by deeper psychological processes that make them...
Steal These 3 Advertising Secrets–To Use As Motivation Hacks
You can create some powerful motivation hacks by learning techniques from the persuasion business.The reason why you hate being micromanaged by your boss is the same reason why, as a kid, you refused to put your coat on when your mom told you to bundle up. We’re all...
How to Escape the Vicious Cycle of Distraction
You have time for everything, even if it doesn’t feel that way.People are always saying “there aren’t enough hours in the day” to get stuff done. And yet research suggests that the average working American has four hours of leisure per day. If we have so many hours to...
The Ultimate Core Values List: Your Guide to Personal Growth
Values are the compass that guides our lives, helping us make decisions that align with who we aspire to be. Understanding and defining our core values is essential for leading an intentional and fulfilling life. By embracing important values that resonate with us, we...
Can We Please Stop Calling Everyone “Addicted”?
It’s disrespectful, degrading, and disempowering. In my review of The Social Dilemma, I challenged the filmmakers’ rather extreme view that huge swaths of people are “addicted to technology,” that social media is like a dangerous drug that’s hijacking people’s brains,...
Why Do People Believe the ‘Social Media is Mind Control’ Myth?
In our search for easy answers, we give up control.The evidence is overwhelming: we are far more powerful than the technology that is supposedly mind-controlling us. It’s not even close. As I’ve discussed in other articles, we need to give ourselves more credit....
Timeboxing: Why It Works and How to Get Started in 2024
Children and Technology: 3 Things Parents Need To Know
Whatever your view of tech’s impact on our children, here are three common sense rules we can all follow.Nir's Note: This article is a collaboration between Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and me. He researches...
The Influencers Dinner: An Interview with Jon Levy
Nir’s Note: What do Bill Nye, break dancer Crazy Legs, cyber illusionist Marco Tempest, and economist Nouriel Roubini have in common? They’ve all been guests at a little-known "Influencers dinner" regularly hosted by behavioral scientist Jon Levy at his New York...
What Is Motivation? You’ve Probably Been Thinking About It All Wrong
What is motivation: Understanding the relationship between motivation and discomfortIt took me five years to write my last book, which was a lot longer than it should have taken. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know what to do–I did. I just didn’t do it. I wasn’t...
“Just Say No” Is Bad Productivity Advice
Try schedule-syncing instead.You’ve probably read this advice before: “The best thing you can do for your productivity is to say no more often.” By freeing yourself from unnecessary tasks, the thinking goes, you can spend more time working on the things that really...
Cancel the New York Times? Good Luck Battling “Dark Patterns”
‘Dark patterns’ aren’t always malicious mind control. They’re often a symptom of disjointed company culture. It's suspiciously difficult to cancel the New York Times. Will the Times change?'A recent New York Times op-ed, titled “Stopping the Manipulation Machines,”...
Can We Regulate Social Networks To Curb Addiction—Without Making Them Suck?
Social networks can help addicted users while leaving the rest of us alone. If they wanted to. About five years ago, I sat down in a series of meetings with leaders from Reddit, Snapchat, Facebook, and other social media networks. My goal was to discuss social media...
So, You Want To Become a Great Product Manager? [Q&A with Jackie Bavaro]
Nir’s Note: Recently, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jackie Bavaro about her latest book, Cracking the PM Career—a complete guide to the skills, frameworks, and practices you need to become a great product manager. Jackie serves as the Head of Product Management...
Why the Illusion of Control Is Hurting Your Goals
A classic survivor test shows us how the illusion of control can sidetrack us from our mission when things get uncomfortableLet’s try something. Imagine you’ve just crash-landed somewhere in the Sonoran Desert, deep in the American Southwest. Though the aircraft is...
Are You a Wage Slave?
Can we create a future where people no longer have to work at jobs they hate?In 100 years, some things we consider normal today will make people say, “Wow, how barbaric—I can’t believe people did that! How were they okay with that?” Wage slavery, I hope, will be one...
What is the Opposite of “Distraction?” The Single Word that Will Change Your Life This Year
In my research and consulting work, I’ve heard countless people tell me how difficult it is to manage their time. Yet, when I ask them what they got distracted from, that is, what they planned to do with any given moment in time, they have trouble answering the...
Don’t Fall for This Excuse Trap: Why “That Won’t Work for Me” is Self-Sabotaging
To find your focus, learn to resist this self-sabotaging excuse.Imagine this: You’ve been diagnosed with a rare and serious disease. In hopes of keeping you alive, the doctor recommends a new, experimental course of treatment. It works for some people—maybe 60%. But...
Maybe Social Media Isn’t Making Teens Depressed, After All. And Here’s What Likely Is.
Here’s what the Covid-19 lockdowns have revealed about teen depression.What do bicycles and social media have in common? Soon after being adopted, each of these technologies brought on a tsunami of unjustified moral panic. Let’s start with bikes. When bicycles burst...
Will Clubhouse be a Habit or Has-Been?
Photo by William Krause on UnsplashNir’s Note: This article is part of a series on “The Hooked Model in Action.” Previous analyses have included Slack, Fortnite, Amazon’s Echo, Tinder, and The Bible App. I never take compensation from any company profiled.Maybe you’ve...
How to “Listen Like you Mean It”
Ximena Vengoechea says we need to “Reclaim the Lost Art of True Connection.” Ximena (pronounced “hee-men-ah“) is a writer and illustrator best known for her Life Audit project. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, Inc., The Washington Post, The Muse, and Newsweek....
Smartphone Too Distracting? Here’s How to Reclaim Your Focus
In 2017, I decided I’d had enough of my smartphone and the companies that make the apps that were robbing me of my time and attention. I thought I found the perfect solution: the card phone. The card phone is what it sounds like: It’s a $18 tiny phone with no social...
“Tech Addiction” Is the New Reefer Madness
By promoting the idea that technology is hijacking our brains and getting all of us addicted to our devices, techno-fearmongers elevate the exception rather than the rule.Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri, introduced the Social Media Addiction Reduction...
Love is Measured By the Benefit of the Doubt: The Secret to True Kindness
Babies. They’re such jerks, aren’t they? They wake you up in the middle of the night. They make huge messes for you to clean up. And let’s not forget to mention the inevitable diaper blowouts that happen at all the wrong times. Who do they think they are? Of course,...
An Illustrated Guide to the 4 Types of Liars
Why You Might Need a Humor Audit: the Benefits of Laughter
Meet Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, authors of Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life. Dr. Jennifer Aaker teaches about human-centered AI, designing for VR/AR, and the power of story at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where...
Hypocrites: How to Survive in a World that’s Full of Them
What is a Hypocrite?hyp-o-crite /ˈhipəˌkrit/ noun a person who claims to have moral standards to which that person’s own behavior fails to conform.What is an Example of Being a Hypocrite?I once worked with a person we’ll call “Dick.” Dick always told me he’d get...
How to Finally Find the Motivation You’ve Been Missing
Photo by luca pizzarotti on UnsplashNir’s Note: This guest post was written by Cheryl MaguireThe laundry hamper was overflowing with dirty clothes. Lacking the motivation to throw it into the wash, I pushed the clothes down deeper into the bin so I could fit more...
Ashley Stahl: Former National Security Expert Helps Us Get Unstuck
Ashley Stahl is a counter-terrorism professional turned career coach, speaker, and, most recently, author of You Turn, a book about getting unstuck, discovering your career direction, and designing your dream job. Through her two viral TEDx talks speeches (here and...
David Burkus: The One Thing Remote Leaders Need to Know
David Burkus is a speaker, business thought-leader, professor, and best-selling author. His TedX talk, "Why You Should Know How Much your Coworkers Get Paid" has been viewed over 2 million times. He teaches courses on organizational behavior, creativity and...
Hindsight Bias: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices
How to Turn Off Harmful Stress Like a Switch
By Nir Eyal and Todd SnyderLet’s play a game of “would you rather.” Would you rather speak in front of 500 people for an hour or be stuck in an elevator with your ex? Would you rather get a cavity drilled or be forced to take a four-hour Zumba class? Would you rather...
Review of The Social Dilemma: No, Social Media Is Not “Hijacking” Your Brain
Over the past few weeks, people have asked me for my review of the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. It’s no surprise. One of the film’s central themes is that social media is like an addictive drug, and I wrote the book on habit-forming technologies: Hooked:...
This is How the Media is Misleading You on “Technology Addiction”
Nir’s Note: This guest post is by Siri Helle, a clinical psychologist living in Sweden.Which of the following is true? Screen time is the leading cause of anxiety and depression amongst teenagers Studies have found that screen time shrinks people’s attention span to...
Be a Schedule Builder, Not a To-Do List Maker
Imagine you bought a new phone, but at the end of each day, every day, the operating system crashed. Would you keep using the faulty phone? Of course not. You’d take it back to the store, complain, and get a new one. And yet, many people run their entire lives on a...
Handling Life Transitions: Interview with Bruce Feiler
Recently I had the opportunity to sit down for a Q&A with Bruce Feiler, a Ted Talk veteran and seven-time bestselling author, who most recently wrote Life is in the Transitions, a guidebook for navigating the times when our lives pivot dramatically. You can find...
Indistractable Schedule Maker Tool
Below is a free schedule maker template to create your own timeboxed weekly calendar. After you open it, click on the blue “Use Template” button to create your own copy—it will show up in your Google account at drive.google.com. To see exactly how to use it, check out...
Screen Time for Kids: Give Them What They Need
Society’s fear of technology destroying our children's future has reached a fever pitch and many parents have resorted to extreme measures. A quick search on YouTube reveals thousands of videos of parents storming into their kids’ rooms, unplugging the computers or...
Changing Habits: Interview with Dr. Amy Bucher, a Behavior Change Designer
Nir’s note: I recently caught up with Dr. Amy Bucher, the author of Engaged, a compelling guidebook on designing products and services that change people’s lives. She talks about behavioral design, the science of crafting products and services in such a way as to...
From Friday Forward to Monday Motivation: Q&A with Robert Glazer
Many of us start our Mondays wondering where our motivation will come from, and for some, whether we’ve even chosen the right career. Reference the (mostly) uplifting Twitter hashtag #MondayMotivation. A recurring theme in my articles is the importance of aligning...
Email Management: How to Hack Back and Cure Inbox Insanity
Email is the scourge of the modern workplace. Here are four rules that can help keep it in check.Email is the curse of the modern worker. Some basic math reveals just how big the problem is. The average office-dwelling professional receives a hundred messages per day....
The Surprising Benefits of Unconditional Positive Regard
In 1967, a catchy tune by The Beatles, “All You Need is Love,” became the anthem for the Summer of Love. The Flower Power culture embraced the song and its message, “love is all you need.” If someone had asked humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers what the song meant,...
How to Raise Distraction-Free Kids
Nir's Note: This interview with my good friends Vanessa Van Edwards first appeared on her blog, Science of People. She did such a great job summarizing our interview that I wanted to share it with my readers as well. Check out Vanessa's site and let me know what you...
How to Get the Most Out of Your Calendar
These Two Questions Will Completely Change the Way You Use Your Calendar: It’s all about reflecting and refining.It doesn’t so much matter what you do with your time; rather, success is measured by whether you did what you planned to do. It’s fine to watch a video,...
Extrinsic Motivation: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices
Don’t Follow Your Gut (and What to Do Instead)
How should we make decisions in life? Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, a behavioral economist and cognitive neuroscientist, says that whatever you do, Never Go With Your Gut. It’s such bold advice that Dr. Tsipursky decided to make it the title of his latest book. In this...
Why You Don’t Have to Be a Rocket Scientist to Think Like One
If you looked up the word “polymath” in the dictionary, you may see a picture of Ozan Varol. He teaches at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon and has written a widely cited book on comparative politics. Most surprisingly, however, he was part of the NASA...
Why We Should All Be Wearing (and Making) Face Masks Right Now
Everyone should be wearing a face mask now, whether they are sick or healthy. We can make our own masks to ensure we're not taking them away from health care workers. In several Asian countries that are successfully lowering the number of infections from Covid-19,...
[Survival Tips] Homeschooling During Coronavirus Closings
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, some 850 million children are suddenly learning at home instead of in traditional classrooms. My family has had practice homeschooling for the past five years, so I thought it would be helpful to share some tips and tactics to help get...
Why You’re Not Good at Changing Minds (and What You Can Do About It)
Dr. Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he studies how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. He’s written two bestsellers, Contagious and Invisible Influence, and his newest book, The Catalyst,...
This is How to be Less Distracted By Having Fun in Tedious Tasks
Want to be Less Distracted? Try This: Find the Fun in Tedious TasksFrom comic books and radio programs to TV shows and Atari games, the world has always been full of things that distract us. Today, most of us blame our phones or, more specifically, social media, Words...
“Addicted” to Technology? Why You Need To Turn The Tables And Hack Back!
Opinion: Telling ourselves that devices and platforms “hijack” our brains plays right into Big Tech’s hands.Does repeating a falsehood make it true? It seems so, at least when it comes to the myth that technology is addicting us all. While a reassessment of the role...
What You Need to Know When Visualizing Your Goals
Nir’s Note: This guest post is written by Dr. Todd Snyder. Dr. Snyder is a Psychologist and Productivity Coach at ToddSnyderCoaching.comThe world is full of self-help myths and half-truths. One bit of folk psychology that won’t seem to die is the idea that we can...
This is What Most People Get Wrong About Willpower
You come home after a long day of work and you immediately curl yourself up on the couch and binge the latest Netflix craze for hours, while you scroll and scroll through your social media feeds and snack on potato chips even though you're "on a diet." You look around...
Is Tech Ruining Kids? How to Safely Manage Screen Time
We have to help our children manage screen time — not outlaw itOur fears about what technology and smartphones are doing to our kids has reached a fever pitch. Articles with headlines like “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” and “The Risk Of Teen Depression And...
5 Ways to Distraction-Train Your Mind
Recently, the BBC asked me to provide a few tips for how to distraction-train our minds to manage distraction. Notice the phrasing. It’s not about how to eliminate distractions from your phone or your computer, but rather it’s about us. To regain control over our...
Here Is How to Practice Stillness and Increase Focus
Ryan Holiday is the author of ten books which have sold over 2 million copies. His books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic, and Conspiracy have been translated into thirty languages. In this interview, Ryan discusses his latest...
This is How to Repair a Toxic Work Culture
When Harvard’s Leslie Perlow began to study The Boston Consulting Group, she was well aware of the firm’s round-the-clock reputation. After conducting interviews with BCG’s staff, Perlow found that this reputation was coming at a major cost. Employees were leaving the...
How to (Finally) Put an End to Pointless Arguments
Count me as a Buster Benson fan. His 2016 Cognitive bias cheat sheet is legendary among behavioral designers. I have a framed print out of his codex in my home and I’ve enjoyed his writing on various topics for years. He has extensive experience building products that...
Progressive Extremism: How To Be A Better You
I had just finished giving a speech on building habits when a woman in the audience exclaimed, “You teach how to create habits, but that’s not my problem. I’m fat!” The frustration in her voice echoed throughout the room. “My problem is stopping bad habits. That’s why...
The Most Important Skill of the Future is Being ‘Indistractable’
How the difference between traction and distraction could transform your productivityI know how distractions work from the inside. For over a decade, I’ve helped tech companies build products to keep you clicking. In fact, I wrote the book about it in 2014: Hooked:...
How To Disarm Internal Triggers and Improve Focus
Use this 4-step method to handle unwanted thoughts that can derail your focusWhile we can’t control the feelings and thoughts that pop into our heads, we can control what we do with them. Research of smoking cessation programs performed by Dr. Jonathan Bricker, of the...
This Is The Most Important Skill Parents Should Teach Their Kids
As parents, we all want to raise kids who are smart and focused, especially in a world where digital distraction seems to be inescapable. (Even tech titans like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have strategies for limiting their children’s screen time.) Why? Because in the...
How to Master Hard Skills Quickly with “Ultralearning”
Scott Young is an “ultralearner.” He’s known for learning M.I.T.’s grueling 4-year computer science curriculum in just twelve months. He speaks six languages. In fact, he’s presented his lecturers to audiences in Chinese. It’s fitting that Scott is also the author of...
The Addictive Products Myth: Who Is the Culprit Here?
Nir’s Note: This article explores a new model for understanding addiction. I challenge the simplistic view that addictive products cause addiction. Rather, addiction is a confluence of three factors. Gasoline is highly flammable. But without oxygen and heat, it will...
1 Thing You Need To Know To Save You From Your Email Inbox
Is your email inbox taking over your work-life? Are you unable to get any “real” work done because you’re too busy responding to emails? Do you feel stressed, distracted, and overwhelmed when you see new emails pop up in your email inbox? You’re not alone. The average...
If Tech Is So Distracting, How Do Slack Employees Stay So Focused?
How Slack’s culture kills distraction by building psychological safety, telling employees to go home, and using lots and lots of emojis.If there’s one technology that embodies the unreasonable demands of the always-on work culture that pervades so many companies...
Stop Confusing Habits for Routines: What You Need To Know
Trying to build good habits can often backfire. Here’s why it’s important to know how habits are formed and when it’s better to stick with a routine instead.Habits are hot. Self-help articles extol the power of habits and books on the topic sell by the millions. Yet,...
Learn How To Avoid Distraction In A World That Is Full Of It
Distraction is a curse of modern life. Between our cell phones and computer screens, not to mention our kids and coworkers, our attention is constantly being diverted. It can become difficult to focus on any one task—or any one person—for very long. If anything, the...
[Focus Guide] How To Make The Most Out Of Your Time And Your Life
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote that “few things are sadder than encountering a person who knows exactly what he should do, yet cannot muster enough energy to do it.”[footnote]Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York:...
The One Fitness App That Hooked Me For Good
Nir's Note: This article is part of a series on "The Hooked Model in Action." Previous analyses have included Slack, Fortnite, Amazon's Echo, Tinder, and The Bible App. Note, I never take compensation for writing articles on my blog. Could there be a behavior more...
The Truth About Kids and Technology: Jean Twenge (iGen) and Nir Eyal (Hooked) Discuss Tech’s Effect on Children’s Mental Health
Recently, I was invited to discuss how technology might impact children's mental health at the Johnson Depression Center at the University of Colorado. I shared the stage with Dr. Jean Twenge, author of the book iGen and an article in The Atlantic that got a lot of...
Fundamental Attribution Error: Why You Make Lousy Life Choices
Nir’s Note: This post part of a series on cognitive bias co-authored by Nir Eyal and illustrated by Lakshmi Mani. Discover other reasons you make terrible life choices like confirmation bias, hyperbolic discounting, distinction bias, extrinsic motivation, hindsight...
Kids’ Video Game Obsession Isn’t Really About Video Games. It’s About Unmet Psychological Needs.
Many parents are concerned with their child’s seemingly obsessive video game play. Fortnite, the most recent gaming phenomenon, has taken the world by storm and has parents asking whether the shooter game is okay for kids. The short answer is yes, Fortnite is...
Here’s How Fortnite ‘Hooked’ Millions
Nir’s Note: This guest post is by Patricio O’Gorman, technology consultant and professor at Universidad de Palermo. If you have kids, you’ve likely heard about Fortnite. The wildly popular online battle game has amassed over 125 million players and hosts more than 3...
The Real Reason Apple and Google Want You to Use Your Phone Less
This week Apple follows Google by announcing features to help people cut back on their tech use. Why would the companies that make your phone want you to use it less? If tech is “hijacking your brain” with their “irresistible” products, as some tech critics claim, why...
How Bad is Tech Use for Kids, Really?
It feels impossible to tell if the technology our kids use should be celebrated or feared. A few years ago I wrote a book, Hooked, about how technology can be used to change our habits. I intended the book to teach startups how to build healthy habits, but now I’m not...
How Apps Can Shape Your Future Self
Nir's Note: This guest post is written by Jeni Fisher, a London-based Googler who consults startups on applying behavioral insights to achieve business and user goals. Early on in my role as an Apps partner manager at Google Play, I was drawn towards the...
How to Be Indistractable: Video by Nir Eyal
In this talk, I describe a new model for managing distraction — how to become "Indistractable." I'll write more on this topic in the coming months and I'm finishing a book with the same title. Also, please share this video with people who may benefit from watching it....
Peak-End Rule: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices
Nir’s Note: This post part of a series on cognitive bias co-authored with and illustrated by Lakshmi Mani. Discover other reasons you make terrible life choices like confirmation bias, hyperbolic discounting, distinction bias, extrinsic motivation, hindsight bias,...
How Netflix’s Customer Obsession Created a Customer Obsession
Nir's Note: This guest post is by Gibson Biddle, former VP at Netflix and CPO at Chegg. Gibson is speaking at the Habit Summit in San Francisco on April 11th. In 2005, as I joined Netflix as VP of Product, I asked Reed Hastings, the CEO, what he hoped his legacy...
Distinction Bias: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices
Nir’s Note: This post part of a series on cognitive bias co-authored with and illustrated by Lakshmi Mani. Discover other reasons you make terrible life choices like confirmation bias, hyperbolic discounting, extrinsic motivation, fundamental attribution...
Want to Design User Behavior? Pass the ‘Regret Test’ First
What are the ethical responsibilities of companies that are able to manipulate human behavior on a massive scale? It’s a question one hopes technologists and designers ask themselves when building world-changing products — but one that hasn’t been asked often enough....
Confirmation Bias: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices
How to Regain Focus at Work by Slaying the Messaging Monster
Technology is taking over our lives, especially in the workplace. What can we do to put technology in its place to finally get focused work done? Below are resources, tools, and articles for regaining focus in your digital life. These are tools I use myself but is not...
How to Trigger Product Usage that Sticks
Nir's Note: This guest post is by Janet Choi, Senior Manager of Product Marketing and Content at Customer.ioMeditation, like any healthy habit, takes repetition to stick. But while the folks behind Calm, a meditation and mindfulness app, knew their product’s core...
Avoiding Bystander Effect: Getting People to Help Each Other
Hyperbolic Discounting: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices
Here’s How Amazon’s Alexa Hooks You
Nir’s Note: This guest post is by Darren Austin, Partner Director of Product Management at Microsoft. Last year we added a new member to our household. I must admit that upon first meeting her, our initial impression was that she was a little creepy. Today though, we...