Nir EyalSpeaker on Behavioral Science, NYT Bestselling Author, Former Stanford Lecturer

The Issue of External Triggers #shorts

Name: The Issue of External Triggers #shorts
Uploaded: 2023-06-02T15:30:08+00:00
Duration: 43 s
Channel: Nir Eyal
Description: Short YouTube clip (spoken by Nir Eyal) explaining that external triggers (pings, dings, notifications, colleagues) can prompt either traction (actions…

2 Jun 2023 · 1 min

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0:43

Short YouTube clip (spoken by Nir Eyal) explaining that external triggers (pings, dings, notifications, colleagues) can prompt either traction (actions you intended) or distraction (pulling you off planned tasks). The speaker gives a personal anecdote about being distracted by a phone buzz while with his daughter, and concludes that although external triggers are blamed, distraction most often originates internally.

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External triggers are things in our environment that prompt us to either traction or distraction. So if an external trigger, like a ping, a ding, a ring, a notification, even a colleague, prompts you to do something you plan to do with your time, it's leading you towards traction. However, if one of these notifications takes you off track, prompts you to do something you didn't plan to do, as it was the case when I was with my daughter, when my phone buzzed and I was on my device as opposed to being present with her, it led me towards distraction. However, as much as we blame these external triggers, it turns out the most common source of distraction are not the things outside of us, but rather the fact that distraction tends to start from within us.