Nir Eyal

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

A few years ago, I started waking up at three o’clock every morning. Over the years, I’d read many articles about the importance of rest, so I knew the research was unequivocal: Quality sleep supports cognitive performance and lowers the risk of diseases and health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, and dementia. Knowing that, I’d toss and turn in bed, disappointed that I wasn’t following through on my plan to get seven to eight hours of shut-eye.

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Article 104

Nir Eyal

AUGUST 26, 2024

Something as vague and indiscernible as “luck” has no place in the business world, right? Except studies show luck can make all the difference between business success and failure. Turns out, it’s not a matter of being born lucky. You can, quite literally, make your own luck in business and in life. The post How to Be Lucky in Business and Life: 4 Science-Backed Principles appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

AUGUST 12, 2024

We all dwell on unresolved personal conflicts from time to time. Who hasn’t ruminated on a hurtful comment or unintentional harm we might have caused someone? Feeling bad about something you did, or something done to you, is human. But while it’s expected that the arguments we’ve had, the negative events we’ve experienced, and the major decisions we face haunt us, rumination can also pile on new problems.

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Events 96

Nir Eyal

JULY 29, 2024

See if you can relate to Sarah. She’s a software engineer who loves her job—except for her manager, Tom. To Tom, everything is a crisis worthy of interrupting Sara, even when she’s trying to focus on her work. One morning, while Sarah was coding a critical feature, Tom called and asked her to drop everything to help with an urgent report for the CMO.

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Reporting Tools Software Engineering Engineering Management 59

Nir Eyal

JUNE 28, 2024

Discover 9 actionable tips to enhance productivity at work and achieve more in less time. Elevate your performance today!

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Nir Eyal

JULY 1, 2024

As a clinically obese teen, my parents were desperate to get me to a healthy weight. My mom coaxed me on a walk through our boring, middle-class Central Florida suburb every Sunday. The road we walked was paved with good intentions, but for me, it was hell: the heat and humidity, the painful chafing between my thighs, the inevitable embarrassment of applying Vaseline to said chafing. … If I was going to suffer, I would need a reward, and it had better be a good one!

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Nir Eyal

JUNE 17, 2024

You know those people who just seem to get more and more successful? It’s as if each success gives them momentum to achieve even more. Bridgit Mendler is a former Disney child star turned singer, lawyer, and entrepreneur. Amor Towles was a very successful investment banker for two decades and then became a very successful author. Well, there’s a secret to their success, and no, it’s not the obvious money, privilege, and social class (although those certainly count for something).

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Nir Eyal

JUNE 3, 2024

When I was growing up, you couldn’t pay me to read a book about self-help or business. Now, I read between 60 to 80 books every year. A good non-fiction book is the distilled knowledge of years of research and insight and costs just a few bucks. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of such a cheap, efficient way to learn lessons that could change your life without having to do the work or live the experiences the author had to bear?

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Books 110

Nir Eyal

MAY 18, 2024

Typing in “longevity” into Amazon reveals over 40,000 books on the topic. Each author purports their own cure, typically involving a special diet, miracle supplement, or painful practice. However, there is one often overlooked factor that studies have found increases lifespan by seven years or more. The post Want to Live Longer? Change Your Mind About Aging appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Books 27

Nir Eyal

MAY 8, 2024

Winston Churchill predicted three to four million people might be forced to flee metropolitan centers after the first bombing raids of WWII. Tens of thousands of police officers were requested to prevent the stampeding exodus from trampling one another. Yet these predictions were wrong. The post How to Overcome Anxiety Forever appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

APRIL 22, 2024

Forget prestige and corner offices, forget gentle parenting—the real power of effective leaders and parents is their behavior. It’s no secret that our behavior influences those around us. It gives us the power to make a difference—to influence the behavior of others and shape environments. The post Referent Power: The Ultimate Form of Influence appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Reference 59

Nir Eyal

APRIL 8, 2024

Pushing ourselves and holding ourselves accountable are how we achieve success. Unfortunately, many of us mistake harsh self-criticism and self-castigation for “pushing ourselves.” And that has the opposite of the desired effect. The post Studies Show Self-Compassion is the Motivator You’re Missing appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

MARCH 25, 2024

It’s one thing to eliminate distractions in meetings. It’s another to do the same in virtual meetings. Now that virtual teams are becoming a norm, many coworkers have never met each other in person. Yet, they’re expected to work every day toward a shared goal. The post How to Banish Virtual Meeting Boredom appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

MARCH 11, 2024

You’re probably not going to fulfill all your goals this year. And if you don’t, it likely won’t be because you’re incapable; it will be because you got in your own way. A slew of self-limiting beliefs will distract you from your goals and New Year’s resolutions. Below are four ways you’re likely to shoot yourself in the foot with self-limiting beliefs, plus ways you can learn to get out of your own way.

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Nir Eyal

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Did the load of gift returns you made in January make you realize that you need to be a smarter shopper? During the holidays, we’re bombarded with ads and sales pitches that use psychological tactics to grab our attention. These messages make it tough for us to make smart shopping choices. The post Sales Psychology: Why You Make Terrible Buying Choices appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Messaging 107

Nir Eyal

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

You could feel the excitement buzzing through the WhatsApp channel. An A-list fitness guru reportedly spending millions of dollars yearly to reverse aging was in town to hold an in-person workout. Without hesitating, I signed up. I was interested in seeing Mr. Guru in action and eager to be inspired by his approach. The post Listening to Fitness Gurus is Making You Fat appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

JANUARY 30, 2024

Airbnb began as a weekend project when the founders sent an email offering their living-room air mattress to hotelless attendees of a major design conference. Facebook started when Mark Zuckerberg built a clone of ConnectU over the weekend and told everyone in his dorm about it. Most of us think we are never ready for what we want: being in a relationship, living in another country, or starting a business.

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Nir Eyal

JANUARY 22, 2024

As a child of two parents who both struggled with alcoholism, Nick Allen had a choice to make when it came to his own drinking. He could follow the same destructive path his parents took, or he could swear off drinking altogether. But for Allen, and millions of others like him, all or nothing wasn’t much of a choice. Instead, Allen found a third way and co-founded a multimillion-dollar company in the process: Sunnyside.

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Nir Eyal

JANUARY 8, 2024

You won’t evolve if you ignore your emotions. Mastering them is the best hack for becoming your best self at work and at home. I discovered the power of managing emotions when I set out to find a cure for my chronic distraction. I was struggling to the point that it was affecting my relationship with my daughter: whenever we spent quality time together, I found myself fiddling with my phone, my mind elsewhere.

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Management Management 78

Nir Eyal

DECEMBER 26, 2023

The Pacific Crest Trail is renowned as one of the most arduous—and sometimes dangerous—hiking trails in America. Every summer, thousands of intrepid walkers set off on the trail, beginning in spring and knowing they won’t arrive at the Canadian border until five months later. For most people, this sounds like a hellish feat of endurance. For University of Missouri professor Kennon Sheldon, it sounded like a perfect opportunity for a psychological experiment.

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Nir Eyal

DECEMBER 11, 2023

When I moved from a Google sales team in New York City to a Google operations team in Boulder, Colorado several years ago, I expected to find differences in culture and team norms. But one particular practice took me by surprise. Multitasking during meetings was rampant. Everyone was so distracted. This became grossly apparent during my first presentation in my new role.

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Presentation 95

Nir Eyal

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

For companies building products for enterprise customers, increasing customer retention by just 5 percent increases profits by 25 to 95 percent. Yet keeping customers isn’t easy. Eighty percent of B2B buyers say they switch suppliers at least once in two years. User retention is perhaps the most important metric for SaaS providers, who offer products or services that must engage customers regularly to ensure they don’t churn.

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Enterprise B2B 64

Nir Eyal

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

I got this message from Shane Parrish: “Oh I meant to tell you. I remember something you told me that I now share with everyone. It's made a difference for so many.” The “something” he’s referring to is a simple question that my wife and I have posed to each other throughout our 22-year marriage. We’ve been using this method for so long, I assumed it was common practice.

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Reference Messaging 116

Nir Eyal

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Think you’ll explode if you try one more ineffective productivity hack? Here’s what you need to know to actually hack back distraction: there are only three causes of any distraction: an internal trigger, an external trigger, or a planning problem. A distraction tracker is the only way to help you figure out which of those is causing you to get distracted so you can do something about it.

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Download 103

Nir Eyal

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Because I write about distraction and how to avoid it, I often get asked the question “Aren’t distractions sometimes a good thing? Don’t we all need some distraction in our lives?” Nope! The post The Crucial Difference Between Distraction and Diversion appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

OCTOBER 3, 2023

One Sunday morning early in my career, I arrived at work to find a colleague of mine already there. We were working on a critical piece of software for an upcoming covert operation. He approached me shortly after I sat down at my desk. “That code you were writing was supposed to be done two days ago,” he said. “The operation is tonight, and we can’t go without you.

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Nir Eyal

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

We’ve all been in a dumb meeting—one that makes you think, “This doesn’t even apply to me,” “I’m learning nothing from this,” or, worst of all, “This meeting could have been an email.” I’m sure you’ve commiserated with colleagues over what a time suck dumb meetings can be. Still, you might have resigned yourself to dumb meetings, accepting them as an inevitable facet of the workplace.

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Nir Eyal

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

More times than I can count, I’ve slid under the bedsheets, turned off the light, and shut my eyes…only to have a great idea pop into my head. I’ll toss and turn for a while, hoping I’ll forget the thought. But if it’s a good one, I’ll turn on the light and, eyes bleary, scribble it down. The post When Do You Feel Most Creative? Why Ideas Bloom at Bedtime appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

AUGUST 28, 2023

Even if you’re not sure about the power of morning affirmations, the science behind them is: When used correctly, self-affirmations can significantly affect your mindset and behavior. They have the power to rewire your brain, helping you break free from negative thought patterns and instill healthier habits. The post 32 Morning Affirmations: Rise and Shine!

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Nir Eyal

AUGUST 14, 2023

Some days, the world seems intent on sabotaging your timeboxed calendar. A meeting goes longer than expected. The daycare center calls to say that your child is ill and has to be picked up ASAP. A project you thought would take an hour to complete instead took three. Before you know it, the end of the day arrives, and you’ve barely given time to the tasks you had wanted to do.

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Events 91

Nir Eyal

JULY 31, 2023

When they came on the scene in the 2010s, enterprise messaging apps delivered the fast collaboration companies craved. A new world of internal messaging dawned in which anyone could ping anyone and get a near-immediate response. But in offering a potent solution, group messaging apps also introduced a problem: constant distraction at work. We’re drowning in notifications that lure us to diversion and degrade productivity.

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Messaging Enterprise 76

Nir Eyal

JULY 17, 2023

Venture capital (VC) is a great opportunity for new entrepreneurs seeking to bring a product to life—but the funding is incredibly difficult to secure. A survey of almost 900 VC firms found that they consider 101 opportunities on average for every deal they close. Still, the benefits of VC funding are clear. The post How to Build an Irresistible Product for VC Investors appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Product Research 52

Nir Eyal

JULY 3, 2023

Numerous articles detail the routines of the most successful people in the world: Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at 3:45 a.m. and exercises. Actor and producer Reese Witherspoon eats the same healthy breakfast. Society has become so focused on increasing productivity and packing the most into every day that we think of long-term, consistent routines as the gold standard for spending our time.

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Article 73

Nir Eyal

JUNE 19, 2023

Imagine your retirement. Are you picturing long, lazy days on a tropical beach under coconut trees? Maybe you’ve opted for a life of adventure, traveling to all the places you haven’t been to yet. Perhaps the science fiction novel you’ve always wanted to write is finally pouring out of you. But why should you wait until you retire to pursue those things?

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Travel 102

Nir Eyal

JUNE 5, 2023

The end of the school year is a magical time. Kids have made it through a grueling year of groggy early mornings, rigid class schedules, piles of homework, and endless extracurriculars. Finally, they have two whole months of sunny freedom. It’s a well-deserved break. But this gift of time can easily be squandered. The post How to Craft an ‘Indistractable’ Summer Schedule for Your Kids appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Nir Eyal

MAY 22, 2023

What would it look like if the world moved toward a four-day workweek? Time magazine says 2023 could be the year of the four-day workweek. But if the world is going to attempt this paradigm shift, we have to do our best to eliminate the obstacles. Companies and employees can use the methodology described in my book, Indistractable, to navigate this sea change.

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Magazine Books 100

Nir Eyal

MAY 8, 2023

It’s no secret companies spy on their staff. The rise of remote work has made corporate leaders paranoid, thinking they must monitor their employees’ every digital move. When employees know their performance is being measured by the rules of productivity software, they become motivated to prioritize emails and messages over their core work. Discover better ways to tackle distractions at work.

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Management Management Messaging 82