The Best of Nir Eyal

Fortnite has created concern about technology addiction. However, when people say they are addicted to chocolate, they are generally not addicted.

Addiction isn’t about feeling good, it’s about not feeling bad. In this article Nir explores the addictive product myth and a new model for understanding addiction.

Recently, after I gave a virtual presentation on my book Indistractable, a listener wrote something in the Zoom chat that drove me bonkers: “This is great but wouldn’t work for me. I’m a Gemini.”…

Nir’s Note: This guest post is an excerpt from my friend Ryan Holiday’s new book, Ego Is the Enemy. Ryan is the author of three other books and his monthly reading recommendations, which go out to 50,000+ subscribers, can be found here.  It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. —Marcus Aurelius John DeLorean ran his car […]

It seems counterintuitive, but spontaneity can’t happen without a bit of advanced planning. Only people with spare time can be spontaneous.

When I was 13, my parents and I went to Europe on vacation. It was miserable. My father wanted to hit all the major sites, while my mother just wanted to relax. Because they couldn’t agree on what to…

«plan is the only way to e»

The German writer and philosopher Goethe believed he could predict someone’s future based on one simple fact. “If I know how you spend your time,” he wrote, “then I know what might become of you.”…

«But here’s the thing: Your life in the future isn’t going to look the way you want it to unless you take control of your time and attention.»

Behavioral designer, Nir Eyal, reveals the hidden dangers of to-do lists and the value in taking a more scientific approach using a schedule builder.

«Planning in advance how you intend to spend your time is the only way to know the difference between traction (what you said you would do) and distraction (anything else).»

You wake up in the morning irritable and groggy but determined to be productive. Yesterday didn’t go well. You didn’t complete even the one big priority project that would have taken just a couple of…

«Don’t shut out the feeling; by deliberately avoiding specific thoughts, they become more persistent, a phenomenon called ironic processing.»

The fear of missing out, also known as FOMO, is keeping you from being your best. Here's how to get over it.

You don’t have to agree on everything, but you do have to be aligned. Divorce sucks. My friend is going through one right now. The worst part is that he saw it coming. And he’s not the first of my…

Are you afraid of being alone? Well, you’re not alone in that. In a 2014 survey of 2,000 adults, one in three said they fear being alone: 40% of women and 35% of men. Ironically, the more we subvert…

«the capacity to be alone probably makes your interactions with others richer. Because you’re bringing to the relationship a person who’s actually got stuff going on inside and isn’t just a connector circuit that only thrives off of others.»

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 would be. His answer: “Consumer science.” He explained, “Leaders like Steve Jobs have a sense of style and what customers seek, but I don’t. We need consumer science to get there.” Reed’s aspiration was that the Netflix team would disco

Geico’s “Hump Day” commercial is a great example of viral word of mouth marketing. How can you use this to trigger word of mouth advertising for your brand.

Ego depletion theory says that willpower uses a reservoir of mental energy. Psychologists have thought it's why we run out of willpower. Here's why I disagree.

«Just let that sink in–mindset mattered more than physical dependence! What we say to ourselves is vitally important. Labeling yourself as having poor self-control actually leads to less self-control.»

New studies suggest that we’ve been thinking about willpower all wrong. Even worse, holding on to outdated ideas can actually be hurting you.

This essay is adapted from the book Build For Tomorrow, in which Entrepreneur magazine editor in chief Jason Feifer shows how to thrive by…

Humans have an evolutionary need to be challenged—to feel discomfort. We may not enjoy whatever discomfort we expose ourselves to in the moment—be it a physical, mental, or spiritual hardship—but…

«Stepping outside your comfort zone seriously improves your life. Humans have an evolutionary need to be challenged—to feel discomfort.»

People make time for who and what they want, and you should, too. Though the author is unknown, this saying has become an axiom to soothe distraught thoughts. Some use it as reasoning to understand…

Overcoming distraction is the struggle of our time. Here are 4 simple steps to manage your wandering mind.

«Answer the question: Is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it? That way, you can hack back the external triggers that aren’t serving you»

We live in a world of too much information, and it’s nothing less than a blessing. Throughout most of human history, access to knowledge was limited. Power equated to how much information you had…

«The ability to focus on the things that matter while ignoring the things that don’t is a defining trait of people who achieve their dreams.»