The Indistractable Product Manager
Between meetings, slack messages, and emails, it can seem impossible to do deep work as a PM.
I teamed up with world expert Nir Eyal to figure out what the science says.
Here’s how to reclaim your time:
(To learn in depth about the science and techniques of deep work, check out the deep dive.)
1. Master your internal triggers
The problem is not your digital dopamine dealers. The problem is your internal triggers.
A study of how often people check their phones find 90% of the time is not actually due to a notification.
You need to find the internal discomfort that appears before distraction and catch those moments.
2. Make time for traction
The next step is to ditch the to-do lists and grab your calendar for timeboxing.
This is where you master the calendar to find time for the things you need to do.
This means auditing your meetings, making sure there is an agenda and/or briefing doc, and finding time for leveraged work.
3. Hack back external triggers
Once you’ve completed the first two steps, it’s time to create the safeguards for your timeboxes.
- Put a Do Not Disturb on your Slack
- Share your deep work block with your co-workers
- Put up a physical red card on your monitor to not disturb
These types of safeguards allow you to execution your plans for traction.
4. Prevent distraction with pacts
Three types of pacts will help you keep that deep work coming:
- Effort pacts — apps like Selfcontrol can help you stay off apps or websites
- Price pacts — add a cost to getting distracted, like a dollar burned
- Identity pacts — pre-commit to the notion you’re indistractable
These act as protection for your steps above.
The combination of these 4 sequential steps will take you a long ways to mastering the skill of this century:
Being indistractable.
