Distractions
A simple framework for classifying and conquering everyday distractions
⏱️ Reading Time ≈ 5 min
Today, something happened that made me think about distractions.
I was racing at just under 40 km/h on my bike (okay… that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but let me dream, guys). About one hundred meters ahead, give or take, I saw a couple with their dog, a beautiful young Australian Shepherd. The dog was off-leash. The moment he noticed me speeding toward him, his demeanor shifted: his eyes locked onto the target (me!), tongue out, body coiled to sprint forward. He was definitely on his way to herd the shit out of me.
As I approached, their owner held out a hand—probably with treats—in front of him. The dog’s behavior flipped again, and he completely ignored me as I rode past. I just passed by undisturbed. The dog was simply focused on whatever their owner had given him—whether a treat or a signal meaning “stay.”
Metaphorically, this reminded me of all the times I had a goal I wanted to achieve or something I wanted/needed to do, yet stupid distractions kept me at bay: new episodes of the series I was bingeing, notifications demanding my immediate response (as if the fate of the world depended on them), doomscrolling on social media… and the list goes on. Instant gratification is a serious societal problem, and it's evolving… for the worse. There are increasingly distracting signals that catch us off guard, and we’ve grown accustomed to short-lived hype that intoxicates us (we talked about this here), forgetting that meaningful happiness emerges from effortful activities with delayed rewards (this article is all about that: The Paradox of Hard Work).
The problem is that this response triggers a dopamine hit—our brains are fooling us. The Italian saying “cornuti a mazziati” couldn’t describe this situation better. Our brains mostly evolved in times when such signal overload wasn’t a threat, and dopamine hits played a crucial role in survival. According to this evolutionary trajectory, we now face a series of ancestral brain biases (Ancestral Brain Biases), because our brains haven’t fully adapted to the “threats” of today’s technologically advanced world and respond using only the mechanisms at their disposal. It’s not the dopamine hits themselves we should blame, but our tendency to make them so rewarding. This means we must consciously reduce our exposure to these kinds of signals. Unfortunately, willpower alone isn’t enough—so the best strategy is to design our environment and habits to minimize exposure as much as possible.
One might argue that the dog was simply very well trained. Yes, that could certainly be the case. But if that’s your stance, it means someone, somehow, has educated the hell outta you. Our attention and our time are the most rewarding things for platforms, social media etc. They have factually made our attention and our time fungible Just writing that last part gave me chills. I truly believe it’s time to regain control of our attention by analyzing where we choose to focus before it’s too late. This doesn’t mean quitting social networks cold turkey, but using them wisely. If you find yourself doomscrolling, ask: “Why am I doing this? Am I present in this moment, or simply responding to signals? Am I in control?” If the answer is no, you have the opportunity to take action and do yourself a favor.
I conceived this piece while biking, in the minutes following the encounter described above. Earlier, I was biking while listening to an audiobook (yes… endurance sports and audiobooks are one of my favorite leisure activities), and afterward my brain started firing off essentially random words to make sense of the experience by building a narrative. So one could argue that the genesis of these written words is distraction itself. There’s no way I can logically counteract this onslaught. But there’s a catch: things are always more complex than they seem—there are always shades of gray and trade‑offs.
You don’t want to keep all distractions at bay. You want to be able to discern which distractions can be beneficial to you, and which of them are to be staved off. Broadly speaking, distractions fall into four categories: endogenous good, endogenous bad, exogenous good, and exogenous bad.
Endogenous good distractions are the spontaneous eruptions of creativity and insight—the moments when your psyche pushes through the veil to express itself. Examples might include sudden sparks of inspiration for a project, playful daydreaming, or intuitive leaps during a brainstorming session. These are the distractions you want to honor and even cultivate, as they often lead to novel ideas and breakthroughs.
Endogenous bad distractions, known as “vritti” in Eastern spiritual traditions, encompass overthinking, rumination, worry, judgment, and internal mental chatter. While you can’t completely avoid these thought patterns, you can tame them through practices such as meditation, journaling, or mindfulness exercises. By learning to calm the mind, you gain the awareness to set aside unhelpful thoughts during deep, focused work and to release creative energy during unstructured moments like a solitary walk or free-writing session.
Exogenous bad distractions are external stimuli—unsolicited notifications, background noise, or unexpected interruptions—that offer only negative outcomes. Much like addictive substances, they hijack your reward circuitry, wiring your brain to crave ever-greater hits of instant gratification. Since willpower alone often proves insufficient, the most effective defense is to engineer your environment: silence nonessential alerts, use website blockers, or designate distraction-free work zones to minimize your exposure.
Exogenous good distractions are external events that, while interrupting your current flow, can carry crucial information or opportunities. Think of a pan catching fire on the stove while you’re working, witnessing your child’s first steps during family time, or hearing the doorbell ring just as you step into the shower (it always happens that way, doesn’t it?). If you’ve mindfully structured your surroundings and developed the discernment to recognize these signals, you can decide when it’s appropriate to attend to them—sometimes they’re surprises you wouldn’t want to miss, or even life-saving cues in emergencies.
Distractions are not inherently bad; it’s our behavior that gives them weight and importance. You just have to choose where you want to be distracted—otherwise, everything becomes a distraction.
👋🏼 Make the most of it! Until next time, S.
