Knowing the Difference Between “Traction” and “Distraction” will Change Your Life This Year

Nir Eyal
3 min readDec 24, 2020
Photo by Caroline Veronez on Unsplash

In my research and consulting work, I’ve heard countless people tell me how difficult it is to manage their time.

Yet, when I ask them what they got distracted from, that is, what they planned to do with any given moment in time, they have trouble answering the question.

What is a “distraction” anyway? The best way to understand what distraction is, is to know what it is not. What is the opposite of distraction? It’s not “focus.”

The opposite of distraction is traction.

A distraction is something we do that moves us away from what we really want. Traction is an action that moves us towards what we really want. The difference seems obvious but distraction has a sneaky way of tricking us.

At any given moment, it’s hard to tell whether we are moving towards or away from the very things we need to accomplish in our day. Checking your work email may feel productive at the moment but when you really need to focus your attention on a big project, you are bound to regret the time you wasted cleaning out…

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Nir Eyal

Posts may contain affiliate links to my two books, “Hooked” and “Indistractable.” Get my free 80-page guide to being Indistractable at: NirAndFar.com