A detour, though it is sometimes confused with distraction, can actually be good
Most of the systems that we set up to accomplish something remain grand plans on paper:
New Year’s Resolutions
The plan to double revenues
The wish to overhaul the culture of an organization
The decision to acquire new skills
And what comes in the way of all these are distractions. Countless, innumerable, never-ending distractions.
In an age of hyper-connectivity, open offices and outdated ways of working, the number of distractions has quadrupled.
Whenever I walk into any party, organization, or gathering, and see people hunched over their phones, I know that they’re distracted, not fully paying attention to what’s in front of them. If you’re hunched on your phone, odds are you would rather be doing something else.
Nir Eyal’s new book is called Indistractible — How to control your attention and choose your life.
What’s interesting is that his first book is called Hooked — How to build habit-forming products.
The shift in direction is hard to miss.
From creating products that hook users to telling people how to lead lives free from distracting technologies can mean only one thing — distraction is a very real problem in today’s world.
In an enlightening interview on the YAAP podcast hosted by Hala Taha, he argues that technology isn’t the problem in the first place, it’s merely the symptom of an underlying problem. If you can’t get through a few minutes without reaching for your phone, there is an underlying problem that needs to be fixed. We hear of a lot of companies that ban social media sites in office but Nir Eyal argues that distraction is a sign of a dysfunctional culture, not anything to do with the technology. While he is partly right, I also tend to partly disagree with him.
If a distraction is a part of the environment, it’s harder to resist it.
Not keeping junk food in the fridge makes it easier for you to avoid it instead of filling up your fridge with unhealthy food and then attempting to test your will-power. To a certain extent, the same also applies to technological distractions. One reason why people get more work done on flights is that they can’t get distracted by the internet when they’re up in the air.
Differences in points of view aside, distraction is a very real problem. It erodes productivity, renders conversations useless, leaves you with fewer fond memories, and in extreme cases, comes in the way of meaningful relationships.
On the other hand, a detour, though it is sometimes confused with distraction, can actually be good.
You begin a project with a set agenda, when a new idea strikes, causing you to change direction, leading to something better.
You’re tired and burnt out at work when you decide to begin a side-project that leads to a new business idea.
You take a new route to work and chance upon a quaint cafe where you can work on your first draft.
You veer off the prepared setlist and create a new tune that the audience loves.
You try a new recipe for your signature dish and turn it into something better than the original.
All detours don’t result in magnificent discoveries, but they sometimes free us up from the encumbrances of routine that can stifle us. Some detours might also be dead ends, yet but be a source of learning.
Detours allow us to explore, find ourselves, tinker, discover new things, helping us emerge stronger. A detour can set us on a new path, one more fulfilling than the one we were stuck or grinding on.
Very little good comes out distraction.
And if you’re finding yourself over-distracted, consider taking a detour.
