A&B #71

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Hey everyone,

Happy New Year to you!

If your New Year's resolution is to develop a reading habit, you've come to the right place:

• Here are 5 FREE resources that will help you become a reader in 2022.

• Here are 20 books that might just change your life forever.

• Here's a 50 book giveaway, learn how to enter here.

📚 Book Lessons:

This week's book is Indistractable by Nir Eyal. This is one of my favorite self-improvement books. It will teach you how to minimize distractions, become more focused, and increase your productivity.Here are 3 lessons from the book:1) Understand That Tech Isn't EvilToo many people demonize technology for being evil or blame it for all the world's problems. But here's the truth, technology isn't evil. It's neutral. How we use it dictates whether it's good or bad. For instance, you can use social media to build or grow your business. Or, you can use it to watch cat videos all day. It's up to us, the users, to decide how we want to use tech. Yes, some tech companies may be operating in a gray area at times, but technology will only continue to play a larger and larger role in our lives.We need to take responsibility for our actions. We need to figure out how to get the best out of technology without technology getting the best out of us. 2) Learn The 2 Types of DistractionsDistractions tend to come in two forms:

1. Internal triggers

2. External triggers

An internal trigger is when your body senses discomfort and seeks a distraction to escape the pain at hand. For instance, if you're bored while waiting in the checkout line, you may reach for your phone to check social media. Or, perhaps you're reading a hard book and decide to check your email for a second. In either case, you're feeling a sense of discomfort and seek relief through a distraction. An external trigger is when an outside source causes a distraction. Perhaps you're working on a project but keep getting distracted by email notifications. Or maybe you're reading a book but then hear a text notification from your phone and stop reading to check your phone. To be Indistractable, you need to understand both triggers and find ways to minimize the distractions from each.3) Hack Back Your SmartphoneA big source of distraction for most people is their smartphone. As we said earlier, our phones aren't evil. In fact, they're amazing pieces of tech, but it's up to us to use them wisely. Here's how:

1. Uninstall any apps that you no longer need or don't want to waste time on.

2. Shift distracting apps (like games or social media) to your desktop instead of your phone. Also, get a wristwatch so you don't have to look at your phone every time you want to check the time.

3. Move any apps that may trigger mindless scrolling away from your phone's home screen. Have only essential apps (calendar, maps, etc.) on your home screen.

4. Turn off notifications for every app except essential ones (I personally have all notifications off except for phone calls and texts).

It also helps to learn how to use your phone's silent and Do Not Disturb settings. Follow those four simple steps and your relationship with your phone will be much more productive.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Accept responsibility for the technology in your life instead of blaming it:

• If you believe you're responsible, that means you have the power to make a difference and change your relationship with technology

2) Keep a piece of paper next to you as you're doing a task and when a distraction comes up, label it as internal or external:

• If internal, try to reflect on why you're feeling discomfort

• If external, try to think about ways to minimize similar distractions in the future

3) Spend 15 minutes today to hack back your smartphone:

• Remove apps you don't need Replace distracting apps from your phone to your desktop Rearrange your apps so that only the essential ones appear on the home screen Reclaim your attention by turning off notifications for non-essential apps

🎧 Podcast Update:

Over the past 5 years I've listened to 1,000+ podcasts.I've discovered hundreds of smart people along the way, but a tiny few had Einstein-level intelligence.Here are 12 brilliant thinkers you should listen and learn from.

📖 Reading Lesson:Here's why the 52 book reading challenge is outdated.And why you should do the 25x250 reading challenge instead.(download the 25x250 reading challenge for free here)

⭐️ Weekly Quote:What we do: What we should do:Read book. Read book.Read book. Take notes.Read book. Apply lessons.Read book. Read book.Read book. Take notes. Read book. Apply lessons.(share here)

Thank you for your support everyone, I'll see you next Sunday!Read on,Alex W.