Nir Eyal: Daily Routine

From Forest app timers to co-writing with friends, Nir Eyal’s daily routine is built to defend focus — and spend time with family.

When asked in a Thrive Gloval interview about the inspiration behind Indistractable (2019), Nir Eyal, who also penned Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products (2014), replied with a story about his daughter.

“I remember one moment that just propelled me to explore distraction in its entirety.

I was with my daughter one afternoon and we had this book that listed activities for daddy-daughter time. The book had one particular question that caught our eye.

The question was “If you can have any superpower, what would you choose?”

My daughter answered that question, but I was not paying any attention to her answer. I was busy with my phone and I was distracted. When I looked up from my phone, she had already left the room. She got the message that she was less important than my phone. She just left me to play outside.

That moment I realized I had to do something. I had to understand what was going on in my own mind and why I was getting so distracted. I wanted to get to bottom to understand distraction.”