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When we think about why we get distracted, we need to go a layer deeper to really start with the fundamentals of why we do everything that we do. And it turns out that all human motivation, if you ask most people, why do we do what we do, they will tell you some form of carrots and sticks. Now, this is known as Freud’s Pleasure Principle, which says that everything we do is about seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
However, neurologically speaking, that is not true. That in fact, from a neurological perspective, it’s pain all the way down. This is called the “homeostatic response,” that when the body senses some kind of discomfort, it prompts us to action to fix that uncomfortable state. If we are cold, we put on a jacket. If we walk back inside and now it’s warm, we take it off.
So, these are physiological responses, and the same is true for our psychological responses. When we are lonely, we check Facebook. When we’re uncertain, we Google something. And when we’re bored, we watch the news. We check stock prices, sports scores — all sorts of things cater to this uncomfortable sensation of boredom. And so what we need to understand is that distraction, like every behavior, starts from within. It’s triggered by what’s called an internal trigger, some kind of uncomfortable emotional state that we seek to escape.
So, when we are looking at our devices or checking email, fundamentally, what we need to understand is this core truth: that distraction starts from within and that time management is pain management. And unless we learn these principles for coping with our emotional discomfort and understand what it is that we are looking to escape on an emotional level, we will always become distracted by something.