Lesson 02 · 10 min
What's Actually Pulling You
Most distraction isn't the phone. It's an open loop your brain hasn't been allowed to close.
Listen first
Listen first: distraction from the inside
Spoken introduction · read aloud in your browser
Everyone blames the phone. The phone is real, but it's rarely the first mover.
Usually something inside the task became uncomfortable — unclear, boring, mildly threatening — and the phone was simply the nearest exit.
This lesson separates the pull from the exit.
The mechanism
Distraction is usually an escape, not an attraction
Watch the second before you pick up the phone. Almost always, something happened: the next step got vague, the document looked judgemental, a small dread arrived.
The phone doesn't pull you away. Discomfort pushes you out, and the phone is standing there with the door open.
That matters because blocking the exit doesn't work if you leave the discomfort in place. You'll simply find another door.
Rule
Fix the push before you block the door.
Course tool · Lesson 02
Map the Pull
Name what happens the second before you leave the task.
Pick one
What usually happens right before you leave the task?
Quick win · 2 min
The parking page
Open one blank page beside your work. Everything your brain throws at you goes there in four words — the errand, the search, the sudden memory. You're not ignoring the thought, you're deferring it, and that's the only version your brain accepts.
Use an ADHDier tool
Distraction Parking Lot
The standalone version, for one work session.
Open the toolUse an ADHDier tool
What Is Pulling My Attention?
Name the pull before you try to resist it.
Open the tool“It wasn't that I wanted to be somewhere else. I just didn't want to be inside that sentence any more.”
Keep this
Three things to take.
- 01Distraction is usually an exit from discomfort, not an attraction.
- 02Name the push — vague, boring, or threatening — and treat that.
- 03A parking page closes loops without following them.