Attention Thieves with David Kadavy

We can sabotage ourselves by the way we prioritize our day by not differentiating between the urgency of emails and getting distracted or manipulated by the media. Today's guest is David Kadavy. David is the author of the books Mind Management, Not Time Management, The Heart to Start, Design for Hackers, and multiple short reads. David is a self-published coach and the host of the podcast Love Your Work. David has spoken in multiple countries and has been featured in The Overserver, The Huffington Post, Upworthy, and Life Hacker.

Show Notes:

• [1:02] - Welcome to the show, David! David explains what he does in the writing field.
• [2:50] - Chris admits he is a master procrastinator and tends to spend his time doing tasks that are not as important as others.
• [3:45] - David explains how he divides things up by mental state.
• [5:57] - A way to avoid emails that don't need attention right away, David uses a program called Boomerang.
• [7:38] - David demonstrates how open loops apply to click-bait.
• [8:56] - The looming possibility of urgent emails can waste energy.
• [10:10] - David keeps his phone on do not disturb and uses the favorites feature.
• [12:22] - The news and media can be a huge distraction.
• [13:10] - If the media captures your attention, it is not a mistake. We are attracted to negativity.
• [15:47] - You don't need to know everything that is going on every single moment of every single day. But it is hard not to get sucked in.
• [18:10] - The immediate availability to communication creates urgency that hijacks your attention.
• [19:30] - The first person that should get your attention is yourself.
• [21:00] - As you start prioritizing different things, people may stop demanding your attention immediately.
• [22:23] - David lives in Columbia and the cultural values are much different there than in the United States.
• [25:19] - People in different countries may look at time differently as well.
• [28:33] - People also tend to change how they think about time.
• [30:03] - If there is a specific set of steps to complete a task, AI can do it. But human creativity is missing.
• [32:27] - David describes a typical writing day for him and how he manages his mind.
• [35:01] - David explains the science behind why morning grogginess is actually a prime state to be in for creativity.
• [38:29] - While resting, free association gets a chance to manifest.
• [41:15] - Arguing viewpoints on social media has become a priority for a lot of people.
• [44:50] - There's so much fighting for our attention.
• [45:55] - David shares the titles and brief description of his books linked below.
• [48:01] - kdv.co is shared as an opportunity to download a free writing toolkit.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

Links and Resources:

• Podcast Web Page
• Facebook Page
• whatismyipaddress.com
• Easy Prey on Instagram
• Easy Prey on Twitter
• Easy Prey on LinkedIn
• Easy Prey on YouTube
• Easy Prey on Pinterest
• David Kadavy Web Page
• David Kadavy on Twitter
• 100-Word Writing Habit
• Books by Author David Kadavy
• Love Your Work Podcast
• David Kadavy's Writing Tools