One Question to Help You Get More Done

December 14, 2025

Welcome to The Productivity Blueprint newsletter 🗞️

This week, we’re digging into why you keep getting derailed by tiny “pings” and what one simple question can do to take back your focus.

“Suddenly, there was a way for anyone to jump into your phone when they wanted your attention.”

This week’s article from Nir Eyal (“One Question to Get More Done”) breaks down one of the biggest enemies of your productivity: external triggers — those pings, buzzes, taps, notifications, and even people that demand your attention right now.

We follow the story of Wendy, a consultant who sat down to do her most important work… and ended up 20 minutes deep into irrelevant notifications, forgotten ideas, and morning emojis from Mom. Sound familiar?

Nir explains that external triggers aren’t just distracting — they train your brain into a stimulus–response loop, conditioning you to react instantly instead of following your own plans. Worse, research shows that even ignoring notifications is distracting. And yes—just having your phone visible drains your mental resources.

But here’s the twist: not all external triggers are bad. Some actually help us build good habits and stay on track (like supportive text nudges that help people quit smoking).

So the goal isn’t to eliminate triggers, but to identify which ones work for you and which ones hijack you. And the tool to do that is simple:

Ask yourself: Is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it?

If the trigger aligns with what you planned to do, it’s traction.
If it pulls you away, it’s a distraction.

Wendy used this single question to regain control — pruning unhelpful notifications and letting only the meaningful ones through.

In short: external triggers are just tools… but only if you choose how to use them.

TL/DR: External triggers — notifications, pings, people — pull you off track even when you ignore them. The solution isn't removing all triggers but asking: “Is this trigger serving me, or am I serving it?” Use the answer to eliminate distractions and keep only the triggers that support your goals.

A customizable workspace where you can build a clean “Focus Dashboard” to keep only your essential tasks visible — and hide everything else that competes for attention.

What we love: You can create a “Distraction-Free Mode” page: no notifications, no clutter, no chaos — just your top priorities. It’s like giving your brain noise-cancelling headphones.

A distraction-blocking tool that shuts down notifications, websites, and apps across ALL your devices with one click.

What we love: It treats your attention like something worth guarding — and forces your phone to stop acting like an attention-hungry toddler.

đź’ˇ Challenge of the week

For the next seven days, try a simple experiment:
Create a “focus bubble” for your most important daily task.

Pick one task that actually moves your work or life forward. Then—before you start—clear your desk, close extra tabs, silence or move your phone out of sight, and remove anything that could tug at your attention. Treat it like setting the stage before a performance.

Now here’s the twist:
Each time something tries to interrupt you—your phone lighting up in your peripheral vision, someone messaging you, a notification whispering for attention—make a quick note of what tried to pull you away and how tempted you were (1–10). Don’t engage… just observe.

By the end of the week, you’ll have a personal “distraction map” that shows exactly which triggers derail you most, when you’re most vulnerable to them, and how much of your focus leaks away without you noticing.

Use what you learn to start shaping an environment that works with your goals instead of constantly nudging you off track.

That’s it for this week’s newsletter. If you can master your triggers, you can master your focus — and once you master your focus, you change your entire trajectory. See you next Sunday with more science-backed tools for a sharper, calmer, more intentional life.

Until next Sunday,

The Productivity Blueprint Team

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