Nir Eyal on the Habits That Make a Writing Career Work
31 questions with the Indistractable author on consistency, connection, and writing in the age of distraction.
Ever wondered how someone who studies distraction manages to stay focused enough to write a book about it? Nir Eyal knows a thing or two. The bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable, he’s spent the past decade exploring the psychology of habits, attention, and behavior change. But his writing life isn’t just about staying on task; it’s about remaining curious, revising relentlessly, and building a meaningful connection with readers.
In his Author Insider Questionnaire, Nir discusses the tools that save him time (hello, Scrivener and AI), the mindsets that influence his process, and why investing in a reader community is more important than chasing social media metrics. He also explains how a quirky blog post led to a book deal and why he still writes hundreds of drafts before showing his editor a single one.
—Panio
31 Questions for Nir Eyal
1/ I couldn’t have written my last book without… the incredible conversations and questions from readers and workshop attendees who constantly challenged and sharpened my ideas.
2/ What’s the thing most people get wrong about being a writer? It’s much more fun than people imagine. I get paid to learn! Then I get paid again when I teach others what I learned. If there’s a better job than that, I haven’t found it yet.
3/ What’s something you wish you’d started doing five years ago? Investing more heavily in building an engaged reader community, rather than relying primarily on social platforms.
4/ Hemingway wrote standing up; Edith Wharton, lying down. What are your quirks? I write best in coffee shops. I’m energized by the vibe of overhearing people do business deals, connect with an old friend, or fall in love over a great cup of joe. In Singapore, there are some amazing matcha bars, which I’ve really gotten into lately too.
5/ Do you read your reviews? Selectively. I pay attention to thoughtful criticism that offers specific insights for improvement, but I avoid dwelling on anonymous negativity or people who judge books by their covers.
6/ What income streams make up your writing business? Book royalties, speaking engagements, corporate workshops, and online courses.
7/ Kiss, marry, kill: podcasts, newsletters, and speaking gigs. I’d have a harem and marry all three.
8/ Is there a book you wish you’d written? Alchemy by Rory Sutherland was brilliant and Sapiens by Yuval Harari was impossible to put down.
9/ What keeps you up at night? Not much, honestly. My Apple Watch tells me I’m getting the best sleep of my life. I used to be a terrible insomniac but then I fixed it while writing Indistractable and it changed my life. I describe how I overcame my sleep problems in the book.
10/ Have any tech tools made your job easier? Anyone who doesn’t answer “AI” to this question is lying. It’s a terrible writer but there’s no way I can go back to doing research lit reviews the old way.
11/ What new tools or distribution channels do you want to try? I’m excited about expanding more deeply into YouTube and Instagram.
12/ How has AI changed your writing process? The amount of time I’d spend chasing down references was insane. Today, I can do deep research about any topic in seconds. AI has made the boring parts of the writing process less tedious so I can spend more time on the fun parts like chasing down great stories and novel insights.
13/ Where do you find new ideas? From thoughtful reader comments, insightful conversations with experts across disciplines, and my own struggles to solve personal challenges.
14/ How do you keep track of new ideas? Everything goes into Scrivener. It’s the best tool I’ve found for building chapters from building blocks made of movable ideas.
15/ What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received? Dorothy Parker said (not to me directly, of course), “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Whenever I feel stuck, I remind myself to follow my curiosity. Even if something is hard, the answer is to play it like a game.
16/ And the worst? “Write what you think people want to read.” Trying to guess the market instead of speaking authentically never worked out well for me.
17/ What is the one piece of advice you would give to recent graduates that want to make a living as a writer? Don’t write just to be a writer. People who do that sound like pretentious twits. Instead, write as a vehicle to really learn something you’re dying to understand. Readers don’t want lectures, they want to follow you on a journey.
18/ Whose career do you most admire and why? Michael Lewis—for his exceptional storytelling ability, intellectual curiosity, and mastery at making complex ideas fascinating and accessible.
19/ Foreign rights, audio rights, film rights: which have been the most valuable to you? Audio rights, hands down. Audio consumption continues to grow rapidly and deeply resonates with busy professionals.
20/ How did you find your agent? Christy Fletcher emailed me out of the blue after she read an article I published on my blog titled, “The Strange Sex Habits of Silicon Valley,” in 2012. That blog post turned into a chapter of my first book, Hooked, and we’ve been working together ever since. She’s fantastic!
21/ Coffee, tea, or something stronger? I can’t turn down a perfectly-pulled flat white, but I’ll always drink whatever the host is serving.
22/ What's the most effective way you've found to build your email list? Writing consistently useful articles, strategically placed guest posts, and carefully crafted lead magnets tailored to readers’ most pressing problems.
23/ How are you using social media to grow your audience? Sharing valuable insights consistently on LinkedIn, engaging readers with curiosity-provoking questions, and leveraging thoughtful video snippets.
24/ How many drafts before you show your editor? Literally hundreds. I’ve thrown out more terrible drafts than I can count.
25/ Can you describe your ideal workday? A great day is any day I can look back on without regretting how I spent my time. As long as I did what I said I was going to do, I was indistractable. Sometimes that’s working on my next book, but sometimes that’s surfing with my daughter. It’s not about the task, it’s about living according to my values.
26/ How does that compare to your actual workday? Pretty close, actually! I wrote Indistractable because I kept getting distracted. After five years of research and writing, I cracked the code and today I’m in the best shape of my life, have better relationships with my loved ones, and am more productive professionally than ever before, not because I have better self-discipline or more willpower, but simply because I follow-through with what I said I would do.
27/ What do you wish you’d known when you were starting out? You don't have to do it all alone. Cultivating a supportive network of fellow writers and creators accelerates your learning curve exponentially.
28/ Fill in the blank: In five years, successful authors will all be…. leveraging AI tools strategically, allowing them more time to focus on original insights rather than mechanical writing tasks.
29/ What is your new book about? It’s about how deeply embedded beliefs shape our lives, decisions, and performance, and how to systematically uncover and transform those beliefs for lasting positive change.
30/ Any new projects the Author Insider community can help support? My entrepreneurial daughter is launching a new platform designed to support content creators who are thinking about writing a book or making paid digital products. If you have 50,000+ email/newsletter subscribers, she'd love to learn from your experience—and explore how this tool could help you validate ideas, grow your audience, or monetize more effectively.
If you're open to sharing, please fill out this short interview form: https://forms.gle/NJ6NmRRoU4iJuNMC8
31/ Any questions or feedback you would like from authors in the community? I'd love to hear which belief systems have been most impactful or challenging for you as you've built your writing careers. What mindsets have helped or hindered your growth the most? What limiting beliefs are you struggling with?
I'm looking forward to seeing your responses!
Want more from Nir?
📘 Read the summary of Indistractable.
🗓️ Try his free schedule maker tool.
🧠 Browse his top articles on habits, focus, and behavior design.
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