How do I stop acting on autopilot and clear the distractions around me?

Redesign the environment instead of fighting yourself. The New Top 10% says to mark the spaces where you part with the phone, starting at a threshold, so that an object in the place invites a choice. You do not clear every distraction; you create moments in which autopilot has to ask permission.

Why willpower is the wrong tool

When we feel ourselves drifting on autopilot, the instinct is to try harder: to concentrate, to resist. The book argues that this misreads the situation. Move III says that hidden nudges are scattered along the way, steering your steps without you noticing. You are convinced you are choosing for yourself, but everything you do happens inside boundaries that were set in advance.

If the environment is doing the steering, then the environment is where the change has to happen. Willpower, the book notes, is what is in shortest supply at the end of a tiring day.

The practical answer is not escape

Move IX is explicit that the practical solution is not to flee the digital reality. It is to redesign the environment inside it. The aim is a clear marking of spaces and times in which we extract ourselves from the phone's default and choose anew.

This is why the book is not a manifesto against technology. It says smart algorithms, fast communication and digital tools are excellent helpers, as long as we are the ones who truly choose when and how to use them. The book also says that sometimes it is right to stay on autopilot, and that we can sense when it is not.

What the book means by marking a space

Move IX offers three simple actions, which the book calls ZUZA.

Divide. Split your life into spaces: an inside space reserved for the self, where you decide what comes in, and an outside space open to the world. The book lists examples: the home, the bedroom, the office, and places to hang out or worship.
Mark. Create a physical separation at the crossing point, with a dedicated docking station for the phone.
Choose. The station is a nudge that forbids nothing. It brings an intentional choice at the crossing.

The reason this works on autopilot specifically is that it adds a physical step to something that used to be invisible.

Let the object do the inviting

The book borrows a concept from psychologist James J. Gibson, affordances, an invitation to act. A button invites a press and a chair invites sitting. Gibson held that perception is direct, with no inner interpretation, so the invitation is picked up the moment the object is seen. The docking station by the door invites a choice about the phone, and because the invitation is built into the object, you do not need to remember anything or summon willpower.

Move IX adds an irony that is worth keeping. This same logic, the book says, drives interface design in the biggest technology companies, from swiping on TikTok to the button that practically asks to be pressed. A docking station at the entrance takes that technique and uses it for you in the physical world.

The narrow gap where choosing is possible

Between outside and inside there is a crossing interval, and in it you can shift into neutral for a moment. The book calls the result intentional choice: a conscious decision made at the moment of crossing rather than a habit running on its own. At the entrance of a home, that interval is one step.

That is useful if you want to work on distraction. You do not need to remove every distraction from your life. You need a small number of marked moments in which the default is interrupted.

Putting it to work

The steps below are our application of the book.

Choose one crossing. The front door, the bedroom door or the office door. One only.
Put something there. The book says any fixed object works, even a simple chair. A dock is one option, and ZUZA, the doorway dock Beeri Tzori developed, is one. It counts how long the phone stayed docked and does not lock or block anything.
Name the question. At the crossing, ask: bring it in, or leave it out?
Repeat for a week, then add a second crossing. Do not redesign the whole house at once.
Look at two numbers. The book suggests how many times you docked the phone and for how long, compared week to week.

What this does not claim

The book does not say every distraction is a problem or that autopilot is always bad. It says the problem is when you cannot tell the difference. Nothing is forbidden. The goal is that when the phone comes into the room, it does so by your decision.

The preface and the first two chapters of The New Top 10%, by Dr. Yaacov Tzori and Beeri Tzori, are free to read: read the first chapters.

This post draws on Moves III and IX of The New Top 10% (the free first chapters). Steps marked as ours are applications of the book's ideas, not quotes.