Finding Flow

How to Overcome Distractions and Feel Better

What is Flow? For athletes, it’s being in the zone. For creatives, it’s the intense fire of inspiration. Flow State is that point in work when it doesn’t feel like work. You’re motivated, energized, and deeply focused. The world around you fades to black. You lose your sense of time and become one with that energy.

Many people associate “flow” state with the digital productivity hacks that knowledge workers seek when building and designing software. But the concept was actually coined in the 1960s by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and has been heavily-referenced for years. In an interview with Wired magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as:

“being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.”

Flow is the ideal work situation. Distraction is the enemy of flow. And right now, our world is very distracting.

A lot of people are suddenly forced to re-evaluate the common workday. A seemingly idealistic work situation — the pajamas, the coffee, the tv playing just a little — has delivered a drastic new demand for our attention, our adaptability, and our willingness to push forward. And the entire world, and our individual bosses, are all going to look at our productivity at this time as a metric for this new reality.

Are there days where you feel like you worked really hard and yet nothing got done? This new work-life balance, or complete absorption of one another, is a radical adjustment — for everyone. So, let’s dig into it. What is affecting our productivity and what can we do about it?

Challenges to Finding Flow

Lack of prioritization. When we put the same emphasis on all our tasks, it becomes impossible to choose which we should prioritize and when.
Lack of focus. It’s difficult to get anything done when you’re trying to do everything at once.
Inability to say “no”. If you prioritize everything, you end up prioritizing nothing. Saying no is hard, but so is failure.

Steps to Finding the Flow State

Like any other goal, breaking it into small increments makes it easier to achieve the desired results. The steps below can be used in any order and under changing circumstances. Don’t try just one; experiment, learn, and adapt.

1. Ruthlessly Prioritize

Each day write a to-do list, then narrow it down to the top three. Find the places where you can leverage the Pareto principle and get 80% of the value for 20% of the effort. Instead of trying to do it all at once, simplify these tasks to jobs that could be done in no more than 90 minutes. Once you've found your top three tasks, it's time to get focused.

2. Be Intentional

Create a structured and intentional approach to each day by paying close attention to your thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness does not unlock the door to flow state, instead, it tells us which path we should follow in the maze. Throughout the day, remain mindful of how you feel and when in doubt, return to this list.

3. Cultivate Inspiration

We must remain ever curious. Inspiration is a powerful weapon that can be used to further enhance our productivity. When we feel inspired, motivation is triggered and productivity seems to flow naturally.

4. Build Life Hacks

Create mechanisms to reduce the number of repetitive, step-by-step tasks. Enjoy the benefits of the automated processes as well as the tickle of finding newness in the mundane.

5. Be True To, and About, Yourself

Be honest about your workload to yourself and others - this includes saying “no”. Set realistic deadlines and be uncompromising about the things that distract you from your most productive work. Reduce the busy work, cut the meetings, and prioritize your focus time.

6. Take Real Breaks

Breaks allow us to reconnect with ourselves and the world around us. They provide a chance to look inward and reset our batteries. Paradoxically, we’re more engaged when we take time to disengage.

7. Adjust Your Perspective, Literally

There's a good reason that you see writers at Starbucks. Shifting our environment is like rearranging your furniture — it changes your perspective. When you look at the same desk, with the same coffee cup, and the same chair every week, you're likely to lose inspiration. Instead, seek spaces that inspire and adjust your perspective.

8. Drop The Perfectionism and Go

One of the biggest impediments to creative productivity is perfectionism. We sit at the computer, thinking about what we're going to do, instead of just doing it. The more we think, the harder it gets. Don’t get trapped in your head. Just start.

The simple truth is that everyone can find flow. The key is not to overthink it. If it’s not happening, explore alternative approaches that help you. There’s no wrong way to do your best work.