Today’s article is about the so-called flow state. When you are in this state, you forget everything unimportant around you and are completely focused on your task. Basically, the flow state is a difficult thing to describe, which can be different for everyone. In one of my last articles I talked about the fact that concentrated work is especially important and also when you want to work less but better. Therefore, in today’s article I will show you some techniques on how to achieve this. These techniques can help anyone, no matter if you are a productivity genius or a rank beginner. The point is to put you in a state where you can feel pure productivity and turn it into work. Before I mention the techniques I would like to mention 2 things: 1. that these techniques should not be a means for you to overwork yourself or to promote performance pressure, because even experts think that after each flow state phase you need a recovery phase and 2. it is very difficult to reach the flow state, you can describe it more as a phase that can be reached and used only in very specific circumstances. Here is an illustration:
As you can see it is really a narrow spectrum which you can use. The point is that you are exactly between boredom, because of the task, and fear of the difficulty of the task and find this spectrum for yourself. This brings us directly to the 1st technique, well more a task that is best used before all techniques: Think about when you have been in a flow state and under which circumstances. It’s about finding the balance between fear and boredom.
The first tip is to adjust the task you have to do so that it is just challenging enough. So if your tasks are too easy, meaning you are bored, or too difficult, meaning you are scared, you should make them either easier or harder. This is actually quite simple, if you have a task that is too easy, then think about what your actual goal is and then make that your actual more challenging goal. Or if you are only learning a certain topic of a chapter you could make it your goal to learn several topics or even the whole chapter. If your task is too difficult to get into the flow state, you can easily break it down into smaller tasks and work through them one by one. By the way, this is also an excellent learning method, to divide the things you find difficult into smaller tasks, solve them and then link them together.
The second tip is that you should have a clear head. If you can’t have a clear goal in mind or are distracted by something else, then you will definitely not reach the flow state. Therefore it is important to clear your head first. For this purpose there are some techniques like:
- meditating
- journaling
- a long walk through nature
All these are things that relax me personally, you have to see for yourself what relaxes you and then apply them. However, you should keep in mind that even if video games relax you, it might be better not to play something when you actually want to work. It’s not helpful to do something relatively exciting and interesting that will fill your body with dopamine. You should rather do something that is less interesting but still relaxes you. When you are bored, you feel more motivated to work and motivation is also a big factor when it comes to the flow state.
If you find it hard to get started, I can recommend the 5-minute rule. This means that you do a task or a new habit for only 5 minutes. Often, once you start, you will get into a different kind of flow state that will give you more motivation.
You should avoid any kind of distraction, because anything that distracts you kills your productivity. If you set a clear, difficult but achievable goal, nothing can stand in your way. Setting a clear goal is one of the most important things when you want to reach the flow state. When you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, studies have shown that you perform and work much better, and that’s what we want to achieve.
Another tip is to visualize what you want to achieve in the end, your goal. It helps immensely if you work towards something visible and you can only achieve that through visualization.
I have already mentioned meditation as a method to get a clear head, but now I would like to talk about it separately. In fact, meditation helps to strengthen your prefrontal cortex and create more connections in the brain. At Havard, meditation has been found to lower resting heart rate as well as stress levels and blood pressure. All these factors are preventing you from reaching the flow state and by meditating you can minimize these factors.
Overall, it’s about relaxing, clearing your mind and focusing (and visualizing) on your big goal. Once you do that and start working, free of any distractions, it will be the easiest thing for you to reach the flow state. But don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work right away don’t forget what I said about it being very difficult to find the perfect balance and get into that particular phase. On Youtube I can only recommend Rian Doris, he works full time to help other people get into the flow state. He posts some tips that are really helpful on Youtube. His business partner Steven Kotler explained in an interview with „Big Think“ (I can also recommend it, you learn a lot), how the Flow State can help to overcome a trauma. But you have to watch the video and type in „Steven Kotler Big Think Trauma“ in the search bar and you will get the result. I hope I could help you again with this post. Write your opinion in the comments.
