Today, we’ll be going over how to enter flow state at will, whenever you need, within minutes.
“Why would I want to enter flow in the first place?”, you may be thinking. “And isn’t flow just the same as focus?”
So, what really is flow? Well let’s do a quick breakdown. Flow is a state of mind where work feels effortless. It feels like play, if I dare say so. It is the state of being completely absorbed with the task at hand. In a weird yet fascinating way, you are one with the task. You flow between one another.
Let me give you an example - That time you were performing a task - painting, reading, swimming, running, writing, meditating - whatever it was, just felt effortless. 1, 2, 3 hours go by, and it felt like mere minutes - that was flow.
But have you ever gotten to the end of an 8-hour workday, or a 4-hour “focus” block, only to have the one task you wanted to complete, still not finished? Not only will flow solve this problem, but you will unlock productivity which will make you throw away your bullet journal, pomodoro timer, and notion dashboard all in one go.
Unfortunately, 90% of people fail to enter flow state when they attempt to do so. There are a handful of reasons, all of which we’ll go over, but there is one main cause -
We’ve never been surrounded by as many distractions as we are today
Constantly checking your phone
Getting caught up in busywork
Endless colleague talk
Over-caffeination
Procrastinating
Delaying tasks
While the above problems may seem significant, they’re actually easily solvable with flow, and you can go and enter flow state as soon you finish reading this email.
Here's how, step by step:
Step 1: Understand the flow cycle
You’ve probably tried to sit down and focus on a task for a prolonged period of time, only to be met with mental resistance. Knowing the phases of the flow cycle will help you become aware of the feelings you’re experiencing as you’re working up to, into, and out of flow.
1st stage of the flow cycle: Struggle.
This is the first 10-30 minutes of the cycle, where you feel most uncomfortable, and want to alleviate that discomfort through a quick hit of dopamine (a distraction). Persist through, and you’ll start to stretch your ability to keep attention and focus on any given task, for longer periods of time. Your attention span is quite literally a muscle.
Shortly, you’ll enter the 2nd stage: Release.
This is where enough dopamine builds up by persisting through discomfort, and boosted motivation to do the task at hand as you start to get into the swing of your work. This short stage launches you into the 3rd, golden stage: Flow.
This stage is beautiful because it’s where your subconscious takes over, allowing you to make decisions in seconds, and physically ‘flow’ through your work.
The final stage is recovery. This is where your morning routine should come in. Move your body, breathe deeply, get a sweat on, stretch, do some cold exposure, read, journal - create a cocktail of hormones to replenish your mind.
Step 2: Remove potential distractions & blockers
If you attempt to sit down, get to work, and enter flow state imminently, but your environment is ripe with distractions, you will not see success.
Leave your phone in a different room (or just somewhere out of sight and out of reach)
Find a quiet area, or, invest in some noise-cancelling headphones
Turn off notifications on your laptop
Close unnecessary tabs
The important thing here is to audit your workspace and environment, identify the things you would usually get distracted by, and ruthlessly remove them.
The 1 thing that the Musks, Hormozis, and Bezoses of this world all had in common, is that they unlocked their mind’s full potential using flow. And they sure as hell weren’t distracted by their iPhone.
Step 3: Increase your likelihood of accessing flow
We’ve all fallen victim to the morning routine. “Priming our mind” with cold showers, meditation, affirmations, and morning exercise. Alas, this is actually upside down. Let me explain.
We’re most prone to entering flow state first thing in the morning. This is due to the brain waves of sleep - Theta and Delta - being similar to that of flow - Alpha and Theta.
Don’t worry, you can keep your morning routine. However, the best thing to do would be to work on your most important tasks for the first 1-3 hours of the day, followed by your morning routine, which will act as a refresh for your mind.
Step 4: Trigger flow with preconditions
If there is no clear objective in your task, and you’re about to start working haphazardly, you will not enter flow. Three triggers need to be present in order to enter flow:
Clear goal - Make it easy to start working. The night before, do all the preparation and outline a clear objective for the task you will be working on upon waking.
Immediate feedback - The task has to kick you into mental and physical action. Reading, assessing, analysing, evaluating, writing, editing - chipping away at the task, step-by-step.
Challenge : Skill balance - The task cannot be so hard that it causes anxiety, but also not so easy that it causes boredom. Make it just a tiny bit harder than your current skill level.
Step 5: Practice
Keeping strong attention for long periods of time is difficult. That’s why most people only get to experience true flow on rare occasions, and completely by chance.
But just by clearly outlining the objective of your task, eliminating any potentials distractions, getting straight to work on the needle-moving tasks first thing in the morning, and just carrying on working when you feel some discomfort, you can access your best work, at will, every single day.
All that’s left to do is go practice.