How To Get Into The Flow State (and stay there)

The flow state - What is it? How do we get into it? And how do we stay there for extended periods of time for greater periods of productivity, and to get more of the things that you want done. 

So what is the flow state, hopefully you’ve heard of it before, or at least experienced it for yourself. The flow state is when we get into a state of mind in any given activity where things are just happening. Whether that be writing a book or playing a sport, you are in a state of flow, where it almost feels like you aren’t even thinking and time seems to just pass you by. 

So clearly, a lot of great things get done when we get into this state, the problem is we either find it very difficult to get into, or that we are easily distracted and pulled out of it too soon. So I want to give you a couple of tactics to help achieve a state of flow, and more importantly sustain it over a longer period of time. 

Environment

The first thing is to set up your environment for flow. Your conscious mind can only truly focus on one task at a time. Forget multi-tasking. Your environment should be set up for intentional focus on one specific task at a time. 

Take writing a novel as an example. Imagine the necessary components of your environment for this task. A desk, a chair, a laptop, possibly a pen and paper. Not only must you figure out what you do need, but sometimes, more importantly, what you don’t need. Put your phone away, turn off all notifications, do not have an internet browser window open whilst writing.

All of this put together will help you to avoid distractions and to stay on task when you begin writing. Adjust your environment to support you in completing the task, as well as helping you avoid distraction and procrastination. 

Triggers

After you’ve set up an ideal environment, the next thing to draw your attention to is Triggers. Triggers are mental cue’s for our mind to help it understand that we doing an activity that requires flow. Going back to our example of sitting down to write, you might start associating a certain drink with that time, or a particular playlist. Activities in the run up to the task that put you in an ideal state of mind.

A great example of this is going to the gym. You put on your workout clothes, tie your trainers, put in your headphones, make that journey to the gym, enter through the doors, begin your warm up. All of these small steps are triggers that hopefully, if performed often enough, help put you in the right frame of mind for the task at hand. 

Novelty 

Finally, occasionally you may need to inject a little novelty into your task, especially if you’ve been struggling with it for sometime, or just can’t seem to get the same level of productivity as before. Again, take our example of going to the gym. If your workouts have become stale and are no longer motivating you, maybe it's time to shake things up. Go for a run instead, do some push ups in the park. Take on activities that will compliment what you are trying to achieve, but put a new spin on it.

This is often enough to shake us out of a funk and bring us back into a state of focus and flow. If you are trying to get work done, maybe move your laptop to a coffee shop, or take a note pad to the park and work outdoors. This subtle change can be the trigger we need to get back on track with what we need to get done. 

Flow is a great tool, that if used correctly can greatly boost our productivity, so think about your environment, triggers and novelties and hopefully you can spend more of your time in this focused state of mind.