“Flow” is a hyperproductive mental state characterized by complete involvement in the task at hand. Athletes, musicians, and other performance-based workers crave this “zone” that produces some of their best results with less effort. Flow state is the antithesis of multi-tasking, it is the application of all your mental and physical resources toward the accomplishment of a single task.
If you aren’t working in a flow state, you aren’t working at your potential. Digital workers – ranging from graphic designers and writers to programmers and database admins – can harness the power of this psychological state to produce better work, more of it, and in less time. You can also learn to enter this state intentionally rather than by chance and you can learn to stay in it longer.
What follows are tips and suggestions that encourage entering the flow state and staying in it till the work is done. However, keep in mind that your attention should never be on entering the flow state. This would actually make you very unlikely to enter Flow because your attention needs to stay on the task at hand and nothing else.
- Minimize distractions: anything that will take your attention off the task at hand needs to be eliminated:
- Turn off notifications:
- Email – Check at set times during the day
- Growl – Remove unimportant notifications
- Battery life – Unless not near a power outlet, is a useless habit to check battery life
- Turn off bouncing applications
- Turn ringer off on cell phone
- Create an auditory barrier from the outside world
- White, pink, or brown noise: SimplyNoise.com
- Sound generator: Ambiance for iPhone
- Reduce visual clutter:
- On computer:
- Think.app dims background
- MenuEclipse dims the menu bar
- Set Dock to autohide
- Clear away all documents on Desktop
- In your field of vision surrounding your computer:
- Papers and other objects on desk should be removed
- There should be no
distracting art or pictures - Clean your display
- On computer:
- Eliminate all discomforts: don’t ignore or tolerate any ergonomic discomfort that brings your awareness off of the task at hand.
- Turn off notifications:
Remove the necessity to think about time: Have a reliable way of bringing yourself back to self-awareness when necessary. For instance, have an iCal pop-up reminder for appointments or set a timer on your cell phone. Whatever system you choose, you need to have complete confidence in it’s ability to bring you back to reality so that you can let go of any thoughts pertaining to time, your schedule, and obligations for the day.
Prepare to stay in the Flow state: The idea is that you are able to stay in Flow state for as long as you need or want and you only leave when you decide you are ready. The last thing you want is to be snapped out of a productive flow state by the call of nature or a funny video that demands to be emailed to friends and family.
- Anticipate the needs of your body:
- Use the bathroom before you sit down to work
- Have something to drink and something to snack on within arms reach.
- Plan for distraction: It is inevitable, have a way to deal with it.
- You will run across useful and interesting information as you are working. Have a bucket to stick it into so that you can follow up when you aren’t working.
- Instapaper.com: Very simple and elegant.
- Evernote.com: Text recognition of images, folders.
- You will have great ideas about other work while you are in flow state. Have a way to record things, then leave it for later.
- You will run across useful and interesting information as you are working. Have a bucket to stick it into so that you can follow up when you aren’t working.
Work effortlessly: Your computer needs to become an extension of your mind. You need to be able to focus on what you are doing and not how to do it.
- Work without thinking: Master your apps and OS.
- Make a list of your frequently used apps
- Learn more about their functionality every day
- Buy a tips and tricks book for your OS of choice.
- Move without thinking: Everything in it’s place, a place for everything. Cultivate the good habit of instinctively going to where you need to be. This will add up to quite a bit of time saved over the years as you don’t have to think “Now, where did I stick Mori?” and, instead, you hit “Control – Right Arrow” without thinking about it. Moving around on your computer becomes effortless, automatic, and fast. Germane to this discussion is that because you don’t have to think about it, it doesn’t bring you out of Flow.
- Use Spaces:
- One frequently used app per space
- Dedicate a single Space for each frequently used app in System Preferences so it’s always in the same Space OR group by purpose (EX: Task manager and Project manager in same space)
- Warp.app for switching with mouse
- Always set things up the same way so that muscle memory takes over navigation.
- Use Spaces:
Create a trigger: By linking the sensation of being in Flow state to a trigger, eventually the presence of the trigger alone will make you significantly more likely to enter flow state. Each time you enter flow state in the presence of that trigger, you are strengthening the connection.
- Decide on a trigger:
- A smell: Make sure it is a smell that the company will continue to produce or buy a lot of it at once.
- Scented candle
- Incense
- A ritual:
- Stretching
- Meditation on a particular subject
- A sound: If you pick white, pink, or brown noise, only use that noise during flow work. In other words, don’t use it when you are falling asleep. Dedicate the noise to flow work.
- A smell: Make sure it is a smell that the company will continue to produce or buy a lot of it at once.
Know exactly what you are doing: In order to focus, you’ve got to be clear on what you are trying to accomplish. Deciding what you are working on gives you permission to ignore everything else until later. Deciding what you are going to accomplish makes it harder for you to justify quitting until the goal is reached.
Find motivation for the task: In order to focus, you need to have sufficient reasons to begin working on the task, to devote all your mental resources to it, and to continue working on it after you’ve made sufficient progress to justify stopping.
- Where to find motivation:
- Connect the task to a larger goal
- Imagine what it would feel like to want to do the task
- Pretending will create the same feeling.
- Once you have it, get to work, don’t question the legitimacy of it.
- Think about how nice it will be to have it done
- Imagine what the end result will look like
- Tie the task to your values
- Think about what the end result will bring you
- If all else fails, scare yourself (“If I don’t get this done…”)
Start working: Allow the transition into a deeper and deeper flow state by staying focused on the task at hand and giving yourself positive feedback as you work.
- If searching for motivation does not naturally transition into beginning the task, start brainstorming ideas about the task.
- If this does not transition into starting the task, just start working.
- IMPORTANT: As you work, allow yourself to become more and more energized and motivated as you make progress and produce good work. This will deepen the flow state.
Other Posts
Loading…
No related posts.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Nice post. I use Shovebox to store all the miscellaneous stuff I come across while working that I don’t want to forget: http://www.wonderwarp.com/shovebox/