Get in the Flow for Greater Productivity and Joy

If you’ve ever immersed yourself deeply in a hobby, passion, or even a work project, you’ve probably experienced the rush of being “in the zone”. Time seems to stop. You’re so focused that it feels like you and the activity have become one. Even if what you’re working on is challenging, you feel almost invincible. 

Whether you’re a performer, an artist, a musician, or anyone passionate about a hobby or your line of work, it can be easy to get hooked on this wonderful feeling. 

But is it possible to access this state of maximum performance and effortlessness on command? Science says yes! And learning how to be present — aka mindfulness — is one of the key drivers of this flow state. 

So today, we’ll explore how you can intentionally get yourself in the flow state more often so you can:

• Be more creative

• Make better decisions

• Improve your focus

• Feel more joy from your work or hobby

• Achieve more happiness in life

“From a quality-of-life perspective, psychologists have found that the people who have the most flow in their lives are the happiest people on earth.” - Steven Kotler

What’s the science behind flow?

What’s commonly called “the flow” is actually an altered state of consciousness. This is because your brain is operating outside of the normal range of activity you find yourself in on a daily basis. 

As you go through your typical day, your brainwaves are in the fast-moving range called beta. The beta brain state is associated with waking consciousness where you’re actively thinking about what you have to do next. When you’re in the flow, you enter a brain state between alpha and theta, where you feel more alert, awake, yet relaxed at the same time.

As you enter the flow, your prefrontal cortex temporarily shuts down. This is the area associated with higher cognitive functions but also with your sense of self. This is one of the reasons it feels like you literally “lose yourself” in the activity.

Your sense of self is one of the main reasons for the voice of the inner critic. Not having a mental idea of “self” to worry about means there is also no self to criticize or judge. This makes it much easier for you to focus, enabling new patterns to be spotted and new neural connections to be made.

5 ways to get into flow on a daily basis

1. Cultivate beginner’s mind

One of the fundamental attitudes of mindfulness is a concept called beginner’s mind. This is where you intentionally approach each moment as brand new. This applies to how you approach each day, each task, and even each interaction with another person.

Let’s say you think you know someone so well that you can anticipate everything they’re about to say or do. Beginner’s mind challenges you to step beyond this unconscious thought process. You’re invited to come into each relationship or task as if it was for the very first time.

When you’re about to dive into a creative or a work project, a performance, a hobby or learning a new language, see if you can come to it from the standpoint of not knowing. So even if you consider yourself an expert in a certain field, allow yourself to come to the job with no expectations, ready to receive new ideas and make new connections.This will boost your ability to be more present and thus get in the flow.

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few.“ - Shunryu Suzuki

2. Follow your curiosities and passions

Would you rather learn how to get better at your favorite skill or hobby or about something that you have zero interest in? Naturally, most of us would likely choose something we’re interested in. When you’re curious about something, you naturally pay more attention. 

When you’re passionate about a subject, hobby, or a skill, you feel an inner pull to get involved for the pure joy of the task itself… even if it’s challenging. Sometimes maybe even because it is challenging! 

Curiosity and passion boost your focus as they flood your brain with dopamine and epinephrine. These feel-good neurochemicals make you want to keep going, so you’re much more likely to get lost in that state of flow and focus.

3. Challenge yourself to raise your skill level

One of the key components of getting in the flow is doing something that’s achievable but also pushes you outside of your comfort zone. You know how playing a game that’s too easy is not very fun? But if it’s too hard you get frustrated? Somewhere in between there is an optimal level of challenge that allows you to get in the zone. 

Challenging yourself and improving a skill provides an internal reward. When you set the right-sized goal for yourself and achieve it, you build confidence. You grow beyond who you thought you could be! You start trusting yourself more.

This self-trust can help increase your self-esteem and help you feel more fulfilled so you keep challenging yourself and growing to higher and higher levels. 

Along the way, you build your skills, which allows you to ultimately become a master in the subject of your passion. This makes performing the task even more exciting, boosting your ability to get in the flow more naturally.

4. Break your goals into smaller bites

Want to know why it feels so good to mark something off your to-do list? Your brain releases a little boost of the feel-good chemical dopamine as a reward. Dopamine plays a role in motivation. When you continually achieve something you set out to do, you feel more motivated to keep going.

That’s why having a list of things you want to achieve, and then checking them off, can be so effective in helping you stay on track. The key is to not allow big goals to overwhelm you. Instead, break them down into tiny tasks or smaller milestones. Want to run a marathon? You wouldn’t try to run the whole thing at once when you first start training. You’d start with a short 1-2 mile run, and work your way up from there.

Big goals can often prevent you from ever starting something that’s important to you. So the more bite-sized you can make each task required to achieve your goal, the more likely you’ll keep going until the finish line.

5. Make time for gratitude and mindfulness daily

In addition to its other benefits, mindfulness reduces stress. This frees up your mental capacity and improves your focus. This is one of the reasons why Steven Kotler, a leading researcher on the science of flow, suggests that practicing mindfulness for at least 20 minutes a day can boost your ability to get in the flow. In addition, he suggests at least five minutes daily for a gratitude practice.

These practices in themselves are the very things that allow you to be fully present in the moment. Studies have found that even four days of meditation can cause significant boosts in creativity and mental flexibility. But why stop there? 
Imagine how much your life could change if you trained your skills of being present every day through mindfulness and meditation. Interested in learning more about mindfulness so you too can enter flow states quickly and easily? Sign up for a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) class here.