How to Tap Into Your Flow State and Increase Productivity

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Have you ever wondered how some people seem to be so much more productive than others? Why does it take most people months, even years to write a book yet a Pulitzer Prize author wrote their book in one day? How is it that some people can accomplish such seemingly “impossible” athletic achievements? Is this ability to perform at your peak when it is ‘crunch time’ something that we all have the ability to access? What would it feel like if you could soar far beyond anything you have already achieved in life, becoming more creative, more productive, more passionate, more fulfilled, happier and more content? This is what can be experienced by mastering the ability to get in “the flow”. Once you access the flow state, the sky is the limit to what can be achieved.

What is flow?

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Many of us may have accessed flow at one time or another in our lives. As an athlete in high school I can remember one time in particular when I accessed the flow state. All that existed in that moment was the ball and I. I did not hear the superfluous noise around me, it was actually quiet. In the middle of the excitement and action of the game I felt calm and peaceful. In the flow state, my body took over and took action without me thinking about it, performing far above my athletic capability or what I believed it was at the time. After that brief period in the flow state, I could barely believe it was me that just executed that play! This is being in the flow.

What happens in flow state?

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When you are in the flow state of conscious, you perform at your best. In the flow state the brain’s capacity to process, identify patterns and connections and respond is optimized. Research tells us that when in the flow state people become up to 500 percent more productive! Creativity and problem solving abilities increase 400 percent. In the flow state the ability to learn and commit that learning to long term memory is 240 percent to 500 percent faster. During this process the brain releases an abundance of five neurochemicals into your system allowing the brain to take in more information per second which amplifies cognitive performance.

In the flow state one becomes totally absorbed in the activity or task at hand. Time disappears and you are completely in the moment. Our inner mental critic is turned off. There is no second guessing, no conscious processing, your responses become seemingly automatic. Your ability to be aware of the moment and to take action merges. Physical and mental abilities leap to new levels of performance. The flow state is often shared as an experience for athletes in moments of high performance; however flow state can occur in relation to any activity or task.

Take more risks.

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The greater the perceived risk, the more we pay attention which increases focus. The risk does not have to be a physical risk. Social and emotional risks are just as effective. The brain does not differentiate between social fear and physical fear. It processes the reaction to the perceived danger or threat in the same way. Our brains are hard wired to hyper focus on any threat to ensure survival. The interpretation of risk is different for everyone. If you are an intensely shy person the risk of a social interaction can be significant enough to be considered high and intensify focus. A higher risk potential for failure also increases innovation and creativity which also create the opportunity to enter the flow state.

Keep it interesting.

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To maintain focus you must be in an interesting environment. Tap into your passion. Pursue things that you love and are interested in. Environments that stimulate flow have new and unusual stimuli to attract our attention, have a degree of unpredictability and have complexity. All three of these criteria keep the brain engaged. Environments that encourage you to ‘do’ are rich environments that provide the opportunity to receive sensory input through several of your senses at the same time i.e. visual, tactile, auditory, vestibular, etc. are excellent to promote the flow state. You must strike a balance between boredom and overwhelming. Both too little sensory input and complexity in your environment or too much can leave you disinterested and detached. The key is to find the right balance.

Keep it challenging.

Know your craft and have the skills. The challenge to skills ratio must tip slightly in favor of challenge. What you are aiming for, your goal, must be slightly above your skill level to feel tension to reach and excel. If the challenge is too great flow state will not occur. If the goal is too much of a stretch beyond your skill set your mind will disengage. If your goal involves calculating complex algebraic formulas and you do not know any algebra, the challenge to skill ratio is too great. Find the balance between boredom and anxiety if the task is too boring or too difficult for your skill attention disengages. When you lose focus and disengage from the activity mentally, action and awareness cannot merge to create the state of flow. If the task is to hard fear spikes and our mind begins its fight or flight programming seeking to remove you from the situation and stops focusing on the goal. It is about engagement.