Find Your ‘Flow’ and Enjoy Wildly Productive Outcomes

Most workers will experience at least 87 interruptions each day — 22 external distractions and 65 triggered by the worker themselves.

I can attest to that statistic above, and I believe this to be true, working remote or not. For workers in physical retail locations, this number would be significantly higher than that. When I started to research this subject, I figured this would be a simple article about working effectively. What I found is that this subject, and specifically the state of flow, is much deeper than I realized. This article serves only as an introduction. There are links to a couple of articles in the footnotes at the bottom of this article. If you find this subject interesting, I would recommend you read those two articles to see if it piques your interest further and follow on from there. I know I will be digging in deeper in the weeks and months ahead. That said, let’s take the first step and begin to understand what flow really is, how we get to it, and the benefits that come from it.

In a McKinsey study, they reported that high-level workers reported being five times more productive when working in a state of flow. Imagine what that would look like—essentially it would be like getting five days worth of work completed in a single day. Wow. In that same report, McKinsey calculated that productivity could almost double if we could enter a state of flow 15-20% more than current levels.

With all of this great new around the state of flow, you may wonder what it is. There is a lot to this answer, but below are some details about what it is, and what it can mean for you.

What is Flow?

This is what is meant by optimal experience or flow state – the subjective state in which a person functions at his or her fullest capacity with their attention so focused on a task that factors such as fatigue and boredom do not interfere; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will participate for the sheer sake of doing it (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). 1

A more simplified response from the same article on the subject:

Flow state is losing yourself in the moment; when you find your abilities are well-matched to an activity, the world around you quietens, and you may find yourself achieving things you only dreamt to be possible.

And another explanation:

Researchers describe flow as the source code of intrinsic motivation. 2

If I were to take it one step further in, very much layman’s terms:

A state of working where you are completely immersed in the activity, losing connection to things around you, while doing your best work.

Flow is that state when you feel like everything is coming together exactly as you intend. You neither see nor hear any distractions around you. It is you and your work, moving along in perfect harmony. Most people have experienced this in some fashion with something they truly enjoy working on. It could be your hobby, it could be gaming, possibly playing sports, or doing another challenging yet rewarding activity. You may not even realize you’ve entered a state of flow until you come out of it and realize time has flown by, yet you feel extremely accomplished, almost joyful in what you have achieved.

There is science behind this

That ‘joyful’ feeling is real. In flow, the brain releases norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins, anandamide, and serotonin.3 These chemicals all have a significant impact on your mood and feelings. Without going into too much detail, the combination of these help you focus more, block out sensory pain, heighten the brain to allow for better connections of information and inputs, and literally help you feel better. Flow really is something special, and when you read about it, you wish and hope that you can get there as often as possible.

These chemicals create your motivation to get the work done. So much so, the work will not feel like work, and likely will result in an immediate feeling of wanting to do more of it, over and over. Reaching a true state of flow is one of the rare instances in which all five of these chemicals are released together. When people can do this often, it may explain why they describe their work as addictive.

Entering flow state

There are triggers that can lead to entering a state of flow. Interestingly enough, working on activities that challenge you, beyond your comfort level, yet not too far to feel impossible is a key trigger to entering flow. This would be especially true for deep work that you may be doing for a work or school related project. It can hold true also for outdoor or sporting activities. There are numerous studies on flow state that involve athletes, in both team sports and individual events.

Other keys to entering flow can be to begin with limited distractions in a workspace that is conducive to deep work. That may mean having the correct lighting, the right temperature, all the tools you need for the work at hand. Those are all contributors to moving towards a state of flow.

And, in case you were wondering when this would pop up, closing out distractors like email, messaging apps, and staying away from meetings are all key contributors to getting to flow. Breaking your work down into smaller chunks of work can also help to reach this state. Getting started on the small chunks and finding flow there can be the catalyst to doing more of that work, for longer periods of time. Another example of where starting small can lead to even bigger things.

As a leader, you want to enter a state of flow as often as possible, and you also want to make it available to your team. Whether it is setting a planogram, writing a schedule, or putting together a presentation to share with others, finding time to get deep work done is a luxury. You can create opportunities for this to happen with more flexibility in work schedules and timing. You may be able to determine this by working with your team to understand what their flow triggers might be. For leaders outside of physical store locations, creating a space and work environment that is conducive to flow work will mean great benefits for you, your team, and the company as a whole. You can enjoy the physiological benefits of flow as well as the productivity that comes from it.

How can you find more opportunities to work in your state of flow?

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Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

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1 https://positivepsychology.com/flow-activities/

2 https://hbr.org/2014/05/create-a-work-environment-that-fosters-flow

3 https://hbr.org/2014/05/create-a-work-environment-that-fosters-flow