Unlocking Flow: How to Achieve Creative Productivity

What is flow?

Every writer, at some point, has experienced that magical moment when the words flow effortlessly from their fingertips, and time seems to stand still. It’s a state of pure creativity and productivity, a feeling often referred to as “writing flow” or simply “the zone”. In this glorious state, distractions fade into the background, self-doubt dissipates, and you become one with your writing.

Imagine what you could get done when every time you sit down to write you go into this zone?

That’s what I’m here to help you do

Conditions of Flow

Flow has been studied quite a bit, for instance, Steven Kotler, a New York Best Seller and an award-winning journalist whose book, The Art of Impossible delves deep into the features of this mysterious state, outlining the rules and regulations by which you can achieve the extent of your potential.

There is a man though, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who is known as ‘The Grandfather of Flow’ in the 60s, 70s, and 80s this man really advanced the science of flow.

Csikszentmihalyi ran a gigantic investigation where he asked people all around the world about the times in their life when they felt their best and performed their best. Interstingly, the vast majority described this state where time moves in weird ways, where their concentration is through the roof and they feel they are in the zone.

In his TED talk titled ‘Flow, the Secret to Happiness’ Csikszentmihalyi shared what it feels like to be in the zone in 7 dot points;

1. Completely involved in what we are doing – focused concentrated
2. A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality
3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing
4. Knowing that the activity is doable – that our skills are aquequate to the task
5. A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego
6. Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes
7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes its own reward

Well this is all well and good Eamon, but how do we get into this wonderful state?

Why, I’m so glad you asked!

How To Get Flowy

1. Flow is found where struggles are around

The golden rule of flow is the flow state is the balance between challenge and skill.

Therefore, to get into the flow state you need to be doing something that is slightly outside of your capabilities, just a little bit too hard. Obviously, you achieve this by doing something that you find difficult in the area you want to be in flow.

For example, if you like to write and want to unlock your concentration, time yourself give yourself 10 minutes to do a certain amount of words that makes you think “Is that even possible?”. No matter if you do it or not the level of concentration you are in will likely trigger a flow state.

2. Distractions are the bane of concentration

It’s pretty self-explanatory if you become distracted it is much more difficult to concentrate on your task so be sure to eliminate distractions such as your phone, the television or any other environmental cues pandering for your attention.

Don’t Multitask!

Multitasking is not actually multitasking it’s switching your attention between two or more things, and all this switching comes at a mental cost. Fatigue. To get into the flow state we want to be awake and alert not fatigued by scrolling Tik Tok or replying to emails, we want to have one task, and one task only.

3. Have fun

One of the best ways to get into the flow state is through curiosity and enjoyment. If you are doing something you love and are genuinely interested in, the dopamine that you get from this activity is enough to trigger your brain into a higher concentrational state.

How I Get Into Flow

I’ve recently got into sudoku as a means to trigger flow. I love sudoku. Every day I use the New York Times free Hard sudoku, as a way to trigger my higher concentration state. The Hard sudoku (as the name infers) is difficult. It’s just on the edge of my cognitive abilities so it makes the perfect task for flow state. When I’m doing the sudoku I make sure to be fully concentrated on it and just have fun. I find this concentration I get through completing the puzzle has a residual effect on the next task I do.

So, I recommend either beginning with the task that you want to achieve flow with, or even find a trigger such as completing a puzzle or playing some tetris. This will likely get you into the flow state to unlock what you’re truly capable of.

In Conclusion

The key takeaways I want to leave you with are;

1. Engage in a difficult task
2. Eliminate distractions and don’t multitask
3. Enjoy yourself
4. If you struggle getting into flow of your chosen activity, find a flow trigger, like me and sudoku puzzles

Thankyou, for reading this post, have a great rest of your day 🙂

Boost Your Productivity: Master the ‘Power of 3’ Technique

-Eamon