How To Reach Flow State

It’s been proven by research that in order to reach a flow state, you must eliminate all external distractions. Every time you get pulled out of your focus, you’ll be taken further away from the flow state. Only when you can focus with undivided attention for at least 10–15 minutes you can get into the flow state. Therefore, it’s critical that you put your phone away and disable all alerts and notifications (as this is the biggest source of distractions nowadays), close all social media & email tabs, remove all unnecessary files and objects from your workspace and preferably go to a quiet environment. This will protect you from being disrupted and allows you to enter a state of hyperfocus, which is the most important element of reaching the flow state. In fact, whenever you get distracted it takes on average 25 minutes (according to research) to gain back your full attention on the task at hand. This is because of something called ‘attention residue’, which implies that some of your attention is still left behind at the previous task or distraction that you were dealing with. Besides eliminating external distractions, you also need to eliminate internal distractions if you want to reach the flow state. Whenever you experience stress or have too much on your mind, it’ll be incredibly hard to keep your mind focused on your task at hand — and therefore it’ll be impossible to reach the flow state. If this happens regularly to you, I recommend you try two things: Journaling every morning and evening Daily meditation (at least 10 minutes)

Getting into a flow state is hard if you are low on energy. You need to have the willpower to focus on just one thing and not get distracted along the way. Tapping into your willpower and attention is energy-draining, so you absolutely need to do it when your mind is sharp and energized. If you try to get into the flow state when you are tired and energy drained, it’ll feel like an uphill battle where you get distracted much easier and have less willpower to stay with your tasks for long enough to get into a state of flow. Therefore, I recommend you use your mornings to get into the flow state. Another option would be to enter the flow state right after you took a real break (so not one in which you fill your attention to the brim by checking social media or email) of about 15–30 minutes.