Achieving Flow

• The processes, policies, and busy work gets in the way.
• Most jobs don’t have a clear goal.
• Feedback can be inadequate.
• The pace of work has increased, and it’s hard for people to spend time thinking deeply.
• Your skills aren’t well matched to the challenges you are allowed to pursue.
• There’s a lack of control over interruptions or when and how you work.
• The job doesn’t push you out of your comfort zone.

... to push your mind beyond its comfort zone. Flow happens when we get a bit out of our comfort zone. Too much, and you get anxious; Too little and you get bored.

You need to know your physical or emotional limitations and consciously push past them.

To enter flow, you need appropriated self-control, environmental conditions, skills, task and rewards. Besides that, you must know what you’re doing, be able to see whether or not you’re doing it well, and be pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

The last point is especially important, it's mastery combined with challenge that brings flow. Too much challenge and we get overcome with anxiety. Not enough, and our brain loses focus and looks for other stimuli.

"In the flow-like state, we exercise control over the contents of our consciousness rather than allowing ourselves to be passively determined by external forces."

Work tasks are rarely chosen by you, so they rarely have optimal difficulty. To make them more likely to produce flow:

1. Slow down on your work and let go of the expectations you have related to your tasks.
2. Complex tasks can seem very overwhelming and frustrating. So break them up into more manageable sub-tasks.
3. Lower your standards temporarily to get the faucet running. Perfectionism will not help you in this case.

You tend to start daydreaming spontaneously when you don’t have something harder to do. To make boring tasks more engaging:

1. Up your game. Even a slight increase in standards is often enough to make your focus sharper.
2. Measure your performance, keep track of it as you go and make the stakes higher for whatever you’re doing.
3. Do it differently. If you change up your explicit strategy, removing the ability to do it by rote, you can increase engagement.

When you are experiencing flow, it seems like the task at hand is almost performing itself.

But there's still a sense of personal control over it, and working on it feels very rewarding.

These are tasks that tend to have high consequences (e.g., rock climbing or public speaking), clear feedback, and take place in a varied environment.

• Separate some time to deep pursuits and leave the rest open to everything else. Channel your inner monastic for a limited stretch of time. Afterwards, return to regular accessibility.
• Remove the obstacles of “when” and “where” by setting a time and a place for deep work, and making it a habit.
• When you need to do deep work on demand: fit it into your schedule whenever you can. Developing the ability to "switch on" your deep work muscles is less challenging than dedicating the free time to purposeful work.

1. Intense concentration on the task at hand.
2. A merging of action and awareness - “being and doing become one”.
3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness.
4. A sense of personal control over the situation.
5. A distortion of the perception of time.
6. Autotelic experience: the activity itself is intrinsically rewarding, rather than the expected outcome.

• It’s not easy. Flow is not just a state where we love the work so much it just pours out. Flow is a state where hard work meets joy and meaning. 
• It’s not for beginners. The act of learning how to do something won’t always allow us to get into the flow. Getting into the zone in a specific discipline is something that needs to be learned and practiced.

To increase the level of your health, and by default the level of productivity, because you will be more energetic and focused:

• Get enough sleep
• Create a healthy diet for yourself
• Move more.

A morning routine aims to make you alert, help you take care of your health, intellectual and spiritual growth. Develop 2 types of habits:

• Habits that can improve the quality of your life in the present
• Habits that can improve the quality of your life in the future

Ideally, you should focus to form habits that give you both — such as exercising.

In a fundamental sense, workplace happiness comes when:

• We enjoy doing the tasks assigned to us
• We feel right about the people we are working with
• We are happy with the financial benefits we get from the job
• We have the scope of improving our existing skills
• We feel respected and acknowledged at work

Happy employees are compulsory for a growing business.

A study on organizational success revealed that employees who feel happy in the workplace are 65% more energetic than employees who don’t. They are two times more productive and are more likely to sustain their jobs over a long period of time.

You might not be in a position to choose your workspace, but there are quick fixes: look for a spot with natural light from a window or skylight, take a walk outside when you feel stuck, or simply explore a new location. 

A new environment can quite literally lead to new ideas.

It's when your brain knows that when you’re in a certain place, you’re taking a certain action.

Take advantage of the way different locations affect you. Our brains love habits, and if we can associate certain qualities with different places, it can help us get into a better working flow.