Three ways to help you get into your flow
Are you experiencing any friction or maybe even anxiety at the thought of starting a task or a project? You may think you're lazy or having unproductive days, but in reality, you may not be in flow. This blog will discuss what flow is and the three things you can do to make sure you're always in flow and performing at your best.
Flow is a term that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined. As an American-Hungarian psychologist he spent a lot of his time identifying how people can get into the right state to do great work. Then, his work was elevated even more by positive psychologist, Martin Seligman. He thought about how people can flourish, be at their best, and what well-being actually means. And within that, it is that sense of feeling deeply engaged, achieving, performing at your best.
When we think about Mihaly's points around flow, some tasks put you entirely in the zone where you forget time. You feel excited to work on it, and it doesn't feel too challenging or easy but just the right match for your skills. On the other hand, some tasks make you grit your teeth at the thought of starting them.
When my clients start to feel a lot of tension and anxiety around certain tasks, we work on things that will help them get back into flow. If you've been experiencing the same, there are three things you can do, which I've discussed below. Then if you're a manager, this will help you see who is working in flow and who's working against them and come up with a plan to make sure everyone on your team is supported.
Three ways to help you get into your flow
Think about how you work
How are you working? It seems like a simple question, but it will be a game-changer if you get clarity around this.
Some of you might prefer a quiet working environment but are surrounded by noise and people you have to communicate with throughout the day. So that adds to the friction of getting work done.
Another thing to consider is creating a tight deadline when working on tasks or projects. Some of my clients found that when they give themselves a huge amount of time to work, they end up filling it with procrastination, so a tight deadline is essential for them to work at their best.
As you can see, different things work for different people, so it's essential to get clarity on how you want to work and to implement it right away to get you into flow.
Surround yourself with people you work most effectively with
Working with people you align with can look like getting lost in conversations where you can be really honest with them. A 60-minute meeting can just fly by when you're with people you work well with and people who get you thinking differently. The best thing is that they can also genuinely support you with a task or project you're working on.
Get better at tracking your daily energy peaks and dips
Start by thinking about when you’ve felt the best or been the most productive: Were you working on a particular schedule? Did you feel your energy really flowing at a certain time of day? Did you notice if your energy dipped at a certain time?
The goal here is to tap into when your energy naturally peaks during the day and when it naturally dips. There is no right or wrong rhythm — there is only your rhythm.
Action Steps
To get the benefits from this blog and keep you accountable, I've laid out a couple of action steps you can take after reading this to keep you in flow.
Set aside time to reflect on the three ways you can get into flow.
Ask yourself: How am I working? Who do I most effectively work with? How can I design a work routine that is tuned to my biorhythms?
Watch to my LinkedIn Masterclass, Confidence - Creating Unbreakable Trust In Yourself here. We discuss how to determine where a lack of confidence might be hampering your flow and what to do about it.
By getting clarity over how you're working, surrounding yourself with the people who ignite your creativity and desire to grow and designing a work routine that is tuned to your biorhythms, you can do more work that supercharges you.
Let's start a conversation on Instagram on how you're making sure that you're in flow!