Improve Your Productivity and Enjoyment of Work Through Flow

It’s probably fair to say that just about everybody would like to find ways to optimise and enhance their productivity, and to ensure that they are always in a position to put their best foot forward at work, and to greet each day with energy and drive.

The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is famous for having written about and developed the concept of a ”flow state,” as an experience which, among other things, can dramatically improve productivity and enjoyment of work, and life.

According to his research, human beings tend to be happiest when we are immersed in some activity completely, in a way in which that activity fully absorbs our attention to such a degree that our sense of time and self vanishes.

Everyone’s experienced a flow state from time to time – just think of a moment when you were working on some project, playing some sport, or engaging in any kind of pastime at all, where you felt completely “in the zone,” and where hours flew by like minutes.

Work obviously involves all sorts of technical considerations, such as making sure to get the right tools from a company like Glue Guns Direct to ensure a high quality professional output. But it’s when things seem to “flow” that all the pieces of the puzzle come together.

Here are some tips to help you improve your productivity and enjoyment of work through flow.

Combine focus with meaningful work, and the right amount of challenge

To enter into a flow state, the first requirement is that you have to be doing work that you feel invested in, and that you find at least decently meaningful.

If you perceive whatever it is you’re doing to be a boring chore, and aren’t able to generate interest in it, there is no real prospect of you being able to enter into a flow state with regards to that work.

First and foremost, this fact should be enough reason to motivate you to take steps to ensure that you are in a job, or on a professional path, that feels genuinely purposeful and meaningful to you.

But even if what you are doing is relatively “mundane,” cultivating interest and finding ways to get engaged in the process is important.

The next key point, is that in order to enter a flow state with regards to your work, that work has to be something that you find challenging, but at the same time not too difficult to effectively engage with. If it’s too easy, it won’t be engaging in any case.

Last, but by no means least, you need to be able to focus and immerse yourself completing in what you doing in order to enter into a flow state.

If you’re being interrupted by things like regularly checking your emails or messenger apps, or anything else, you will not be able to enter into a state of flow.

Spend time in flow when not in the office to invigorate yourself

One of the quite remarkable and brilliant things about flow states, is that they appear to be extremely beneficial for individual well-being, and can fill people’s lives with a sense of meaning, energy, and enthusiasm.

It’s important to realise that the benefits of a flow state can positively impact your professional life, even if the flow states that you’re experiencing are in your personal rather than professional life.

Spending time getting into flow states before and after work can help to give you a lot more energy and motivation throughout the day as a whole.

Eliminate distractions before they eliminate your flow states

As already pointed out, it’s impossible to enter into flow state – or to remain in one for long – if you are being constantly bombarded by distractions.

For musicians who wants to lose themselves in the music, for example, it’s impossible to stop every few minutes to check social media, or to have a conversation with someone.

Instead, they need to become completely immersed in what they’re doing.

If you want to be able to consistently enter into flow states at work, and if you want to those flow states to positively impact your professional life in a range of different ways, you need to be diligent about getting rid of distractions whenever you can, before they get rid of your flow states.

You can start by trying out practices like “time blocking” your days, so that you begin each day by having chunks of time dedicated to engaging in particular activities, and working on particular projects. You can then also try to find time during the day where you will be able to go without checking your email or responding to messenger apps.

Simply by paying attention to one thing at a time, you’re likely to find that you spend significantly more time in flow states.

*This is a collaboration post