Creating a flow in your daily life
Trying to stay focus and tackle the day. Photo by deagreez / Adobe Stock
5 Tips to Help You Achieve More with the Time You Have.
In the zone..
Have you experienced a time when your cognitive ability and task at hand were in sync? and where the process of getting things done were just flowing easily? You were probably following a sequence of elements that were contributing to that success and haven’t realized it.
The concept of state of Flow was defined by Csikszentmihalyi and colleagues and describes a state of optimal experience described by intense concentration, enjoyment, and fulfilment and can occur when an individual is fully engaged in a challenging activity that matches their skills, through clear goals, immediate feedback, and a sense of control.
Being in Flow means that your goals, even if challenging, feel achievable. You give complete focus and concentration on the activity at hand. Which also means that while you’re in action you are also getting this rewarding sensation of a feeling that can even make you lose your sense of time. A rewarding feeling definitely, and we need more of it in our daily lives!
Here are just a few tips to help in increasing your state of Flow:
1. Make sure to have a clear desired outcome and goal in mind before you begin your day. This means preparing your list of activities the day before, or at the very first start of your morning.
2. Understand the task at hand. Make sure to not overwhelm yourself with a challenging task and set an unrealistic deadline. It’s easy to say that anything is possible, just make sure to not over stress in trying to do everything all at once (a popular advice is to always start with the smallest or easiest task on your list)
3. Challenge yourself, but with the right amount of stretch. Referring to the previous point, understanding yourself and task in hand is crucial to your ability to get things done.
4. Create opportunities for complete focus, without interruption. These days being focused and asking for uninterrupted time seems almost impossible. I recently came across a device called the Remarkable that allows individuals to work in an uninterrupted space. The promise of quiet thoughts while working is so tempting and I’m considering making the investment (maybe can consider covering the experience in a future blog)
5. Build in immediate feedback so you can adjust your performance as you work. When working on a project or task with others it’s important to get guidance and comments as you go, this will help you make any changes needed as you go.
In order to achieve your goals or task in hand there has to be a sense of consistency. Consistency comes with building and creating a habit. We live in a world filled with so many distractions - That last episode we promised we would watch for the night ended in us rushing to get a couple hours of asleep before our alarm going off for work the next day. Or that time watching a 10 second reel ended up being an hour long of multiple random videos cluttering our minds and time. Of course, there is that addictive temporary sense of pleasure. It all seem so enjoyable, until you realize the happiness fades.
The beauty with focusing on our goals is that they create a sense of inner enjoyment. What I try to do these days is utilize the Focus feature on my phone that controls the notifications and it also helps keep me from glancing at my phone and fighting the urge to pick it up and get lost scrolling away.
I am currently working on setting a dedicated time during my weekend where I focus only on creative work, I haven’t fully committed to this time yet.
I sometimes get overwhelmed when thinking about how I need to use my time better, but these days I’m trying to take a more positive outlook on it and think that the first step to getting on track with my goals is to first realize and acknowledge the procrastination and tackle matters one at a time.
Remember that it’s never too late – start by working out that list of goals and plans, set some time aside even if its just 30 mins of your day. Eventually with consistency you’ll be in that state of unbreakable flow that will lead you to making your goals a reality.
Mona