What is Flow State and how to achieve it

You’ve likely been in flow state before. That feeling when you are so focused on what you’re doing that time flies and nothing else seems to matter. Athletes talk about “being in the zone” and “living in the moment“ when they play well to score that clutch goal to win the game. That’s flow. Let’s talk about the flow state and how to get into it more often.

Going with the flow

Psychologists describe flow as the mental state where an individual has complete concentration and attention towards a task that they operate at optimal performance. Try to remember the last time you were “in the zone“. Maybe you were playing a soccer game, a video game or studying for a test. It felt exhilarating, right? It should. There are so many benefits in being in the flow state.

Some benefits are:

• You work at peak performance to give yourself a better probability of achieving the best outcome

• Better fulfilment with life

• Increased productivity by operating whilst in flow state. You get more things done in flow state.

• Improves self-belief in future tasks.

• Improves creativity

At times, it may feel like you randomly go into flow state and you don’t spend a long time in it. Entering flow state is hard but maintaining it is even harder. But that shouldn’t deter you from trying to achieve flow state. Your goal should be to make your environment more conducive to enter flow state more frequently.

Here are some tips to help you out:

1. You need to focus

This is the crucial and most important step. You have to focus to be able to do your best. You can’t be preoccupied with other things otherwise you will become distracted. Write down all the things floating in your mind so that you can tackle them later.

Also, multitasking does not help so don’t even try it.

2. Develop your own routine

Tennis players have their own rituals they do before every point to help them regroup. This may be using their towel, taking a drink and then looking at their racket strings to prepare for the next point.

Come up with your own pre-task rituals; a series of steps and actions that prepares your mind and body to get the task done.

3. Ensure your body is looked after

You can’t do your best if your body is not taken care of first. Address your basic human needs first before you decide to undertake a task. This means making sure you are well-nourished, adequately hydrated and getting enough sleep at night. Having these needs under control allows your body to be calm and helps your body function at optimal performance.

4. Practise and expect to fail

You will need to continuously practise maintaining your focus and doing your best because you will not be able to achieve flow every single time you try. Because it is practice, expect to fail a lot but know that you are honing your skills and making it easier in the future to achieve flow. In time, you will learn what works for you and what doesn’t.

I hope this post was helpful to you somehow. I hope you have a great day. Kuwa salama na kukuona karibuni hivi! (be safe and see you soon!).