Benefits of Flow
Flow is the feeling of being in the zone, and getting incredible work done effortlessly. In flow, you perform 500% more effectively, and your creativity has 300% increase. Since creativity is the parent of innovation, this leads to more satisfying work, and proves a contrast to the billions of people working trillions of hours each year disengaged and miserable.
The flow state that we all know and loves emerges out of a four stage process called the flow cycle. Below, I share the different parts of the flow cycle, and ways you can improve how you handle them and can bring them into your life.
Struggle
We need to stress our bodies a little bit in order to get into flow. Mihaily Csikszentmihalyi found that flow gets triggered best when the challenge is only 4% out of an individual’s skill set. If you find yourself bored, you may have work that is not challenging enough. If you find yourself anxious, the work may be too challenging and needs to be broken down into bite sized pieces that you can stick with.
In struggle, individuals need to stick with the challenge by keeping their focus on the work at hand and avoiding distractions. If you enjoy working out, you’ll have experienced those days when you start working out and it feels awful, but you stick with it anyways, and at the end of the workout you feel incredible. The same happens at work.
When your skill level increases, you must also increase the challenge. Below a chart shows what happens when your challenge level exceeds, matches or is below your skills level. The highlighted grey area is the 4% sweet spot that will help you get into flow.
Release
After stressing your body with a new challenge, there’s got to be a release. Release is generally triggered by an insight that allows individuals to surrender to the process. Some individuals won’t get this release unless the go for a walk, or journal. When I work with large groups as a facilitator, my release usually comes when I see that we are not going to hit our outcome, and I mention that to the group. Just that insight allows the team to settle into one another and begin the process of flow.
Flow
THIS stage is the sweet spot! In this stage, work flows easily and naturally. Ideas are filled with insights and novel approaches, one idea leads to the other, and there is no self consciousness, burnout, tired, or distractions taking you away from the work. The brain processes at such a high rate, that it drops your sense of time and self just to keep up with the processing. Following proper flow cycle hygiene will help you get into this state more frequently.
Recovery
The flow state is expensive. Your brain is basically producing a neuro-chemical cocktail that mimics what it would look like if you were on methamphetamines, cocaine, ecstacy, marijuana, and opioids. A cocktail like that is bound to create a massive hangover. Recovery is the state that will allow you to replenish, down regulate your nervous system and recover from the extreme biologic stress that is the flow state.
This stage is the number one way hard driving high performers do themselves a disservice in their own flow cycles. Taking their lunch while working, they refuse to allow themselves a break, and in turn, they often look down on others as they break. Thinking of their infinite list of things to-do, they live in high gear thinking that the work "has to get done.” Unfortunately, without down regulating your nervous system, your body stays in a state of high alert. This high rev alert state cannot be sustained. If you had a car that you kept in the top gear all the time, and you did turn it off, just kept it going while you tried to add the oil or gas - not only would that be dangerous, but the car would fail on you and you wouldn't be able to go anywhere with it. The same happens with the high performers - the knowledge workers that cannot give themselves the rest. They stop collaborating with others and create drama - although....because they are so revved up, they believe it is *others* that create drama or cannot collaborate. A vicious work culture can easily be fostered just by the lack of recovery from key leaders. Contrary to the hustle culture credo spurred by motivational speakers, YouTube, sports brands, and gyms - rest is not for the weak, recovery is essential. The top recovery activity anyone can do is sleep. Prioritizing a full seven or eight hours of sleep will help reset the nervous system and replenish the brain. The other recovery activity is to stop using television as recovery. Going home and binging on Netflix might feel mindless and like the only think you feel capable of doing. However, television viewing it taxes the body and at times it even puts it in low levels of flow, so the brain can’t recover and becomes further depleted.
These are some of the activities that could speed up your recovery.
