The Science of Flow

How Hard Work Can Become an Immersive and Rewarding Experience

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Introduction

Imagine a scene where you’ve failed and failed over 10 times pursuing a certain goal. But during the 11th attempt you’ve finally nailed it. You succeed. Now the question arises — Were the previous 10 attempts failures?

We could argue yes because success wasn’t the result. That brings us to the second question — did you become the person able to succeed on the 11th or the previous 10 attempts?As you can see, it depends on the perspective taken. Each of the failures prepared you for success. In other words, hard work can be immersive and rewarding. The important thing is to continue doing it.

Before reaching success, the essential thing is entering into the state of flow which stands for a powerful mental state where hard work becomes rewarding. This article will deal with the state of flow and explain the following:

• What is the state of flow
• What are the benefits of it
• Practical steps to reach more easily

If you’re interested in entering the zone of increased creativity, productivity, and focus, stay until the end of article and find out how.

#1 What is the State of Flow

Every perfect state is a matter of nuance. Thinking about the flow, we never think whether we reached it or not. On the contrary, we always think about whether to push for 15 more minutes, one more task or so. Having that in mind, it could be argued that the State of Flow is the nuance between the challenge and the skill.The state of flow cannot be reached in every task, but only in very particular ones that are not too easy and not too hard. If a task is too easy, then a person would be bored while if a task is too difficult a person may get discouraged.Accordingly, the State of flow is the state of increased productivity, creativity and focus on which the specific difficulty of tasks forces us the person to expand on its mental capabilities.

#2 What are the Benefits of the State

Graph generated by the author.

The benefits of the state of flow are many but can be summed up in three dimensions already mentioned: increased creativity, productivity and focus. These can be better explained in the form of self-reinforcing circle in which the key explanatory variable is the difficulty of the task at hand.The difficulty of the task on the proper level naturally requires an increased level of focus. Without it, the task won’t end up as finished. In the state of increased focus, productivity occurs almost naturally as the person can perform multiple dimensions of a task in less time.Finally, creativity emerges as the ultimate benefit as a deeply focused and productive mind seeks innovative ways to find a solution to existing problems.

#3 Practical Steps to Pursue It

The state of flow sounds very attractive as a person can perform much better under it but what are some practical steps to follow to reach it.

Locate the desired level of difficulty

The best way to enter this state is to find a task proper enough to spark it. The easiest way is thinking of a task a person was proud of doing. Something that sparks the feeling of accomplishment.Another way is to take on existing tasks and identify how difficult it is.

Adjust the task to it

Once the desired difficulty is found out, the next step is to adjust existing tasks to it. The best way to do it is to decrease or increase the level of difficulty by dividing tasks into smaller portions or uniting them to make them harder.Another way is to increase or decrease the time in which the task needs to be done.

Limit distractions

Distracted mind remains distracted mind no matter how difficult the task is. The ultimate tip to enter the state of flow is limiting distractions. In other words, this moves an obstacle from reaching the state.

Concluding Remarks

Graph created by the author.

This article discussed the state of flow understood as the state of increased productivity, creativity and focus. The crucial variable discussed here is the difficulty of the task at hand. Nuance between the skills and the challenge works the best to spark it.Reaching the state of flow is how hard work can be rewarding and immersive experience.Thank you for reading 🙏

What is your strategy to enter the state of deep focus?