We hope you could find flow more than ever before this week. If not, no worries. It is time for some hacks that can make it easier.
Many people have used their own ways to induce flow over the years, even before flow was a formal term. Let’s explore some:
Walks: Darwin was known to take three walks of 45 minutes each, every day. Einstein kept his 1.5 miles walk to work as a daily ritual during his time at Princeton
Music: Edison was known to play a mouth organ before starting his grueling work sessions
More quirky stuff: Inventor Nikola Tesla used to believe that squishing his toes a hundred times used to get him into the zone
Regardless of the hack they chose, all these people were basically inducing transient hypofrontality. Here, “transient” is for temporary, “hypo” for low, and “frontality” refers to the pre-frontal cortex. In essence, these hacks helped in shutting down the pre-frontal cortex of the brain temporarily. This is interesting because the pre-frontal cortex is the area that drives our orderly and linear thinking. What is the benefit of shutting it down?
The creative, lateral-thinking part of the brain takes over when the logical mind goes to rest. This is where all the dots start to connect and radical ideas get generated. All the geniuses had realized that certain actions helped them think better and they made a ritual out of it so that they could generate more ideas. And this is exactly what happens in the state of flow.
Your pre-frontal cortex, apart from logical thinking, is the seat for the ego, the inner dialogue, and consciousness. Whenever it is hyper-active, you feel lost in a storm of thoughts. But if you are in flow, you have effectively engaged yourself in an activity that helps you step outside this inner dialogue. And whenever this happens, everything else fades away: opinions of others, fear of failure, and the sense of time and hunger. You become one with your action.
We already learned the fundamentals of the challenge-vs-skill matrix to induce flow. Now it is time to add some more tools that can help you fine-tune the flow.
Make immersion easier: Create your pair of menial and demanding tasks. The menial task is meant to induce transient hypofrontality. The most basic methods are washing dishes, exercising, walking, and listening to music. Switching to a demanding task right after this menial task will make it easier to enter flow. If you can do both at the same time, then even better, like thinking and walking, or writing while listening to music
4% harder: Author Steven Kotler advocates making your tasks 4% harder whenever things start seeming easier. While it might not always be possible to measure your challenge, but whenever you can, try it out. It could be anything like 4% less time to run or encoding a complex logic in 4% fewer lines of code
Feedback: Since you operate at the edge of your skills in flow, feedback is very important. Take time after each session or at the end of the day, and reflect on both your small wins as well as the mistakes you need to work on to get better
Years later, after Mihaly had set the foundation of flow, authors Héctor García and Francesc Miralles were on their own quest in Japan in search of a good life. In their book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, they note how flow was a fundamental component in the lives of happy people: “Japanese people often apply themselves to even the most basic tasks with an intensity that borders on obsession.”
One thing is clear: there is absolutely no reason to discriminate between tasks based on where you enter flow and where you don’t. Go all in! Play with the hacks above to see what works for you but know that only practice can make you better. Do even the smallest tasks with pure devotion.
We conclude with Mihaly’s advice, “Only the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment.”
Love! 😊