How to maintain a state of relaxed high performance
The dog is staring at you, there’s a delivery man at the door and your children want you to join their tea party… Trying to stay focused when working from home can be difficult. But it is not impossible. To achieve a laser-like focus you need to enter the Flow State.
The flow state was first discovered by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975. A child born in war-torn Europe, he was interested in what contributed to making a life worth living. He started looking at where we feel happy in normal life and began to interview and study creative people. Within his findings, the same phrase came to the fore – whether they were a composer, an ice skater or engineer, they said they entered a zone where the work just “flowed out”. Csikszentmihalyi called this the ‘flow state’.
While they were all skilled at what they did, Csikszentmihalyi noticed people took similar steps to enter their ‘flow state’ – they all consciously moved out of their comfort zone. He noted when a skilled person sets themselves a stretch goal, they will immediately take their creativity, productivity and focus to the next level.
The challenge must be achievable, not impossible, to avoid becoming anxious or demotivated. But if the task lies within a mythical Goldilocks zone of skill meets opportunity, you will become calm, focused and even feel rewarded by the task you have set yourself.
Co-founder of Sony, Masaru Ibuka created a flow state for employees when he launched Sony's headquarters. He said he wanted to establish a place of work where engineers can feel the joy of technological innovation… be aware of their mission to society and work to their heart’s content. He recognised that creativity, focus and intrinsic value was a powerful combination.
So how do you enter this state of relaxed high performance?
Follow these five steps…
01
Set Yourself A Challenge
If you’re feeling disconnected or apathetic, you should seek out a new challenge, but don’t make it too easy. If your new goal is too achievable it won’t stress you enough, you will start to become bored and disinterested and it won’t be long before you find yourself staring into in the refrigerator. But then again, you shouldn’t make the goal impossible, you need to know it is achievable otherwise you will become demotivated.
Elon Musk provides us with some excellent examples of challenge setting including this interview with CNN in 2004 where he describes how he intends to create a business that sells orbital cargo and passenger trips to governments. Sixteen years later we watched on live TV as his SpaceX dragon capsule delivered the first two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
02
Make It Matter
You need to value what you are setting out to achieve. Finding your purpose is about contributing to something bigger than yourself. At an organisational level we see big businesses spend countless millions each year on corporate social responsibility initiatives to lift employee engagement scores. Meanwhile, non-profit organisations consistently attract highly skilled talent who are willing to work long hours for a fraction of their market value.
When Bill Gates walked away from a 40-year career at Microsoft with a $100 Billion dollar fortune, he didn’t retire on a tropical island to sip Margaritas. Instead, he chose to increase his daily workload by establishing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in order reduce inequality around the world.
03
Block Out The Right Time In Your Diary
Be aware of how your energy ebbs and flows during the day. If you are a morning person, get up early to focus on your side hustle before the rest of the household is awake. If you are a night owl, wait until the kids are tucked up in bed then log off from Netflix to put this method into practise.
Whilst Apple CEO Tim Cook famously starts his mornings at 3:45 a.m. Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway likes to get eight hours of beauty sleep. He told PBS: “I have absolutely no desire to get to work at 4 in the morning”.
04
Stop The Distractions
To get into the flow state you need to eliminate distractions. Whilst many city dwellers don’t have the luxury of a spare room to turn it into a study, they can still find 10 to 15 minutes to give projects their undivided attention to achieve a flow state. Apart from asking the family to give you a time out, you also need to switch off your smartphone to focus on the task in hand. Remember you don’t need to be sat at your desk, go for a run or walk the dog and use this time to brainstorm.
05
Hit Refresh
When writer’s block occurs and your creative juices start to dry up, take a time out before you start to feel stressed. You need to do something completely different to refresh your brain. This gives your brain can process the information you may have overloaded it with.
Ernest Hemingway one of the greatest writers of the 20th century made an effort to stop regularly for all manner of pleasant diversions to allow space for his subconscious to continue working.
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