The Flow

This unique episode explores the concept of Flow, a term that psychologists use to refer to the state of mind associated with high performance. The audio experience of this episode is designed to reflect the concept itself so that listeners can use it in more than just one way, depending on their individual needs.

Hi everyone!

This is your host Sayar Henry and thank you for choosing to spend time with me on this podcast.

Today, I’m going to talk about a super interesting concept that can help you achieve your objectives more effectively than you ever did in the past, especially if you are studying for an exam or the nature of your work demands long hours of concentration. And it goes without saying that studying or working doesn’t always have to mean for an exam or for a day job. It can be implemented into any kind of physical and mental training as well. It’s entirely up to you how and where you are going to apply it. But throughout this episode, let’s just assume that we are talking about ‘traditional’ study and work for the sake of simplicity.

Before explaining you about the details of this concept, I want you to do something unusual.

I want you to make a thought experiment about a scenario as I guide you with my voice. And don’t worry, I’m not going to hypnotize you with my voice. I just want to teach you something and you have to trust me.

So let’s take a deep breath first, shall we?

Relax your shoulder muscles.

Imagine that you are a student.

Now tell me, are you a student?

I didn’t hear you.

Are you a student?

Good!

You are a student who must submit an assignment.

Now tell me, what are you and what do you have to do?

That’s right. You are a student, and you have to submit an assignment.

You need to submit it in less than 40 hours.

And you haven’t started writing anything yet.

But you remember that you must score good marks for the assignment.

It’s going to carry a lot of weight for the grade you need in the final exam. 

Now tell me, under such circumstances, how do you think you would behave?

Are you the kind of person who would feel challenged and excited?  

Or are you the kind of person who would feel completely stressed out?

Or are you the kind of person who would feel calm and focused?

You have three choices.

EXCITEMENT, STRESS, and FOCUS.

I’m going to give you a moment to think about it.

EXCITEMENT, STRESS, and FOCUS.

What do you choose?

What is your objective?

The quality of your work must be good.

How long do you have?

EXCITEMENT, STRESS, and FOCUS.

What do you choose?

Let me guess.

Your inner voice told you to choose FOCUS, didn’t it?

But why?

Well, it’s quite simple and obvious. You are supposed to produce some good quality work with limited time. There is absolutely no way you can achieve it if you are overwhelmed with either excitement or stress. FOCUS is the only way to go. In another word, if you are to perform well under pressure, you need to have a sharp focus on the task at hand. Your mind needs to be in the state of what scientists and psychologists refer to as ‘Flow’.  

Flow is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in the task at hand. But it’s not just about staying in focus. It also comes with a sense of full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

Have you ever heard native English speakers use the term “in the zone”?

You might have heard something like, “Hey, I’m getting good at this. I feel like I’m in the zone”.

Well, it’s just another way of saying you are in the flow state.

When someone is in flow, that person experiences intense concentration on the present moment, a sense of control over the situation, changes in his or her perception of time, and a sense of meaningful reward by the activity he or she is doing.

In simpler terms, flow is when you forget everything else in the world except the task at hand. It’s similar to the mental state of a bright student who is sitting an exam, attacking one question after another with a calm and clear mind, without feeling any thirst or hunger.

And because it is such a powerful state of mind, it can have positive impacts on people’s life if we can all achieve it on a regular basis.

I mean who wouldn’t want to have the power to concentrate on important matters for hours and hours in today’s digital world with infinite distractions, right?

But the problem is, getting into the flow or to be in the zone does not come naturally to most of us. So how do we work around it?

It is indeed a tricky business.

But according to scientists, there are some key components that are associated with the flow experience.

The first component is immediate feedback.

It means you instantly learn whether your efforts are working or not. For example, if you are working on a challenging task and you manage to figure out how to do it better at the same time, you are likely to get into the flow.

The second component that is associated with the flow is the feeling of potential success. It means while going through a challenge, if you begin to see how you might be able to overcome the challenge, your mind gets closer to the flow state.  

And the third component is the feeling of being immersed in an activity. For example, when you become so interested in something that you completely lose track of time and you start to feel like ignoring everything else at that moment, your mind may be in the vicinity of the flow state. 

Now, if you think about it, you’ll notice that these components are interconnected to each other. I mean if you really keep finding ways to do something better than before, you are surely going to find it, which essentially is the first component of getting into the flow state.

And then, because you now know better ways to do the same thing, you’d feel like you have potential to succeed in that task, which is the second component of the flow state.

And fundamentally, if you feel like you are winning, you are likely to sense it as a meaningful reward and you’re going to do it more and ignore everything else, leading to a shift in your perception of time, which, of course, is the third component of experiencing the flow.

So if we follow this perspective, cracking the first component may be the key to pushing our mind into the flow state. In another word, if you have the mindset that enjoys figuring out better ways to do the same thing, you are one step closer to the flow experience.

But that’s just a hypothesis.

And as you guys might know already, whenever I have a hypothesis of some sort, I can’t help but to test it out in real life.

 So one day, I decided to experiment it while I was doing the dishes.

The reason I chose dish washing was simple.

It’s a mundane task that we have done countless times in our life.

So apparently, there’s not much room for improvement and finding a better way to do it would be boring.

I mean have you ever known anyone who is so immersed in washing the dishes that he or she completely loses track of time in the kitchen, have you? Like… ever?

No, of course not. And that’s exactly why I chose it.

If I could trick my mind into feeling like I’m in the zone while doing the dishes, I’d also be able to use the same technique while doing more serious tasks which, of course, are much more important and interesting than dish washing.  

So there I was, after lunch, doing the dishes and observing the whole process of this afternoon delight.

At first, I couldn’t bring myself into finding a better way. I mean the nature of this task was already too easy. There was no way I could see dish washing as a challenging task as I had done it like more than ten thousand times before. But then, I realized that trying to see this mundane task as a challenge itself was a challenge. So I shifted my attention to observing how my body parts handle the process of washing the dishes.

At that moment, I started to see dish washing as a task that is composed of several different micro-tasks: getting the plates wet with water and soap; controlling the grip and movement of my fingers on these slippery plates; and running and stopping the tap water at the right moment.

All of a sudden, this activity of dish washing became interesting to me. And I noticed that I have successfully tricked my mind into thinking that this little task of dish washing was giving me a challenge and that I was crushing it. In another word, I felt like I was about to achieve the objective of my experiment, which in turn gave me a sense of meaningful and enjoyable reward. Consequently, I found myself quietly washing dishes with a focus I had never felt before, with no awareness whatsoever of everything else around me.

That means my mind was already in the flow state.

Although it was intriguing, I couldn’t experience that flow state for long because, you know, doing the dishes generally doesn’t take much time. But this little experiment gave me a rough idea of how to get into the flow. And I’m going to put that idea into two simple words: CHALLENGE & ENJOYMENT.

If you can experience a balance between challenge and enjoyment with an activity, you can fully immerse yourself into that activity and feel like you are in the zone. 

For instance, let me give you the most recent example of how I use that idea for my podcast. When I started writing script for this episode, even though I knew what I had to say to you, it was intimidating for me to pick up this topic. I mean, first of all, I am not a psychologist to talk about the Flow state. And secondly, I didn’t even know how to introduce you with the concept of Flow. It’s quite difficult to depict such an abstract idea just by using the audio experience.

But as I started writing and figured out how to crack this daunting task, I came up with this idea of using a thought experiment to help you put yourself in the right mode as you are listening to me. Once I saw a glimpse of how I might be able to overcome this challenge, all the doubt and worries disappeared into the background. The process of writing this script did not become less challenging but it became a bit more enjoyable. It’s a bit like playing a video game that is hard enough to get my attention, but not too difficult for me to stop playing entirely. And as I leveled up, my efforts on this task became better, and I began to sense it as a reward that pushed me to keep moving forward. In another word, I successfully managed to trick my brain into thinking that writing script for this episode can give me the perfect balance of challenge and enjoyment, reminding me that I can get myself into the Flow state.

And with that trick, I managed to successfully complete my mission.

And I believe that as of now, you have a better sense of what Flow is, how it enhances your concentration and work quality, and how you can achieve it by finding the right balance between challenge and enjoyment of a particular activity.

I really hope you start using and practicing this knowledge whenever you need to study, or work, or train for long hours.

Now, before concluding this episode, I want you to close your eyes, relax your muscles and imagine again that you are about to work on a heavy task in a limited time. Try to reflect on all the key points I have mentioned earlier and figure out how to prepare your mind before you take action on that task.

What is your objective?

EXCITEMENT, STRESS, FOCUS.

CHALLENGE, ENJOYMENT.

What do you choose?

You need to wake up and start working.

Come on, wake up.

Wake up.