Harnessing flow state can take your business (and you) to the next level. Today's biggest businesses know it, and they're leveraging flow to their advantage. Facebook and Google, for example, work with specific flow triggers. Toyota and Patagonia have made flow a part of their core philosophies. And the results are impressive. There is an opportunity here for indie hackers to do the same.
I've been researching states of consciousness for years. The topic fascinates me. A few years back, my wife and I even toured a good portion of the US doing embodiment work, part of which consisted of brainwave entrainment that moved people into Theta state — a state which has a lot to do with flow.
So I know a lot about it, but I want to get better at accessing flow state in my everyday work, so I did some digging. Here's what I've learned.
Musicians call it being "in the pocket." Rowers call it "swing." Others know it as flow state, the zone, optimal experience, peak experience, and any number of other names.
It's not a new idea. Ancient Greek and Indian cultures spoke about it millennia ago and it became a widely studied phenomenon in the latter half of the 20th century. It's not reserved for athletes and artists either. I've seen it mentioned in regard to programmers, scientists, artists, actors, chess players, surgeons, and on and on — we all have access to this wonderful state.
So what is it? Flow is a "...state of focused concentration on the performance of an activity, in which one dissociates oneself from distracting or irrelevant aspects of one's environment."
It's a state wherein a person performs at the absolute peak of their abilities. It is full immersion and deep presence where all else fades away.
The conscious mind takes a back seat, relying instead on the subconscious and the body. Action and awareness become one. Time seems to bend. Difficulty melts into ease and grace. There is a feeling of ecstacy and clarity. It can even be a deeply spiritual experience.
Sounds pretty good, eh?
I think this quote by Celtics player Bill Russell says it better than anything else I've read:
"At that special level, all sorts of odd things happened: The game would be in the white heat of competition, and yet somehow I wouldn’t feel competitive, which is a miracle in itself. I’d be putting out the maximum effort, straining, coughing up parts of my lungs as we ran, and yet I never felt the pain. The game would move so quickly that every fake, cut, and pass would be surprising, and yet nothing could surprise me. It was almost as if we were playing in slow motion.
During those spells, I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken. Even before the other team brought the ball inbounds, I could feel it so keenly that I’d want to shout to my teammates, ‘it’s coming there!’ — except that I knew everything would change if I did. My premonitions would be consistently correct, and I always felt then that I not only knew all the Celtics by heart, but also all the opposing players, and that they all knew me. There have been many times in my career when I felt moved or joyful, but these were the moments when I had chills pulsing up and down my spine."
Quite a few things happen in the body when a person is flowing. Let's talk about the science.
Flow is caused by the temporary deactivation of the prefrontal cortex, which is where higher cognitive function lives. It may seem counterintuitive that this would help, but it does. A lot. Because your mind stops being such a chatterbox. Other regions of the brain can also down-regulate. In fact, one study found that the right parietal lobe deactivates, blurring the sense of self as separate.
Your brainwaves move from the fast-moving Beta waves of normal, thinking consciousness down to Alpha which is more relaxed. They continue to get slower until they're at the bottom of Alpha, which is associated with daydreaming, and then they start moving into Theta, which is associated with REM sleep and deep meditative experiences. Flow happens right there at the bridge between Alpha and Theta.
And then there's the cocktail of chemicals that the brain releases when you're in flow, all of which are pleasure-inducing and/or performance-enhancing: norepinephrine (enhances focus), dopamine (enhances focus), endorphins (blocks pain), anandamide (increases insight), and serotonin (feels good).
I doubt I need to sell you on why flow is important, but just in case, I'll list a few of the pretty much endless benefits:
Another (somewhat surprising) benefit of flow is that it's contagious. People often enter flow state together — it's called "group flow." And it sounds like something that could be worth trying with a cofounder.
While we're discussing benefits, here are a few relevant studies:
In one study of 40 participants, no one was able to solve a brain teaser that required deep creative insight to solve. But when trying it in a flow state, 23 subjects answered it correctly — and in record time.
Another study showed that people from a wide range of fields were 7x more creative in a state of flow. In fact, people even report enhanced creativity the day after being in a flow state.
And in a 10-year study, executives reported being five times more productive in flow.
How do you know when you're in flow? You don't. That's kind of the point — you aren't thinking. In fact, when people realize that they're in it, they'll often drop out of it right then and there. This is particularly true if it's verbalized. I saw quite a few accounts of this, and I've noticed it myself.
But you can see it in hindsight quite easily. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who popularized the study of flow, broke it into nine dimensions, which can act as clues.
The first six are the characteristics of flow state:
And the final three are prerequisites to flow state:
One thing to note: Flow is an active state. If you're passively absorbed in a TV show and time flies by, it doesn't mean you were in flow.
Now, the big question. Most of us have tapped into flow here and there, but how can we do it on demand?
Let's start with some practices that can make flow more accessible in general.
When you want to get into flow state, prepare your environment:
When your environment is ready, try to get into the flow:
And when you're done:
If you're having trouble, you might be over-stimulated (anxiety, stress, overwhelm, etc.), in which case, you need to slow down your nervous system. Try breathing, taking a break, or resetting in some other way. Or you might be under-stimulated (bored, depressed, lethargic, etc.). Move your body, drink water, and eat something, then set a more challenging task.
Steven Kotler, put together a list of flow state triggers. They're included in the how-to steps above, with the exception of his triggers for group flow. If you're trying to do this with a cofounder, team, etc., make sure the following requirements are met:
Staying in flow state once you're in it is touchy. As I mentioned above, the moment you think about being in (or staying in) the zone will probably be the moment where you lose it.
If you do have a thought like that, don't verbalize it. Try to dismiss the thought and drop back into the task as quickly as possible. You might be able to stay in it this way.
But, if you drop out, then you can always try to get back into it by stilling your mind again. Or, if that's not working, try going through the steps I outlined above.
Keep up the practices mentioned above that make flow more accessible — they should also increase your capacity for staying in it.
If you're interested in learning more, here are the best books I've found on the topic:
And a few books by the man who brought flow into the mainstream:
Are you able to enter flow intentionally? I'd love to hear your tips in the comments!
Great article! I've been using NC headphones to listen brain fm tracks and it really helps to get into flow.
I hadn't tried Endel before reading this article and it's amazing, plus they have a huge collection you can listen for free in Spotify.
Amazing article, I need to dig into the topic more -- thanks for sharing!
🙏
Your posts are amazing as always.
Thanks Falak, I appreciate it! Glad you got something out of it 😃
This is amazing James! I've been obsessed with Flow ever since reading the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This is one of the best write ups/summaries I've seen on it. Thanks for the book tips too - a few there I haven't come across yet excited to dig into!
That's kind of you to say, thanks! 🙏
Yeah, flow is fascinating. Is there anything I didn't include that has worked for you?
The thing that stuck for me was the graphic of Mihaly's 'flow channel'. You've captured it with your write up so the graphic is just a plus.
Nice, that's a helpful graphic. Thanks!
Great content, kind of skills that make a huge difference in life .
Thanks! And yeah you're right about that — it make a huge difference in your whole life, not just your business.
Hey @IndieJames! Great write up on a topic dear to me. I've been on a mission to bring the flow state to the masses. This year I've put together a course http://induceflowstate.com to teach makers, developers and creators how to activate the flow state on demand.
Just a couple of weeks back now I discovered Steven Kotler had created a similar course “Zero to dangerous”. I thought as an indie maker this would kill my course dead in the water 🤯 ha ha! but I did some digging around and was floored by the price (and similarities). I wrote about it here:
https://thedayninja.com/2021/10/19/how-much-does-zero-to-dangerous-cost/
Overall, I am happy I’ve discovered others are teaching 'flow training' and their approach is so similar. It assures me that my self-discovered techniques are solid and their are opportunities for us indie hackers 🤘
Sounds like a cool course 🙌
Hey @IndieJames, love this post! I actually want to take this opportunity for a shameless plug. I hope you don't mind.
I'm the creator of a podcast called Flow State (https://anchor.fm/flow-state). I created this podcast to help people experience exactly what you've described in this post. To help people get into a zone. The show format is 30 minutes of music, 5 minute talk break, followed by another 30 mins of music. This follows a basic Pomodoro technique to help you sustain your effort. The music is also hand selected every week - instrumental, electronic music that should help you calm down and focus.
Again, hope you don't mind the plug here, but I figured people who are reading this would probably be interested in this - enjoy :).
Cool idea — sounds like a great resource 💪