all right so many of you were probably
working from home right now and it's
almost inevitable that you're going to
be distracted by countless things around
you whether it's a bunch of chores that
you have to do or entertainment that's
right at your fingertips
after spending all this time at home
I've been experimenting with ways that I
could become completely immersed in the
work that I was doing to the point where
I'm in sync with the task at hand it's
the stage where you are beyond the point
of distraction and the minds usual
chatter begins to fade away many people
describe this as being in the zone or
feeling a state of flow so I want to
talk about how you can get to that state
especially now when you're likely
working from home the concept of the
flow state was first put forth by
psychologist Mihai chick sent behind in
his book flow the psychology of optimal
experience and he described it as an
optimal state of consciousness where we
feel our best and perform our best he
devised this concept after noticing the
focused effort and subsequent happiness
that many artists and creatives would
put into their work this made him wonder
why they toiled away at projects
unlikely to yield fame or fortune and
whether there was something about their
process that brought them fulfilling
being in a state of flow has been known
to expand your mind because you begin to
teach yourself skills that increase the
quality of both the work that you're
doing and the life that you live now
this doesn't mean that you'll be able to
answer all of life's tough questions
like he's a hot dog a sandwich
to which the answer is obviously no it's
a taco it's a piece of meat in one piece
of bread look it doesn't matter in order
to better understand what I'm talking
about it helps to envision a graph where
the challenge that a particular task
presents is plotted against the skills
that one has in order to undertake that
task one can start to feel a sense of
apathy when the task isn't challenging
and you lack the skill for it as well
boredom is slightly different where the
challenge is low but your skill level
exceeds what's required and anxiety
occurs when challenges are so high that
they exceed your skill level which
ultimately freaks you out and causes you
distress simply put you tend to reach
your flow when your skills are fully
involved in overcoming
suitable challenge if challenges are too
low one gets back to flow by increasing
them if challenges are too great then
one can return to flow by learning new
skills so you're probably wondering when
you can do to achieve a state of flow
with whatever you're working on and this
is what's worked for me
number one eliminate distractions this
has to happen first internally whatever
you experience stress or have too much
on your mind
it'll be incredibly hard to keep your
mind focused on the task at hand and
therefore it'll be impossible to reach
flow state if this happens to you I
recommend you to try journaling everyday
so that you can get your thoughts out of
your head and onto a piece of paper this
is something that's really helped me the
other thing would be meditating for at
least 10 minutes every day which can
help you learn to silence your mind and
the days that you do it sometimes though
it can take a little while for
everything to just get quiet in your
head journaling and meditation could
help you clear your mind and control
your thoughts a lot better these are
things that have helped me prevent my
work and getting disrupted and allow
myself to enter a state of hyper focus
there are also plenty of external
distractions all around you it also
helps to remove all unnecessary items
from your workspace and preferably go to
a quiet environment to limit clutter oh
and do I need to mention that your phone
is the biggest source of distraction
research has shown that it takes on
average 25 minutes to get your attention
back to the task at hand once you've
lost it this is because of something
called attention residue which implies
that some of your attention is still
left behind in the previous task or
distraction that you would deal
so it's critical that you put your phone
away the next thing I recommend is to
work on one specific task at a time
multitasking sounds like an excellent
practice in order to get many more
things done but in practice it makes it
a lot harder to reach a state of flow
with any one task because you switch
from one task to the other and it takes
your brain time to get back to that
previous task this sounds a lot like the
same effect that distractions have and
so multitasking was pretty much the
exact opposite of what you need to be
doing if you're trying to find your flow
next I'd recommend trying to use a
time-based productivity technique you
can't just enter the flow state edit
whether it's something that you need to
ease your brain into and the Pomodoro
Technique is something that makes this
possible by helping you overcome the
biggest barrier which is simply getting
started besides once you're immersed in
a task you may find yourself working
well past your set time which is
perfectly fine finally have a clear
outcome or goal in mind procrastination
loves it when there's a lack of clarity
about any objective whenever you lack
clarity about what you want to
accomplish your brain will struggle to
find optimum concentration and push you
towards quitting earlier or switch to
easier tasks instead so try to lay out
what you'd like to achieve in order to
avoid this hurdle when you have a clear
goal or outcome in mind you lessen the
odds of your mind wandering and getting
distracted now you need to know that
flow is about so much more than just
boosting your productivity yes you can
find yourself being more productive
but it also allows you to take an active
role in your life
the most mundane moments to the most
critical so I hope that you find this
helpful give this a shot with something
that you're working on and let me know
how it goes for you down in the comments
below thank you so much for watching my
name is beyond Shania I'll see you soon
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