How to enter flow state on command

Yo!

It’s been a while, hope you are doing well!

 💡 Learning of the week

I’ve been interested in learning more about flow states recently.

If you’re not familiar with flow states, it’s a state of consciousness where you have the most focus and least amount of anxiety. It’s what athletes or musicians mean when they mean they’re in the zone.

I discovered a few patterns used by highly successful outliers to achieve flow states effectively on command. From Lebron James to Steven Bartlett, they use some of the same techniques.

1. Create a ritual

Lebron James has a weird ritual where he throws chalk into the air before every game he plays, to any ordinary person this might seem weird but Lebron does this to let his mind know it’s time to focus so that he can play to his best abilities.

So you could create your own ritual before entering a deep work session, like lighting a candle, entering a focus-mate session, or playing some binaural beats. (All things I do)

2. Prepare beforehand

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t just prepare what he is going to wear the next day he knows what he is going to wear for the next year as he has the same clothes for different days of the week.

You obviously don’t need to take it to that extreme, but knowing out what you are going to do either the day before or right before will increase your likelihood of entering a state of flow. You are effectively decreasing your cognitive load.

3. Minimize Distraction

If you don’t minimize distractions, you will either never enter flow or you will be easily be broken out of flow. Control your attention or your attention will be controlled.

This is why I advocate for using social media on a schedule. I have shown how I set up my phone and computer on my channel, go check it out!

 🍿 Update of the week

My YouTube channel has been picking up a lot more recently. I’ve enjoyed making the recent videos, it’s less edited format than I have done before.

This video is about my journalling method which I’ve done for the past 5 years.

(Don’t worry, there are no weird exercises or prompts, it’s just a way I use to track my habits and metrics I care about) Let me know what you think!

Hope you’re having a good week!
Eric