How to Leverage Productivity and Creativity with Flow

Do you ever being focused on your work and forget everything around you? It feels exciting to complete a challenging task during that time. But do you know why it happened and how to leverage it?

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This situation is called Flow State. In psychology, a flow state is known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person is performing some activity and fully immersed in the feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychology scientist, said that in a flow state, we tend to overlook anything that is not related to our activity. “You are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skill to the utmost,” he said.

So, how we can achieve the Flow State?

According to Kotler, there are four things that trigger us into the flow. They are:

1. Social situation
2. Creativity trigger
3. Environment situation
4. Psychology Situation.

Having been understanding those trigger, you might ask how to help you experience Flow easier? here are another 4 tips from Kotler:

1. Make a clear goal list
2. Schedule 90 — 120 minutes of uninterrupted concentration
3. Come back to the present moment
4. Check off all completed items on your list

If you still do not understand if you were in the Flow state, check these characteristics of Flow:

1. Fully concentrated on your work
2. You feel rewarded during performing your work
3. You feel that time flies faster
4. It feels good doing the assignment
5. It feels easy and effortless to run your errand
6. The task difficulty is on your level
7. You don't know (care of) what happened around you
8. You are able to control the work.

With a different approach, you can hone your creativity and leverage your productivity. Flow can be a great strategy to achieve all your task in a timely manner while you also enjoy the moment.