How to Cultivate Flow State
Whether you're working, playing, or creating, you can optimize your time for smooth sailing with a little structure.
Catching wind in your creative sails isn’t magic, but it does require a bit of intentionality.
You’ve likely experienced “flow state” before. If you’re anything like me, you probably wish you could experience it more often. It’s that energizing feeling of getting totally absorbed into a creative or productive initiative, and letting the brain generate freely as time disappears. Once you’re (finally) unblocked, the ideation and output you know you’re capable of can flow freely.
I learned a lot about flow state in my Define Play interviews with David Hardin, Jon Fogel (Whole Parent here on Substack), and Timm Bloem. Their wisdom inspired me to explore ways to facilitate the best conditions for creativity and productivity. As a person with lifelong ADHD (but who only started using medication in the last year), a bit of structure like this can do wonders to help me work more efficiently.
Here are the best tips I’ve found so far for cultivating flow state consistently (you can also watch them in video form):
1. Set an intention and start time.
Carve out dedicated time, and if planning ahead, put it on the calendar.
Factor in “wind-up time,” which may be anywhere from 5-15 minutes.
Articulate one objective for that particular session, connected to a broader vision of the finished product. Conquering the entire project in one setting may not be realistic, so instead, identify singular steps to focus on.
2. Seek a Goldilocks level of difficulty.
Your objective should have just enough resistance to require you to “regulate” yourself to execute it, much like lifting weights at the gym.
If it’s too difficult, it’ll be overwhelming and feel like a slog, inhibiting flow.
If it’s too easy, it won’t require any satisfying brain effort, and multitasking will become appealing.
3. Curate your environment to reduce distractions.
Go somewhere conducive. It might be inspiring or austere, depending on the project and what resources are available to you. Sometimes I do my best work in a place I don’t want to be in, because I’m motivated to get out of there.
Disarm your phone from holding you hostage. Turn it off altogether (gasp), or at least put it out of arm’s reach to reduce the chance of compulsively grabbing it. You can also customize your phone’s focus/do-not-disturb settings, or use of the countless app-blocking apps (how ironic). Forest is one of my favorites.
Silence is underrated, but not always an option. The right kind of music* in your headphones can spark creativity and block out ambient noise.
4. Follow the current downstream.
Allow yourself to follow the flow to unexpected places (within reason, depending on the end goal and requirements). Nothing feels less flowy than swimming upstream.
“Write drunk, edit sober.” Even if Hemingway never actually said that, there’s wisdom in the mantra, and it doesn’t actually require alcohol. Simply keep your creative and editorial tasks separate, ideally with a break in between.
Have you had success with any of these? What else would you add? I welcome your wisdom. Let’s keep flowing together.
*To close, here are a few of my favorite albums for creativity and productivity: