Let It Flow: How to Get Your Focus Back
Written by Julia Gralki. Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
When I was younger, I would sit at my desk for hours, typing stories into my computer that would take the length of novels. Time seemed to pass slower and sometimes, I got so immersed in my own imagination that my mind would struggle to return to reality afterward. While I was writing, I was in my own world and nothing could tear me out of it.
This state of immersion is what scientists call flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-American psychologist, discovered the concept of flow when he studied a group of painters who were so focused on their creation that time seemed to stop. To find an answer to how they were able to focus on one task for that long, Mihaly studied long-distance swimmers, rock climbers, and chess players. Even though these activities seem very different, the athletes had something in common: They all described a “state of flow,” where nothing but the present moment mattered.
To my 12-year-old self, writing was what I now call an uninterrupted flow of creativity. However, I haven’t reentered the same state of flow in years.
There could be many reasons why I seem to have lost the ability to “flow.” Growing up requires taking more responsibility, which in return means more work, more stress, and less time to take a breather. But adulting is not the only reason for my inability to enter a flow state when studying or writing.
According to scientists, distraction is the killer of flow. Every time the phone chimes with a text message or the computer pings you with a Slack message, there goes another chance to find flow.
The modern adult has an attention span of eight seconds. With messaging services interrupting us every five to ten minutes and notifications stealing our attention, it is no wonder that we can’t concentrate for longer than a few seconds in anticipation of new messages.
However, there is hope. The fact that we can experience flow tells us that there must be a way to facilitate it.
Csikszentmihalyi discovered that both inner and outer forces prevent us from letting it flow. For one, his studies revealed that staring at a screen for a long time hinders flow. This includes the phone we wake up to, the computer we work with, and the TV we relax with. When we collapse in front of the TV at night, we’re looking for rest, but we are getting distraction. After a day of information overload, we simply give our brains more of what it needs a break from: information.
To help yourself to actual rest, you need to set positive goals that pull you out of the urge to distract yourself. This positive goal or source of flow that replaces distractions could be meditation, journaling, reading, or similar activities that transport you into a state of flow and rest where you lose the sense of time and ego.
To achieve a flow state, challenge and skill must be balanced. If a task is too challenging, it will be difficult to find flow. But if the task is too simple for your skillset, boredom will overtake the flow. Reducing distraction will also help you achieve flow. Once you are in the flow, your brain filters distractions to help you focus on the task at hand, but when you are trying to find flow, distractions are counterproductive.
You can reduce distractions by scheduling a focus time block and turning notifications off while you do homework or create art for fun. If that doesn’t help, you can also turn on relaxing background music. And if that still doesn’t get you flowing, you might want to consider switching tasks. It’s often easier to enter a state of flow when you enjoy the task.
