How To Effortlessly Boost Your Productivity By Getting Into A Flow State
A flow state is a state of consciousness that allows you to completely focus on the task at hand. This sounds great in theory but how do you achieve this state? Riley Holland has the answers for you.
When I was a kid, I’d wait until Sunday night to do my homework.
It was a terrible habit. For one thing, I always had to cut corners, since I never allowed myself enough time to do what I had to do. Worse, I never really enjoyed my weekends. The specter of that homework haunted my Saturdays and Sundays like a vengeful demon that I tried to ignore until finally it chased me down and forced me to work.
I came to rely on that last-minute jolt of stress to get things done, through college and even into my professional life.
It was like I was addicted to it.
For a long time, that felt like a dirty secret. But over time I came to realize how common it is. All sorts of people, even those performing at high levels in their professions, rely on that “Sunday night homework” feeling to get them motivated and productive.
After all, it kind of works.
You can get by on that approach, and even occasionally do great work.
But there will be a ceiling to your productivity, and you may totally burn out before you even begin to discover your peak potential.
Not to mention, it just feels bad.
But as I discovered, it is possible to genuinely transform your relationship to productivity.
It’s not a matter of forcing or finessing your way through your resistances.
It’s about entering a whole different way of being — a flow state — where those resistances aren’t even there in the first place.
I’ve used lots of different approaches to get in that state or a consistent, reliable basis, and taught them to hundreds of my students, who have gotten the same results. And while there are many ways to do it, here are 3 you can start using right away to effortlessly boost your productivity starting today.
1. Stay In Your Body And Breathe Deeply
When you’re working, or just ruminating about the work you should be doing, it’s easy to get completely lost in your head/ You may not even notice your body tensing up and your breathing getting shallow.
That’ll whip you up into a nice little fight-or-flight frenzy, and it’s no wonder you want to bail on the task at hand and procrastinate.
But if you can relax that physical tension in the moment, you’ll find your mind relaxing, too. You’ll start to access deeper intuitive leaps that can help with creativity and provide new and unexpected solutions to problems that may have seemed unsolvable.
But it’s hard to do that when your body’s acting like it’s under attack.
So the first step to flow is to relax that body tension and give your brain room to breathe.
2. Focus On The Outcome You Desire
Whatever you’re working on, there’s probably a reason you’re working on it. Your productivity is likely a means to an end.
But it’s easy to forget that when you get caught in a tangle of perfectionism, worry about the outcome, and fear of not doing a good enough job.
So before you set to work, remind yourself of the positive, desired outcome. See it as vividly as you can in your mind’s eye, and feel the positive feelings that come from imagining having already achieved it.
Then, whenever you get a tense feeling, or start to feel stuck, focus on that desired outcome.
Don’t repress those other, negative feelings. Just gently place your focus on the positive ones. Feel it as though success is inevitable, and then the work you have to do will flow much easier and more joyfully.
3. Do What Inspires You
This one’s a bit broader, but it’s probably the most important thing to understand:
You can’t fake the flow.
And you can’t force it.
All the productivity apps, seminars, and fancy checklists in the world can’t replace the natural enthusiasm that comes from doing what genuinely interests you.
If you find yourself consistently unable to enter a flow state with your work, it may be a sign that you’re doing something that doesn’t authentically inspire you.
That doesn’t mean you need to quit your job. But start doing more of what inspires you in your free time. Pursue creative hobbies, whatever inspires authentic interest in you, and get a sense for how it feels to work on those. See if you can think of ways to bring that feeling into your work.
Wrapping Up
The above are just a few ways to enter a flow state.
There are many more, but if you do those, I believe your stress will go way down, your productivity will go way up, and you’ll find yourself on a more authentic path for you as an individual.
Eventually, that flow state can become permanent.
If you want to learn the methods that will help you make that transformation into flow, you can get a free copy of my “Self-Transformation Manifesto” ebook here: https://BionicMindMethod.com/
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