Emily DesRoches

We often dread doing our assignments and would rather hang out with friends or relax. But there is something that can help in school, sports, and creative activities. Reaching flow state.

People work at their best in a flow state. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who invented the term “flow,” defines flow as when one is fully engaged in the present moment while doing an activity. Plus, many versions of a study run by Cranston and Keller found that people in a flow state were five times more productive.

Conditions to Reach Flow:

Have Clear Goals

Clear goals draw a person to an activity. And they must be clear for one to fully understand their purpose in doing the activity and how they will do it. Also, there are links between goal-setting and performance. Which is also the link between goals and flow state. For instance, Schippers et al. placed students into four groups: two that set goals and two that didn’t. They found that the two goal-setting groups had a 20% higher academic performance.

Ask yourself these two questions before starting an activity: What do you want to achieve with this activity? Do you have a plan to get there?

A Balance of Skill Level and Challenge

To achieve a state of flow, there needs to be a balance between your skill level and the challenge at hand. If the task is too easy or too hard, it is less likely to lead to flow. Fullagar, Knight, and Sovern studied 27 students who chose music for their end-of-semester performance. They split the music into parts, and students rated the difficulty and their ability to play it. The researchers saw flow increase when challenge matched skill. But, anxiety arose when they were not aligned.

Choose an activity that you feel comfortable with and feel a slight challenge toward. This relates to your experience with the activity itself because this balance differs from person to person. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. So, avoid comparing your ability to achieve flow with others. Achieving flow is a personal experience and can vary in difficulty.

Clear and Immediate Feedback

Feedback allows you to know if you are on the right track or need to change something. For example, a response from a professor gives great guidance. Don Norman, an American researcher and professor in many fields including cognitive psychology, noted in his book The Design of Everyday Things that a delay in feedback may lead a person to give up. Once someone gives up, reaching flow state is not a possibility anymore. There needs to be a determination and openness to feedback, to feel the confidence and drive to complete an activity.

A study by Butler and Nissan found that students who got feedback were more motivated to complete assignments out of interest than those who did not. This feedback helped the students to see their assignments as interesting, not a necessity, and gain the confidence to do it. This links to the next condition about motivation.

Find Internally Motivating Activities

Engage in activities you want to do rather than because you must do them. When studying, try to focus on enjoying learning rather than just trying to get a good grade. In connection with the results found by Butler and Nissan, those who received feedback saw more internal reward in the activity from simply interest.

Another example comes from researchers Seifert and Henderson, who looked at skateboarders to learn about flow and motivation. They found that skateboarders who were motivated by personal goals, rather than outside rewards, enjoyed skateboarding more. These motivated skateboarders experienced increased satisfaction, confidence, and control, all which connect with flow state. These skateboarders intensely engaged with the present moment, which makes them more successful in the activity overall.

High Level of Concentration

Distractions disrupt flow state, so one must get rid of them. Research by Rettstatt, Brand, and Ragni showed that even slight distractions make you less productive and increase mistakes. For instance, put your phone away so you can focus on the task in front of you.

Hearing the sirens from an ambulance is something that you cannot control, but there are certain distractions, such as the place where you are doing the assignment and any electronics with a ringer on which you can change. For instance, if one concentrates better in a quiet environment, try to do the activity in a library or an area where another person cannot come up to you. For something like a sport, the environment gets a lot more limited, and most concentration is from where you are putting your focus. To the sport at hand or something else around you. Also, make sure you have enough time in the day for the activity.

Outcomes of Flow State

In her book, Positive Psychology: The Basics, Dr. Rona Hart mentioned that when you are in a flow state, you become deeply absorbed in what you are doing, lose a sense of ego, and experience an altered perception of time. That is why it is so important to schedule open time in the day, so there is no rush to get the assignment or activity done. An unrealistic amount of time, meaning a short amount of time, to get an activity done will not get you into a flow state. While if you do get into flow state, it is a moment you do not realize you are experiencing until the very end.

Csikszentmihalyi found that when people are in a flow state, they focus better and feel more in control of what they’re doing, which makes them forget about their worries. Seifert and Henderson observed this with the skateboarders they studied, noticing that the ones who reached a flow state felt a sense of control and confidence in the activity.

Anyone can experience flow state. According to Dr. Hart, it helps boost motivation, engagement, and performance in work, school, or any activity you enjoy. Using these five conditions could help, so an activity might not be as intimidating. Just be ready to lose track of time while you’re in it.