Flow State

To work at pace, on a thousand things at once, may seem like peak productivity, but a recent experience made me think this isn’t so much streamlined as scattered. And the cost is higher than I even realised. Flow state, where I allow myself to spend hours deeply focused on a single task and nothing else, is where original thought, great work and true satisfaction comes from. I also have to fight for it.

Never heard of flow state?

Our brains are powerful tools, and the more we understand what works and what doesn’t, the more we can turn our brain into our ally.

Have you ever noticed how some days you're juggling endless tasks but achieving little and feeling increasingly distracted, while on others you lock in and accomplish more in three hours than you normally would in a week? The latter can be described as flow state.

Flow state, first identified by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the optimal state of mind where challenge meets capability. It's where time seems to dissolve, self-consciousness disappears and you're completely absorbed in the task at hand. For creators and developers - whether writing code, designing systems, or solving complex problems - flow state is where magic happens.

It can also change our whole stance on challenges. As Csikszentmihalyi himself says, “Flow: a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

Why flow state is essential

In creative and technical work, flow state is essential. When designing software, solutions or strategies, having access to the various capabilities and skills of our brain changes outcomes for the better.

I’m far from a neurologist, but I notice a massive difference when I’m only using my right brain (the rational, often used for quick-fire decisions and logical tasks) versus when I’m tapping into the left brain (the creative, spacious, initiative side, often associated with our ability to come up with new ideas).

When I’m engaged in deeper work, I can come up with unexpected and clever solutions to problems, move through tasks faster, and retain an ongoing focus on the overall outcome of what I’m trying to achieve. Interruptions, be that switching between tasks or checking notifications, don't just pause work, they shatter this deep focus, which takes a significant amount of time to return to.

During a recent week-long development sprint, I experienced tapped into flow state for the first time in a while. Dedicating uninterrupted time to the prototype project didn't just result in faster coding, it led to more elegant solutions, better architecture decisions and ultimately a superior product that lends itself to notably higher profit margins.

The ever present ‘urgent’ tasks and complex problems

A fascinating aspect of flow state is its relationship with our subconscious mind, and what this means for those ‘urgent’ tasks that can so often break up our day. While it may be difficult to step back and leave urgent tasks by the wayside, the irony is they often resolve themselves more efficiently after a period of flow.

While deep in development or design work, my subconscious continues processing background conundrums. When I finally address them, solutions emerge naturally, almost as if they've been quietly assembling themselves while you were focused elsewhere.

Think of it like background processing in a computer. While your main CPU (conscious mind) focuses on deep work, your background processes (subconscious) continue working on other problems. When you switch back to those tasks, you're not starting from zero, you're implementing pre-processed solutions.

I experienced this in the example above. In order to reach the prototype project deadline, I put everything aside, including a few urgent emails. When I finished the work and returned to my inbox, I managed to write up my response in 10 minutes, when this kind of communication usually takes me about an hour. It was like I’d already written it in my mind and just had to get it down.

For creators, coders and business owners, flow state is crucial not only for urgent tasks but complex problem-solving. In the same way my unconscious can help me tackle a pressing email, uninterrupted focus lends itself to coming up with innovative solutions that rote thinking alone can’t achieve. This allows solutions to emerge more elegantly, code to flow more naturally, and complex systems to make more intuitive sense.

A reminder to myself: it’s worth the effort

Despite the undeniable benefits, I can still feel lingering significant resistance to this way of working. It simply seems to fly in the face of our modern ‘always-on’ attitude and (inaccurate) view on productivity. I can feel the pressure to be constantly available, respond immediately or handle everything now - and this way of thinking has become an ingrained habit.

And so I remind myself of this: every time I break flow to handle a minor task, I’m not just losing minutes, I’m sacrificing a hugely valuable state of mind. I’m trading deep, meaningful progress for shallow, immediate gratification.

Flow state isn't a luxury for technical founders and entrepreneurs, it’s fundamental. In an era of constant connectivity and increasing complexity, my ability to achieve and maintain flow might be my most valuable competitive advantage. The question isn't whether I can afford to work this way, it's whether I can afford not to.

Running a business and having a young family means often I find flow in the early morning hours, when the world is still quiet and my mind is fresh, or late in the evening, when the kids are in bed and I can put my phone on silent.

Regardless of when, I remind myself this state requires a certain mental preparation, not unlike an athlete before a race. And, much like the athlete who goes to the gym every day to build their muscle and stamina, if I continue to show up I’ll become more fluent in flow state and reap the immeasurable benefits.