The Easiest Way to Enter a Flow State

Let’s get right to the point: the easiest way for most people to get into a flow state is to read an engrossing novel. Time will just fall away, as you eagerly turn one page after another.

But I mention this point to communicate a much larger insight: flow is far more common than most people realize.

Author Steven Kotler, a flow researcher, offers this description (and picture) of flow:

Flow is defined as an optimal state of consciousness, a state where you feel and perform your best. More specifically, the term refers to those moments of rapt attention and total absorption, when you get so focused on the task at hand that everything else disappears. Action and awareness merge. Your sense of self vanishes. Your sense of time distorts (either, typically, speeds up; or, occasionally, slows down). And throughout, all aspects of performance, both mental and physical, go through the roof.

I added the bold text in that last sentence, so you wouldn’t miss this: all aspects of performance, both mental and physical, go through the roof.

The more flow in your life, the better you perform and the better you feel.

As Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus, puts it, “We all have a choice now between two profound forces—fragmentation, or flow. Fragmentation makes you smaller, shallower, angrier. Flow makes you bigger, deeper, calmer. Fragmentation shrinks us. Flow expands us.”

By fragmentation, Johann means the distracted state towards which society us pulling us all.

In my own words, the best way to add more flow moments into your life is to:

1. Notice and treasure such moments when they occur

2. Remember the conditions that created the flow state

3. Recreate those conditions whenever possible

Earlier today, I took a deliberately meandering drive in my car through the backroads of Vermont. No music, no news, just the countryside. Near the end of my drive, I stopped into an antique shop and bought five books for $15; each of them was extremely old and small, which made them the perfect inspiration for my next creative project. An hour after I got home, I found myself in the flow state and the first chapter of my new book made it effortlessly into my laptop. That’s the power of flow, and it’s one of the ways to make it happen: wander and meander to prime your brain to be creative.

Go rock climbing. Swim in the ocean (important note: only if you’re a strong swimmer). Hike the Andes. Play with a baby. Or just read a suspense novel. The odds are you will find yourself in a flow state.

Personally, my semi-secret goal is to experience this state every single day. I’m not there yet, but I’m trying. And so should you.