Getting into the Flow – More Focus, Less Stress
Do you know the feeling of completely immersing yourself in a task, so much so that everything around you fades away? It’s as if what you’re doing is the most natural thing in the world – and time seems to disappear. Maybe you’ve even noticed how the afternoon turned into night or forgotten meals because you were so deeply in the flow. At OptiMind, I help you experience this feeling and learn how powerful this state can be.
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What does "Flow" actually mean?
Flow is the state in which we become totally absorbed in an activity, to the point that everything else seems unimportant. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes flow in his groundbreaking book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience as the moment when people are so deeply engaged in their activities that they forget the world around them – and the experience itself is so pleasurable that we even seek it out with high effort.
In this article, I want to briefly introduce the concept of flow and show you why it’s worth aiming for this state regularly. Because those who work in flow not only enjoy greater focus but also reduce stress and boost their productivity to a whole new level.
The definition of flow: More than just concentration
Flow is about more than just focused work. It describes a state where we are so deeply immersed in an activity that everything around us recedes to the background. For psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a sign of “optimal performance” – a state in which we unfold our full potential.
The flow state is characterized by eight core traits:
- Complete concentration on the task
- Full focus on the goals
- The feeling that time speeds up or slows down
- An intense sense of reward from the experience
- Effortless action, almost automatic
- The challenge is present, but it never feels overwhelming
- Awareness of external time factors diminishes – we are fully in the present
- We feel completely at ease with the activity
If you've ever been fully absorbed in a task, you’ve probably experienced the flow state. Studies show that flow can boost your productivity by up to five times.
Features of the Flow State
Flow is not an isolated experience but follows a clear sequence, which psychologist and author Steven Kotler describes in his book The Rise of Superman. He outlines four stages that map the path into and out of the flow state:
1. Fight
In this phase, you work intensely on your task—whether during training, research, or brainstorming. This phase often feels strenuous and challenging because it involves the effort necessary to enter the flow.
2. Recovery
After the effort, a break follows. Here, you consciously take time out, such as going for a walk or practicing breathing exercises. This recovery phase is essential to prevent overwhelm and to prepare your mind and body for the next round.
3. Flow
This is where you experience the so-called “Superhero Mode”. You are one with your activity, working at a high level, everything seems to run almost automatically, your focus is undivided, and you feel highly motivated. Your awareness of the outside world fades into the background—you are fully in the moment.
4. Consolidation
After the flow, it’s time for integration. During this phase, you gather what you have achieved and often experience a small “high”. During flow, your brain releases happiness and motivation hormones—the feeling of being fulfilled and satisfied. These positive neurotransmitters leave you craving more.
Flow in the Context of Psychology and Its Benefits
The flow state is far more than just a pleasant side effect—it’s the core of motivation and performance. Psychologists see flow as the source of sustainable engagement and creativity. Once your brain enters flow, it receives a massive dose of reward chemicals, which can even make the state addictive—in a positive sense, of course. If you want to enter this state more often to work more productively, focus better, and experience less stress, it’s important to deliberately work on your flow triggers and incorporate recovery phases.
Because: Motivation and flow go hand in hand. Without sufficient rest, you risk burnout and overload—that’s why a holistic strategy involving good nutrition, adequate sleep, and conscious breaks is central to the OptiMind approach.
The Positive Effects of the Flow State
Learning to enter the so-called flow state offers many positive effects for your personal and professional life. Below is an overview of the most important benefits that controlling flow can bring:
Emotional Balance
Flow can positively influence your feelings in numerous ways and contribute to emotional regulation. People often report:
- an increased sense of engagement, joy, and satisfaction
- a reduction in negative emotions such as anxiety, self-doubt, or worries
- a strong focus that makes it harder for distracting thoughts to intrude
- emotional release, especially during activities involving movement or creative pursuits
- reduced stress levels
- greater self-confidence and belief in one’s effectiveness
- overall better mood and increased well-being
By intentionally working towards entering and maintaining the flow state, you can significantly enhance your emotional stability, motivation, and overall happiness.
At OptiMind, I work individually with my clients to help them actively harness the flow state. My goal is to support you in discovering your personal flow triggers, overcoming barriers, and fully experiencing the numerous advantages this powerful state offers. Let’s work together to unlock your potential and enjoy a more focused, stress-free, and fulfilling life!
Inner Motivation and Sense of Purpose
Intrinsic motivation means performing an activity out of joy and satisfaction, rather than for external rewards. Flow experiences are intrinsically motivating because they combine pleasure, challenge, and engagement. The activity itself becomes the reward, making you more willing to regularly repeat activities that induce flow states.
Developing Skills and Unlocking Creative Power
Flow creates optimal conditions for learning and innovation. Through increased concentration, heightened engagement, and fewer distractions, people can better open themselves to new information and expand their abilities. Additionally, activities that trigger flow often provide immediate, clear feedback on one’s performance. This quick feedback loop allows for real-time adjustments, helping to deliberately and effectively improve skills.
Increasing Engagement and Performance
Flow leads to intense focus and complete immersion in an activity, enhancing the feeling of being fully present in the moment. This profound experience fosters a meaningful connection to the task and enables you to invest your attention and energy entirely.
Summary
If you can consciously induce flow, you can optimize your performance by matching the challenge of the task to your skill level. Improved focus, rapid processing of information, and increased creativity all help you make better decisions, improve your skills, and solve problems more efficiently.
Ich helfe dir zur Leistungssteigerung in sämtlichen Lebensbereichen durch ganzheitliche Integration von mentaler, körperlicher und spiritueller Stärke.
Helen Hammelberg, M.Sc. Psychologie
What Happens in the Brain During the Flow State?
When someone enters the so-called flow state, their brain undergoes changes in several ways. Scientific studies using imaging techniques like fMRI and EEG have shown the basis of these changes. Although the exact processes are still being researched, scientists now understand that certain key mechanisms play a role:
Focus on the task: The part of the brain responsible for planning and decision-making becomes calmer during flow. This helps individuals fully engage in the activity and forget about other thoughts.
Less self-criticism: The brain region that makes us aware of who we are and what we think about ourselves becomes less active during flow. This allows us to lose ourselves in the activity without self-doubt.
Release of happiness hormones: During flow, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that triggers feelings of happiness and positive reinforcement. This makes the experience pleasurable and enjoyable.
Increased creativity: The brain has a network called the Default Mode Network, which is active during dreaming or daydreaming. During flow, this network is less engaged, allowing for better concentration, pattern recognition, and the development of new ideas.
Fewer negative feelings: The brain structure responsible for fear and emotions, the amygdala, becomes quieter during flow. This makes it easier to feel relaxed and free from fears or negative emotions.
Better learning: The brain is more receptive to new information during flow. It becomes easier to remember details, learn new skills, and forge connections within the brain, ultimately enhancing learning and development over the long term.
How to Enter the Flow State
The following steps are based on insights from the well-known expert Steven Kotler, who has extensively studied the topic of flow. He demonstrates how anyone can more easily access the flow state through specific methods to improve their performance and work more fulfillingly.
How to Achieve the Flow State
The key to entering flow is creating the right environment and the right mindset—so that you can fully concentrate on your task and give your best. Here are some simple steps to help you get into flow:
1. Identify Your Personal Flow Triggers
The first step is to discover what puts you into flow. These are the situations or activities that help you perform at your best.
Everyone is different, but these triggers typically depend on your interests, skills, and the challenges involved in the task. Think about what activities captivate you so much that you lose track of time and feel energized. These moments are your personal flow triggers.
2. Optimize Your Work Environment
Whether you’re working in an office or outdoors, a setting that supports your concentration is crucial for entering and maintaining flow.
Remove all distractions, keep everything important within reach, and feel comfortable so you can stay focused for longer periods. A well-prepared environment makes it easier to get into the flow state.
3. Set Clear Goals
Define concrete, realistic objectives for your task. This helps you maintain focus and gives you a clear direction.
Break the task into small steps or interim goals so you can experience success along the way. Clear goals boost your concentration and give your work purpose, making it easier to enter flow.
4. Challenge Yourself
Choose tasks that match your skill level—that’s what we call the "Challenge/Skill Ratio."
If the challenge is too easy, you’ll quickly become bored; if it’s too difficult, frustration might set in. Flow always lies in the balance between challenge and ability—a "sweet spot."
Aim for a challenge that motivates you to step out of your comfort zone. This keeps you alert, helps you grow through your tasks, and leads to success and satisfaction.
5. Connect Your Passion with Purpose
If you choose tasks that truly excite you and allow you to utilize your talents, motivation skyrockets.
When your activities align with your values and goals, you’re fully in the moment and can unleash your best potential.
The author and brain coach Jim Kwik also suggests five steps for reaching flow, some of which overlap with Kotler’s, but they add further valuable perspectives.
Five Ways to Enter the Flow State
1. Avoid Distractions
To achieve the highest concentration, it is essential to eliminate all possible disturbances. If you are constantly interrupted—by messages, social media, or other distractions—it often takes a long time to get back in the zone. Restarting repeatedly consumes a lot of energy and makes it difficult to enter flow. So ensure you put aside everything that could distract you and focus solely on the current task.
2. Allocate Sufficient Time
Intentionally set aside enough time to truly enter flow. It’s often said that it takes about 15 minutes to find flow, and that peak feelings of high performance occur after around 45 minutes. If you only have a short window, you’ll probably only work superficially. Plan for at least 90 minutes or even two hours so you can dive deep and make the most of your task.
3. Engage in Activities You Truly Enjoy
To enter flow, you should do something that genuinely excites you. Whether it’s music, sports, writing, or another creative activity—people who perform at a high level love what they do. They are not just average; they work with passion on meaningful tasks. If your work involves things that annoy or bore you, it’s almost impossible to find flow. The opposite of flow is frustration and boredom.
4. Set Clear Goals
A key factor for flow is orientation. If you don’t know exactly what you want to achieve, it’s hard to fully engage with the task. For example, a writer plans precisely what they want to write about each day to meet their goal. This gives a clear direction and allows them to dive deeply into their work repeatedly. Before starting a task, set a specific goal—it makes it easier to stay motivated and focused.
5. Choose the Right Challenge
If you want to enter flow, the task should be a bit challenging—but not so difficult that it causes frustration. Doing something that’s too easy, even with your best skills, will quickly bore you. And boredom is the exact opposite of flow. Instead, seek a challenge that requires effort, such as tackling a difficult pitch at sports, learning a new technique on your guitar, or writing a creative scene from a character’s perspective. This keeps your mind active and engaged.
How to Properly Confront the Enemies of the Flow State
Jim Kwik often speaks about “Supervillains” lurking in the shadows—villains that disrupt our natural flow. I find this metaphor particularly powerful and easy to understand. It makes clear that these obstacles are not minor nuisances but real enemies that must be actively fought to enter the flow and maintain it consistently.
One of the biggest enemies is multitasking. Attempting to do several things at once scatters your attention and makes it much harder to fully immerse yourself deeply. Instead, you should focus completely on one task and block out everything else.
Stress is another adversary that can quickly throw everything off course. When your mind is full of thoughts or external pressures weigh on you, it becomes extremely difficult to achieve flow. Therefore, create a calm, distraction-free space where you can fully concentrate on what’s essential.
Fear of mistakes is also a sneaky supervillain. Perfectionism blocks your courage and creativity. Remember: mistakes are important steps on the path to success and are necessary to create truly new things.
Finally, a lack of self-confidence—doubting your own abilities—can hold you back from entering flow. Strengthen your self-image, discover your strengths, and trust in your skills.
If you become aware of which of these supervillains repeatedly attack you, and learn to defeat them, you open the door to regular, deep flow experiences. This is the key to unlocking your full potential and achieving your goals. The path to flow is full of challenges, but with courage and clarity, you can overcome these enemies—just like a true hero face his greatest challenge.
Flow as the Key to Motivation and Happiness
In summary, the flow state is a powerful resource for your personal and professional life. It boosts your productivity, reduces stress, improves your emotional well-being, and fosters creativity and learning processes. When you learn to actively enter and utilize this state, you can experience more joy, fulfillment, and success.
If you’re not yet entering flow regularly, I invite you to try the methods described: Find your personal triggers, create a pleasant environment, set clear goals, and challenge yourself purposefully. Also, be mindful of eliminating counterproductive factors such as distractions and self-doubt.
But most importantly, realize: flow is no accident—it is a tangible, learnable skill that can fundamentally and positively transform your life.
At OptiMind, I work individually with my clients to help them actively harness the flow state. My goal is to support you in discovering your natural “flow triggers,” breaking down barriers, and fully experiencing the many benefits of this powerful state.
Use flow to live more focused, creative, and happier—I'll be happy to accompany you on this journey!
About the author: Helen Hammelberg
Psychologist, fitness trainer, nutritionist & founder of OptiMind
With a holistic approach, Helen supports people in recognizing and developing their full potential - be it mentally, physically or spiritually. Her approach is based on a deep appreciation for the individual needs of each person and the belief that everyone has the ability to positively shape their lives.
The OptiMind principle reflects a strongly client-centred approach as well as a long-term and process-oriented way of thinking to support your individual well-being and maximise your performance.
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