How often at the end of your day do you feel like you did your best work? I don’t mean great work all day long – but I do mean where you feel like you crushed it in some tangible way at some point?
Whether it was an important conversation with a team member, a meeting where you were solving a complex client issue, or where you were absorbed in an important piece of work – all of us relish those days where we are able to do our best work.
What if you could create more of that?!
The key is knowing what creates the conditions for absorbed focus.
Why? If you pause and look at what was going on in those moments, a consistent factor you will see is a state of calm absorbed focus. There was space for whatever you were doing. There were no distractions. There was clarity of task. Your brain spooled up, accessing all of its brilliance and experience, and did its best work.
I’m here to say everyone deserves more of that! But it almost an act of defiance in today’s busy, noisy and urgent world. It feels counter-cultural to be focused on one thing for an extend period of time and not checking what else is happening, or who you need to get back to right away.
Yet is incredibly valuable and rewarding. The quality of your work goes up. The time you waste on trivial work or things that aren’t important goes down. Work satisfaction and joy go up. Stres, overwhelm and feeling scattered go down. This is worth fighting for!
Finding Flow at Work
When Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied flow more than 30 years ago, his research found that state of “flow” or “being in the zone” was the most positive state that people experienced. Often rated higher than having sex!
Most of us have experienced a state of flow at different times in our lives. Often during sports or arts, particularly where we are highly proficient and moving towards mastery.
I’m sure you have also experienced it at work – that state of absorbed focus, where the world disappears around you and the work you are performing is very challenging, and yet your skill level is a perfect match. You were in that zone. And I can almost guarantee it felt good! Really good.
So how do we create more of that?
Tools to Experience More Focus, Flow and Joy at Work
Absorbed focus and flow aren’t accessible when you are multi-tasking, juggling multiple priorities, or easily distracted by other people, your environment or technology. It takes conscious intent to create the conditions for it to happen.
Here are five practical neuroscience-based hacks to set you up for your best focus and flow:
1. Prioritize Sleep. Focus and flow require serious mental energy. Even though your brain is only 2 percent of your body's weight, it uses 20 percent of the calories you consume. It is impossible to achieve high focus and sustained concentration without sleep. If you want a brain that can focus and find flow, sleep is where it starts.
2. Prioritize and Plan. If you don't prioritize this, no one else will. If you don’t plan for this, no one else will. Before you jump into your day, decide what is the Most Important Task for the day and decide when are you going to create a block of time to allow you to focus. #WorkFromHome as added new challenges, so your planning needs to include somehow creating a momentarily distraction free environment.
3. Focus – Drift – Shift. For many of us, the hardest part is getting started. Particularly if our brain has been bouncing around and jumping between tasks before your focus blocks. For others, it is sticking with it more than 15 minutes. Expect your mind to repeatedly ‘drift’ off of the focus. Then, practice noticing and shifting it back to the task rather than letting it be impulsive. Focus. Drift happens - expect it. Notice it and shift back quickly. Much like training a puppy, we say “Sit - Stay” many times before the puppy learns this.
4. Move. We have all heard that sitting is the new smoking. The reality is that after about 30 minutes, the blood flow to our brain begins to slow down. Brain cells need the oxygen, glucose and nutrients that the blood contains to function at their best. I set a timer and get up to move for 2 minutes every 30-40 minutes, knowing I’m giving my brain what it needs to stay alert and focused.
5. Meditate. To better manage the challenges related to “Focus – Drift – Shift” you will want to add a meditation practice. Meditation calms your nervous system and trains it to focus. It really is a two-for-one. The combination of these two yields a state of calm, yet alert focus, which is precisely what we need as we drop into focus or flow at work. Given how meditation helps both sleep and focus, it more than pays back the time invested in so many ways.
Yes, you know this already! And yes, you still hope that you can find focus and flow without giving your brain the conditions to do its best work. We all do. That is, until we develop strong habits.
That’s the work I do as a mindfulness coach and trainer – I give you the tools and accountability you need to create the habits.
How about you? What if your work culture was one that prioritized focus and flow? How would that affect performance? How would that affect attraction and retention of the best people? How would that affect joy at work!?
I’d love to hear where you are at and to share stories of what life can be like with a more focused mind. Please reach out to me at scott@mindfulwisdom.ca to find out more. Or try this 2-minute “Where’s Your Head At?” survey to get a sense of how you are doing these days.
Wishing you more focus, flow and joy in the days ahead!