Flow

 The Flow State

Cooking, snowboarding, skiing, spikeball, surfing, lifting weights, running, and backpacking—those are activities where I feel like I am in a state of flow. I learned about flow in my Science of Peak Performance class at USC, taught by Professor Glenn Fox. Glenn Fox brought in a guest speaker who is an expert in flow, named Matt Dubin. According to Dubin, who is the co-founder of the Venn Collective and a pioneer in the study of flow, "flow is the state of frictionless peak performance." In other words, it's where you are "in the zone." There are three preconditions of flow: having a clear goal (knowing what you're working towards), gaining immediate feedback from the task itself, and having a balance between challenge and skill. I'm going to go over two things in this post. First, activities where I feel like I am in a state of flow, and second, how you can find your own flow.

As someone that naturally likes to be busy and active, my flow state occurs when I'm doing something active and adventurous (mainly outdoors). Ever since I was young, I have loved doing things outdoors and staying busy. When I was little, baseball was the sport where I felt like I was in the zone; that evolved into skiing in the last few years of high school. Now, there are a multitude of activities where I feel like I'm in the flow state. Snowboarding is one—the feeling of carving on the snow, the sound of the powder under my snowboard, and the struggle to make the perfect S-turn on a tough slope. Lifting weights is another—I don't think there's another activity where I am more "in the zone" than when I'm lifting weights. All I can think about is trying to get another rep in, block out all other distractions, and simply lift. Cooking is the most recently discovered activity where I feel like I'm in the flow state—time goes by so fast when I'm cooking one of my favorite dishes. It's the art of adding the right ingredients to a dish at the right time partnered with knowing you're about to eat the meal that smells so good as you're making it. I feel like I'm in the zone and am completely absorbed in the process of creating something delicious; the physical motions involved in cooking can be soothing and therapeutic as well. 

It's important to find your state of flow as flow correlates with peak performance. According to one expert, "These peak experiences are often due to the total attention focus, coupled with a lack of self-consciousness. This then enables people to be more productive while using less energy" (Campbell). Matt Dubin listed six research backed strategies to find flow. 

1. Identify your preferences and peak creative & productive times
1. Ex: morning person: do independent activities in the morning
2. Create mechanisms for self-feedback for yourself and others
3. Be present and focused on interactions and meetings (flow is contagious)
4. Be incredibly intentional about your calendar 
1. Avoid staggered meetings (better to have meetings stacked together then do something else—fragmenting time and attention creates fatigue)
   
5. Have your pre-flow rituals
6. Being well = performing well
1. Take care of your mental and physical health 
2. Seek flow outside of work as well
3. Try to be more intentional with your activities (makes you more energized)

The flow state is a deeply satisfying and enjoyable experience that can help to increase our overall happiness and well-being. Find your flow.