Peak States for Peak Performance (Part 2)

Your Ultimate Flow Antagonist

Once again flow follows focus, so what is the number one flow killer? Distractions. Our world is overrun by technology and tactics to steal your attention and hack your dopamine triggers. This is why if you want to use the superpower of flow during your workday, you have to become in-distractible. 

We have to learn to manage our focus as peak performers, and this is especially true if you want to cultivate more flow in life. If you want to get in flow while working, carve out a daily time block of deep work, and protect it! This means it is only you and the task at hand, no other distractions, notifications, or opportunities for coworkers (or others) to walk into your office.

Research shows that we work best in bouts of deep focus for about 90 to 120 minutes. So carve out this block daily and use it to work on the most important task/project of the day. No checking email, social media, text messages, answering phone calls, or watching Youtube videos during your period of deep work. 

If we think back to the first stage of flow, the struggle phase, we understand that it is a necessary part of the process. We may sometimes find ourselves switching tasks because we do not want to push through the struggle phase. By giving into distraction and procrastination, we pull ourselves out of the flow cycle. 

This is why it is critical to understand that the urge to distract ourselves when we start a hard task is a part of the process. Push through the initial feelings of struggle, frustration, or wanting to multi-task and you will actually set yourself up to experience flow.

Make this deep work block your sacred time to get the most meaningful work done. Spend five minutes a day beforehand turning off all potential notifications and eliminating as many distractions as possible. Let your boss or coworkers know you are not to be disturbed during the deep work time (only in case of emergency). Set yourself up for success by creating an environment where nothing will steal your focus, and you will start to enjoy more flow while working.

Clarity Increases Flow

Just as important as it is to remove distractions, it is important to have clear goals. Immediate feedback and knowing what the objective is at the task at hand are critical triggers for flow. So having clear goals can help you get more flow.

Having clear goals lowers our cognitive load, which frees up the energy and focus we need to get past the struggle phase and into the release phase. By getting clear about every step needed to accomplish our goals, we set ourselves up to not have to think about what we are supposed to be doing, and instead get right into it. This is why writing out our goals is critical for peak performance.

A to do list is the simplest way to lower cognitive load. By getting things out of our heads and onto paper (or in an app on our phone), it not only sets us up for more flow, but also allows us to hack our dopamine triggers. Dopamine rewards risk and accomplishing challenges, so if we reward ourselves by crossing off our to-do list as we complete them during the day, we are getting a dopamine hit each time.

Challenge Skills Balance

The intersection of flow sits right in-between the challenge skills sweet-spot. What does that mean? Simply put, we have to get a little outside our comfort zone, with just the right amount of challenge to get into a deep flow state. 

If the task is perceived as not much of a challenge, we lose focus and drive. Or on the contrary, if the task is perceived to be way outside of our skillset or challenge capabilities, we get overwhelmed and won’t even start. When it comes to cultivating flow, we want to “bend, not snap” or be able to stretch our abilities without getting overwhelmed. This means we want to become aware, and learn how to turn up or turn down the knob of the perceived challenge to meet our current skills/abilities.

An example of this is writing a book. Maybe you break it down into the daily task of writing 500 words a day. After a couple months of this goal it starts to get easier, so that means it's time to turn up the challenge. Now push yourself to write 750 words in the same amount of time. 

It has been shown that all we need to do is increase the challenge by 4% to keep us in the sweet spot (once we have our baseline). This is how we fine tune ourselves to get into flow, and stay in flow on a more consistent basis. 

Flow = Fuel for the Flywheel

It turns out that the more flow you get in life, the more flow you get. Which is another way of saying that consistently getting into flow states will have a trickle down positive effect. This is why we want to intentionally schedule more flow into our lives, especially our highest flow activity.

What is your highest flow activity? You can discover this by thinking back to when you were younger, what activity you would naturally find yourself doing for the sake of doing it? It is usually that thing we have always consistently done throughout our lives, that gets us out of our heads and into our bodies. You can also use S.T.E.R. to take note of which activities are the easiest for you to experience all four categories.

Once you identify your highest flow activity, now it is time to get it on the calendar. Start with scheduling your highest flow activity (preferably separate from a work related activity) on a weekly basis, ideally 2-6 hours a week. This is the sweet spot of time to get yourself into a deep flow state and reap all the benefits that will overlap into your work week. Even if you are the busiest of executives, this is your time to recharge. Think of it as the fuel, or the kick needed to keep your flywheel spinning at a high velocity. 

Here is the ideal rhythm to schedule your highest flow activity that will keep you recharged and your flywheel spinning consistently at peak levels:

• Weekly: 2-6 hours
• Monthly: + 1 full day
• Quarterly: + 1 full weekend
• Annually: + 1 full week 

Real peak performance is being able to maintain a high output consistently, not only for short periods of time. Often when we get busy, it is easy to put off the things we know will make us feel better. In order to perform at your fullest potential, you must make time to blow off some stress, otherwise you will be setting yourself up for burnout. Intentionally scheduling more time on our calendar to get into flow will do this and more.  

Imagine having the confidence that you have the tools needed to blow off stress, and the fulfillment of doing your favorite activity, whether it's surfing or making music, on a regular basis. Now it takes grit in itself to stay committed to your flywheel of peak performance, but this is how you feel and perform your best on an ongoing basis.

The Peak Performance Formula

In life we never want to peak, but ultimately stay in a peak state of performance. We do this by understanding peak performance looks like a flywheel, and we must honor our biology if we want to feel and perform at our best. This means prioritizing and protecting our habits around the 8 legs of the flywheel: sleep, physical health (proper diet, hydration and exercise),  mental health (mindfulness and gratitude), active recovery protocols, clear goals and purpose, social support, and following your passion/curiosity. 

With the 8th peg being productivity, we want to remember the principles of the flow state so we can get more flow while working. Protect your deep work time and fight off all distractions. Manage your focus to push through the initial struggle phase so you can release and get into flow, and watch your performance skyrocket.

Make time on your calendar to get into flow to help you release stress and unlock the potent cocktail of feel good chemicals. Finally, make sure to do this on a rhythm, always pouring on gasoline on the flywheel, and you will watch yourself spinning at your peak velocity.

By surrendering to your biology, and amplifying your productivity with flow, you will embody your peak state of performance. Lastly, remember that you are capable of so much more than you know, so dream bigger, and be confident in your impossible pursuits, as now you have the ability to harness the power of peak states for peak performance.