The flow state is one of humankind’s highest modes of both being and doing: an exquisite marriage of peak experience and peak performance.
But like most prizes, its attainment demands sacrifice. To enter a flow state, we generally must first pass through a period of painstaking mental effort and intense concentration: what cardiologist Herbert Benson termed a “struggle phase.”
No pain, no gain. No struggle, no flow.
For example, to get into a writing flow, I must first pass through a writing struggle. I must do sustained, concentrated, hard work on a single writing project to get into a state of mind in which my ideas are sparking and my words are streaming.
To make it through the struggle phase and into flow, we must resist the temptation to evade or soften the necessary pain by interrupting the struggle: by “multitasking” or running after whims and distractions. Fragmenting our attention in this way will block our path to flow and lead us down the primrose path to aimlessness and anxiety. If the flow state had an entrance gate, it would bear the inscription: “Only devotees admitted. No dilettantes allowed.”
To guard against distraction and fortify my commitment to my struggle phases, I recently developed the following routine. Whenever I want to “buckle down” and “dig in” on a task that involves using my Mac, I run a software mini-program I created using Apple’s “Shortcuts” app. The “shortcut” automatically does the following:
It sets all my Apple devices to “Do Not Disturb,” which turns off notifications that might otherwise distract me
It starts a 20-minute timer using the Apple Clock app. My objective is to do absolutely nothing else but my one chosen task until the timer chimes. The Mac displays the timer in the system Menu Bar. Seeing that whenever I glance up on the screen reminds me that I’m supposed to be “struggling” and keeps me apprised of how much time I have left. When the timer goes off, if I feel like I need to struggle longer to get into flow, the Mac makes it quick and easy to repeat the timer without switching screens.
It sets my Mac’s color scheme to “Dark Mode.” This serves as a constant, immersive visual reminder to struggle and focus. The more I do this practice (and only this practice) in Dark Mode, the more my mind will automatically treat Dark Mode as a cue that triggers the habitual response of intensely concentrating.
The more I build this habit, the easier it will be for me to stick with the struggle, and the faster I will pass through the struggle phase and into flow.
If there is no struggle there is no progress.
— Frederick Douglass
All things are difficult before they are easy.
— Thomas Fuller