As I wrote last week:
Recently, my morning routine has started with writing an essay as soon as possible, before doing any other mental work.
I was inspired to do this by a video in which Rian Doris recommends diving into difficult and meaningful work as soon as possible upon waking in order to get into a flow state. As Doris explains, “flow proneness” is highest right after waking, so it makes sense to take full advantage of that daily cognitive peak.
Although I found Doris’s argument persuasive, I balked at fully implementing his advice at first. I thought it was too hard to do hard work (like writing) immediately upon waking. “I’m too groggy at that point,” I reasoned. “I need to give my brain a chance to wake up first.”
So, I started with something easier: reading one of my current books first thing in the morning. I figured that consuming good writing would be a natural prelude to producing it: that getting into reading mode would help me ramp up and ease into writing mode.
But the results were disappointing. As I wrote in my earlier post, by the time I finished reading:
…I generally wouldn’t have enough fresh energy and remaining time to really get into writing. As a result, my morning writing became more of a chore and a box to check than a source of inspiration and a way to prime my day.
I have since realized that trying “ease into” a flow state is a backwards approach. Flow is the stage where things get easy. But to reach that plateau, we first have to climb a steep grade. As my high school cross-country coach once told me and my teammates, work has to be hard before it can get easy.
Flow is something that happens cyclically. The flow state is one stage of a four-stage “flow cycle,” first described by Harvard cardiologist Herb Benson. And a necessary preliminary to the “Flow” stage is something called the “Struggle” stage.
Struggle, as Doris explained in another video:
…is a loading phase. It’s when you first start a task and the neurochemistry involved—which is cortisol and norepinephrine—kind of makes you squirm. The discomfort causes us to want to avoid the task to relieve ourselves of the discomfort and distract ourselves.
The sad truth is that most people spend their entire careers dropping in and out of the first few minutes of the struggle phase. They never persist long enough to get into flow. They're an inch deep into work forever. So start by getting great at persisting through the struggle phase. (…)
As you persist, your brain increases dopamine, enhancing focus and motivation, finally popping you out of struggle… and into the flow state itself .
Humans need a struggle to precipitate flow. And the sooner we start the struggle, the sooner we start flowing.
By delaying my initial daily struggle (my morning writing), I was delaying my entry into flow and limiting the extent to which I can benefit from my waking peak of flow proneness.
So, I changed up my morning routine by front-loading the writing phase. Now I begin my day by jumping into the fray without delay: plunging straight into battle with “the tyranny of the blank page.”
I may be groggy when I start, but engaging in a stimulating struggle wakes me up faster than easier tasks like reading. As I hammer away at my rough draft, I’m also hammering my thinking into shape.
And although struggle is inherently uncomfortable, the joyful and fruitful flow that follows is worth it. When I persist long enough in hard, focused writing, soon enough it becomes fluid, fascinating, and fun.
If there is no struggle there is no progress.
— Frederick Douglass
All things are difficult before they are easy.
— Thomas Fuller