I love to be in the flow state. When I am there, time flies, tasks gets done, and I am filled with heightened sense of self-fulfillment and productivity.
In the past, flow state found me once in a blue moon. I was not able to control it. I am happy to say that now, after some time observing the flow, I can recreate flow state when I want to. This new-found power gives me a special tool to unlock productivity and creativity every day.
For those that don’t know, a flow state, “also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”
Flow state is essential to one’s productivity and creativity. But how can we get to the flow state often? How can we practice better focus on one activity?
When I first started law school, I used the Pomodoro method often to better focus. I would do 25-minute of focus, 5-minute break for a block of 3-4 hours a day to do the case law reading. I struggled with reading cases at the beginning due to the volume and the difficulty of the text. Most of the time, I got lost in the text and couldn’t decipher the main idea and the big picture. The legalese writing style made it even more difficult for me to focus. I would sit at my desk all weekend reading, and most often not able to finish the assigned reading.
But now, I am doing a bit better.
I don’t need Pomodoro anymore to focus.
It is partly because I got better at reading cases after a lot of trials and errors. I had learnt to read by paragraph now instead of reading by sentence. I also formulated a colour coding system for case reading. I found an app called MarginNote for pdf file reading assistance. It captures my highlighted notes into an outline and a MindMap allowing me to capture the relationships between ideas in a case.
Another good habit I found is to practice mindfulness while reading or doing a task. In the past, whenever I sat down reading, I often got interrupted by other tasks on my to-do list. I would never be able to 100% be in a task. Practice mindfulness in doing a task increases my productivity that way. Keeping my floating thoughts at bay or in a notebook helps me with my mindfulness so journalling or blogging are my go-to activities for when my minds are logged up.
I find that focusing is such an essential skill in work, life, and career. And better focus comes with practice and mindfulness. I am so at ease now knowing that I can focus on a task with 100% me better than before. I am so at ease that I am better at controlling and creating a flow state than before.
Other little things that help me with focus are:
- my noise cancelling headphone!
- decluttering and organizing information and material things
- taking care of my health
- learning more about myself (self-awareness)
Good luck, friends! Flow is such a great state to be in and I hope you find your formula if you haven’t yet!
Thao
#Day24 #30DayWritingChallenge