Flow 🌊

Hello makers,

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As makers, there's a state of mind we enter into when completely absorbed in our work. All distractions fade away, our attention is focused, and time seems to slow down. This is our flow state, and it's when we're most productive. Getting into a flow state is critical, especially when our time is most precious.

Here are 5 tricks I use to quickly get into my flow state.
 

TL;DR

• Meditate to stay present

• Caffeinate to get amped

• Skillbox to flex one side of the brain at a time

• Background music to stay motivated

• Notifications off to avoid disruption

Pre-work Meditation

My mind is cluttered and continually racing. I'm constantly moving from idea to idea, going down rabbit holes of thought as I plan out how to build all the things I dream up. Meditation helps me to calm that down to a regular pace, and to stay in the present. Before starting any work, I make sure to have one solid meditation session to declutter all that noise. If you're new to meditation, try a guided meditation app like Headspace.
 

Tactical Coffee

The right amount of caffeine will trigger an incentive to get to work. Too little, and there's no effect at all. Too much, and anxiety overpowers initiative. But just the right amount of coffee can get me over any procrastination hump. Sometimes, just having something to sip while working is enough to keep going.
 

Skillboxing

Did I just coin a new term? 😂 As a generalist, I'm covering a lot of ground. A typical work-day might include logo design, some front-end programming, fixing DevOps issues, and wireframing an app concept. These require drastically different skillsets, and each uses different parts of the brain. Constantly changing back and forth between left-brain and right-brain tasks is disruptive. To maximize flow, I'll group similar tasks together into timeboxed chunks. For example, I'll front-load all the creative design-oriented tasks for the morning, then switch to the technical programming tasks in the afternoon. This lets one side of my brain max-out for some deep work before switching to the other.
 

Background Music

Headphones on, and music playing. I have eclectic taste, so depending on my mood there's no specific genre of music that gets me into the flow more than another. But often the most effective music is ambient in style. Definitely no talk radio or podcasts. Music in a foreign language works well. So does classical music. Or try the Minecraft Soundtrack.
 

Do Not Disturb

Disruptions are a flow state killer. Emails, Slack messages, and social app notifications all bring you away from the task at hand. I keep all my social on my phone, away from my workstation. I set my computer to Do Not Disturb, and don't check email or Slack for 25 minutes at a time. Then, I'll allow 5 minutes to respond to anything that requires a response, and it's back to work. It's a bit like The Pomodoro Technique, but without the full-on break.

What helps you get into your flow state? Reply, and let me know!

Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌

Hit reply to tell me what you're making. I'm looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you'd like to appear in Serial Maker. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. And don't forget to continue the conversation on Discord!

Until next week,

Craig