TED:Ideas "The Key to Productivity is Tapping into your Flow State. Here's how."

Your flow state is when you feel completely at ease and lost in a task, leaving your sense of time and even identity behind.  It was first described by psychology researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, where it is an optimum state often associated with professional athletic performances or professional musicians.  However, it is a state of mind available to everybody according to Diane Allen, a violinist turned flow state expert.  She describes a process of identifying when you are naturally in your flow state, then paying attention to the physical and emotional steps it took to get there.  The goal is to learn how to enter the flow state at other times, to apply it to other tasks.  Other people may find their natural flow states to be a variety of activities, but Allen cautions against thinking about passive activities like reading a book or binge-watching shows as flow state because you lose sense of time.  Flow state is achieved when you are actively doing something.  Two main points are that anyone can achieve a flow state, and that it can also be contagious, inspiring others through example.  The article also links Allen’s video which details additional information about flow strategies.

https://ideas.ted.com/the-key-to-productivity-is-tapping-into-your-flow-state-heres-how/