The importance of 'flow'

‘Flow’ as a mental state

I think I first came across this idea in the late 90’s in the wonderful book on productivity by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister “Peopleware”. 'Flow' is the idea that when we start working on something, it can take fifteen to twenty minutes to get into the ‘flow’ and then when you get to that state of attention you can hold it for a long time and keep working without a break for hours. The focus of your attention could be anything. For DeMarco and Lister, in their book, the content was programming and software development, but the idea applies equally to any knowledge worker artefact and deliverable.

One of the key ideas is that it takes a lot of time to get into the ‘flow’, but your flow can be broken very quickly – in fact in seconds. So it is important to set yourself up for success when you are in the zone and remove distractions.

Which of course brings us to a challenge…

Flow and open plan office space

I have often felt that our open plan offices are the enemy of flow and I can remember back in the late 2000’s preparing a ‘flow’ one pager for my team that we stuck up around our workspace to remind everyone of the value of being in this state of attention – and allowing our work colleagues to achieve it too without distraction.

This is one reason why for years I haven’t logged into the company ‘chat’ system. Chat systems are the enemy of flow because if I trigger a chat, I don’t know what my colleague was doing at that time. Maybe I’ve just massively distracted them and broken a line of thinking that they were deeply embedded within. And equally people trigger a ‘chat’ with me don’t know if I’m in the middle of something too. Of course you can set your status to ‘do not disturb’, but that is rarely done (maybe its an idea for all of us?).

It is also why I try and catch people in the office when they are already distracted and between activity – and why I ask people around me to try and do this for me too. (And my apologies for people who read this and can remember a time I broke their flow. I try hard not to, but sometimes it is inevitable)

Footnote: open plan offices prioritise engagement and interaction, so whilst they are the enemy of flow, they do have a purpose and intention. We just need to recognise what it is (and by inference what it isn’t).

More recent reading on ‘flow’

I have been reading “A world without email” by Cal Newport and one of the big ideas within it is ‘flow’:

“… the more you’re able to complete one thing at a time, sticking with a task until done, before moving on to the next, the more efficiently and effectively you’ll work”

His suggestion is to ensure that knowledge workers have the mental space and lack of distraction to concentrate on the task at hand. Doing this will create a more efficient work environment and increase productivity.

And in line with the title of his book, it is helpful to find ways of doing this without email getting in the way.

Why? Because email is a classic source of distraction for your attention. You were working on one specific topic, but an email on a different topic suddenly appears (“Squirrel!”) and your attention is distracted to the new topic. Your flow is broken and you have to re-engage to get back to where you were.

And now in lockdown again

As we have started another lockdown in Sydney, I have been wondering whether 'flow' is why some people have appreciated the experience of working from home and it’s also why there is anecdotal feedback of people feeling more productive when working from home. That is, because of the lower level of distractions at home (for some people), they are ‘in the flow’ more often when they are at home than in the office. And therefore they are getting more done.

However, the corollary is also true. For people with a high-distraction environment at home (e.g. with younger children, especially if they are doing online learning), they yearn to come into the office to get a break and be able to get some work done. And the irony is that with fewer people in the office, anyone who is there has a lovely peaceful environment with far lower levels of distraction!

Putting it into practice

So my questions are:

• What are you doing to protect your ‘flow’ when you need to achieve it?
• What steps can you take to respect the ‘flow’ for others around you?

Feel free to share your ideas in comments and let’s see if we can build some great ideas for making our individual and collective productivity stronger than it is today.

Footnote: And in case you were wondering, I wrote this article by giving myself the time (without distraction) to focus on it and keep working on it until it was completed. A micro-example of flow in action.

Footnote on the photo:

The photo for this story is one I have personally taken, whilst on a Ken Duncan course. That’s a longer story. The photo is of one of the minor feeds into the Somersby Falls in Gosford, just north of Sydney. The ‘falls’ are small, especially by global standards, but a professional like Ken Duncan makes the whole experience amazing. You can see his work here www.kenduncan.com