The Productive Solopreneur Series | How to Get Into a State of Ultimate Productivity

A flow state is an almost-mythic state of superhuman performance and focus. 

In a flow state, people are said to perform their very best work, to see creative insights that would otherwise be lost to them, to focus for hours on end, and even to enjoy a feeling of euphoria!

But this is no myth. 

The flow state is a very real psychological phenomenon that has been written about by countless psychologists and neuroscientists. And it is something that anyone can tap into if they want to get more work done and produce a higher standard of output.

Here’s how you can tap into the flow state as a solopreneur.

Learning to Flow

There are countless tips out there for getting into flow states, which include such things as filing your room with stimulating materials, using the precise cocktails of caffeine and l-theanine, etc.

In truth though, there is nothing truly magical about the flow state. The flow state simply occurs when all other brain chatter falls away. 

This is something that anyone can achieve, but... 

It takes time. 

Nobody can sit down and find themselves in an immediate state of perfect focus! So instead, you need to force yourself for those first 40 minutes.

Too many people feel distracted during the first 30 minutes that they attempt to work and then stop because they assume it’s going to feel that way (or they think it won’t hurt to take a 2-minute break). 

In truth though, if you PUSH THROUGH the initial resistance by forcing yourself to only focus on the matter at hand, your brain will eventually get the hint.

And this is something that then starts to come more quickly and easily with time. 

So consider this a skill to develop, rather than a magical state to somehow “stumble upon.”

Finding the Right Type of Work

With that said, the right type of work will make it much easier to get into a flow state. 

For example, video editing and coding are much easier to get stuck into because they involve an instant feedback loop. This provides a kind of dopamine hit that makes it easier to focus.

You can achieve this with other types of work by finding ways to create landmarks and rewards for the work you’re doing – or by making it more visually pleasing.

Most important of all though? 

Find ways to make the work engaging in its own right: find ways to make it inherently rewarding.

Ideally, this means working on things that you find exciting and that you have a true passion for. 

Thankfully, this is easier for the solopreneur who gets to design their own business model than it is for anyone else!

But sometimes there will still be work that you need to do that is going to be less than thrilling. Your job then is to find ways to make it more thrilling.

For example, if you are tasked with writing 5,000 words on a topic that you don’t find interesting, you can make it easier to stay focussed by finding an angle on that subject that you do find interesting. Is there a way that you can relate to what you’re writing? Is there a way to tie it into another topic that you find more exciting?

At the end of the day, perseverance is the key to getting into a state of flow. 

It will take time to learn this skill as all-new skills take time…

But it will be worth the effort.