We’ve all been in flow, even if we didn’t call it that. Flow is a complete immersion in something where the challenge perfectly matches our skill level. A few things happen when we fall into flow state:
We lose track of time
We stop paying attention to the outside world and our own worries
We’re completely engrossed in the project we’re working on
At the end, our energy levels were as high or higher than when we started
We got our absolute best work done
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the pioneer of positive psychology, coined the term "flow" after discovering that people often felt happiest not while lounging on a beach, but while fully engaged in a challenging activity. In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, he writes about his experience studying artists, athletes, CEOs, and more. He found a common thread: during their best moments of performance and fulfillment, time faded, self-consciousness vanished, and everything just... flowed.
Why Flow State Matters
Getting into flow isn't just about feeling good. Research from McKinsey found that executives reported being up to 500% more productive when they're in flow. People who regularly spend time in flow state also report lower levels of burnout and higher job satisfaction.
Consider Frank Lloyd Wright, the legendary architect. He famously designed Fallingwater, one of his most iconic works, in a single two-hour session. After mulling it over in his mind for some time, he finally sprang into action when his client called to say he was on the way. That burst of focus, a flow state, produced a world class masterpiece.
Archimedes offers another fascinating example. Legend has it he was so engrossed in solving a geometry problem that he didn’t notice the Roman army had captured his city. When Roman soldiers entered his home, he confronted them, yelling his last words - "Do not disturb my circles!" They scuffled, and Archimedes was killed.
Archimedes was famously distraction-resistant, and that intense focus contributed to his many groundbreaking discoveries in mathematics, physics, and engineering, like his principle of buoyancy, early work on levers and pulleys, and ingenious war machines. Archimedes is a testament to how deep concentration can unlock world-changing ideas.
Fallingwater and Archimedes’ Principle may require genius, but flow doesn’t. Flow can be a child building a complex LEGO set, oblivious to the world. Or a software engineer debugging code for hours, only to look up and realize the day is almost over. Or even a gardener planting a row of carrots under the warm sun.
When you're in flow, your brain activity changes. The parts responsible for self-awareness and worry quiet down. Meanwhile, areas linked to reward and motivation light up. It’s not just an anecdotal experience—it's a neurochemical one that you can see with brain imaging.
In fact, flow might be one of the keys to thriving at work and in life. So what does it take to get into flow?
The Flow Formula
Unfortunately, I have bad news. Short of some very spooky experiments involving wires in the brain, nobody has quite figured how to summon flow on demand.
All we can do is put ourselves in an environment that allows it, and hope that it comes. To increase your chances of entering flow state, there are a few conditions that you can try to meet:
A balance of challenge and skill: The task should be tough enough to demand your full attention, but not so hard that it feels impossible.
Continuous feeling of progress: It helps to get feedback as you’re working that you’re accomplishing something as you go.
A sense of control: Flow isn’t about going where the universe takes you. You want to feel in command while you’re in flow.
Uninterrupted time: Distractions are the ultimate enemy of flow. Even a single ping can knock you out. And getting into flow takes time, so if you don’t have at least an hour, you probably won’t achieve it.
Meditation can help, too. People who regularly meditate are more likely to get into flow, thanks to their ability to calm their minds and focus attention. And increasing skill levels in an area can also help bring on flow state - Csikszentmihalyi’s research showed that the higher the skill level a practitioner had in their profession, the more likely they were to regularly experience flow.
Interruptions: The Flow Killer
Unfortunately, modern work life isn’t designed for flow, and as best we can tell, people are spending less time in flow state than ever. Microsoft research shows that the average knowledge worker experiences 259 interruptions a day. Emails, Slack and Teams messages, phone calls, and meetings constantly pull us out of focus.
And the cost? According to UC Irvine researcher Gloria Mark, it takes 23 minutes to fully resume working on a task after an off-topic interruption. Multiply that by the number of pings and pop-ups you face each day, and you're losing an estimated 2.1 hours daily—nearly five weeks of work per year to interruptions.
How we engineer flow prone state for our team
To combat interruptions and increase flow, we implemented a company-wide "maker time" at Boomerang. Everyone paused their inboxes, turned off Slack, and blocked off an entire afternoon free from meetings, once per week for deep, uninterrupted work. Because everyone had the same interruption-free schedule, there was no expectation to be responsive during that time. So people had the opportunity to create those blocks of time, and the encouragement to pick tasks that would be well suited for flow state and deep work.
We also try to batch as many meetings as possible into one day a week. That way, most of the team has enough schedule flexibility to create a lot of flow state opportunities. Meeting Thursday is always pretty tough, but Flow Friday often makes up for it.
Finally, one way our team taps into flow is through company hackathons. For the past several years, we've organized dedicated retreats designed specifically to foster deep focus and creative thinking.
We clear all our calendars from typical meetings and provide meals, a place to work, and a place to stay for everyone. We deliberately choose to work on projects that are a little bit more “weird” and creative than we’d normally get to in our every day work. By pairing those projects with long stretches of empty time, people consistently achieve remarkable breakthroughs and leave feeling energized and inspired.
Tip of the Week
If you don’t already have dedicated flow time in your schedule, carve out at least one uninterrupted two-hour block this week. Silence notifications, pause your inbox, and let your team know you’re focusing. Consider pairing this with a ritual to cue your brain—a specific playlist, a cup of tea, or a breathing exercise. And if you lead a team, set the example. Let others know when you're entering flow, and respect their focus blocks, too.
To learn more, listen to the full podcast episode.