Evan Carmichael explains that flow can't be forced, but you can set conditions for it: clear your schedule, take 90-minute focused blocks with 15-minute breaks, and move your body. When flow hits, drop everything else and finish the work immediately.
How to get in a state of flow? It's a question I got from one of my readers, Donald. Donald? No, Chu. Or Chu Donald. Anyway, it's a great question. I wrote an email and I created a video on flow and the importance of it and how crucial it is for your business when you recognize you're in a state of flow. And that's when things are going right, you know, it feels right, the project you're working on. You have to keep going with it. It's so important because this is where the genius is going to come from. And when you try to force something, it doesn't work. I don't know if there's a way to deliberately create flow, because if you try to force flow, it's not going to happen, right? But what you can do is give yourself the conditions to create something amazing. Being in a state of flow is like creating art, or it's like being very creative. You know, if you come down on people and say, "Okay, we're gonna have a brainstorming session, everybody meet here, we're gonna be creative right now," you don't get great ideas. Because you can't force creativity. You can't force flow, in my opinion. But you can give yourself the conditions that will best lead to flow. Here's what I find super helpful: I give myself freedom. Again, when you try to force something, okay, now I want to get into the state of flow, it's probably not going to happen. And when you're stressed out, when you're under pressure, when you have deadlines coming up, then it's also really hard to get into flow because you've got something crunching down on you. I try to build a business that is not reactionary. I tried to build a no-pressure company so that myself and the people on my team are free to explore, are not crunched down just putting out fires all the time. That's most companies, right? You're just putting out one fire, that's done, you go another fire, and you never spend any time actually growing your business. So you want to try to reduce those numbers of fires, free up your time, allow you to focus on bigger picture stuff. When you freed up your schedule, you freed up your time, you freed up space in your mind, It allows for creativity to enter. It allows you to get into the state of flow. And when you get there, you have to run with it. If I'm in flow, if I'm really feeling something, if I'm in the zone on something I'm working on, I push everything else that I'm doing. I'll cancel meetings, I'll push appointments, I'll push deadlines on things because I need to finish what I'm doing. Because if I don't finish it now, it's going to take me 10 times as long on another day, and it won't be as good. If I ride with this genius right now, what I'm going to end up with is amazing. And as entrepreneurs, we don't get into flow that often, right? It's not like every day you're in flow. If you're riding a week of great flow, you are lucky. A lot of times we are stuck forcing ourselves to do something, and that's important for our business, but the real growth is going to come when you are in that state of flow. It starts by opening up your schedule. So leave time every day for what I call CEO time. This is where there's nothing assigned. You're going to work on something to grow your business, but you don't have a fixed project or something that you have to get done. Take breaks often. I like to break my, my day into 90-minute chunks and then take 15-minute breaks in between. And I'll go outside, go for a walk, whatever it is, just clear my head. And taking those breaks refreshes my mind. Do something active, physical. I love salsa dancing. I do that 20 hours a week, and I get most of my best ideas, most of my creative ideas, when I'm not in the office sitting down in front of my computer. Maybe I'm the strange one, but if you're like me, then you've got to get out. You know, you get your ideas when you're in the shower, you get your ideas when you're, you're going for a walk, when you're doing some kind of physical activity, when you're on vacation, when you're relaxing. How many times did you go away on a vacation and come back with a million different ways to grow your business? The next big idea to help you take off because you were relaxed and not under huge amounts of pressure. So again, I don't think you can force flow. You can't say, "Flow, right now, bring it, we're gonna do something." But you can create the conditions that will bring it out to the best of your abilities. And it starts with having as open a schedule as possible and having a no-crisis business. Believe. If you guys like this video, please leave a thumbs up below. Thank you for the great question, and if you have a question for your company, leave a comment. I'll do a video response. I love seeing you guys. I love answering your questions. It makes my Wednesday every week when I sit down here and I'm recording these videos. I love hearing from you. Please leave something below. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
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