Steven,

As we always say at the Flow Research Collective; focus drives flow.

Without focus, all hope of getting into flow is lost.

What breaks focus?

Distraction.

Beeps, buzzes, pings, dings, blurbs, smurps.

You know what we’re talking about:

Finally, you’re ready to start working on something important.

But, then your phone pings you…

You get sucked in by a new text that causes you to check your email.

Then, you get lost in email for fifteen minutes, finally, you’re ready to re-start work again…

But then a colleague comes over urgently needing something.

And around and around we go.

It’s like your mind is constantly caught between modes; wanting to focus, but never being given the chance to.

So how do you guard against the distraction frenzy that is the 21st century?

I’m glad you asked.

Here are three tips you can use to eliminate distraction, amp up focus, and unlock flow:

1—Ignoring Is An Active Process:

Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscience professor at UCSF and member of the Flow Research Collective advisory board has done a lot of the foundational research on distraction.

His work shows that there are two big elements to focus; attending and ignoring.

The attending bit is the bit you’re probably already aware of.

It’s you “trying to focus”.

The ignoring bit is what we underestimate.

In the same way that noise cancelling headphones have their battery drained by cancelling out noise in the environment, your brain spends cognitive resources “ignoring” what’s going on around you.

The big point here is that even if you feel like you can focus just fine, distracting stimuli in your environment is likely sapping your attention.

Point is; get your phone out of sight, work in a quiet area and be ruthless about blocking all distractions in your environment. They’re distracting you even if you’re not aware of it!

2—Focus Is The Ability To Suppress Spontaneity:

Another of our good friends and advisors, Dr. Andrew Huberman Stanford neuroscientist, points out in his work that focus is merely the ability to resist the urge to indulge in spontaneous behavior.

Checking a text message, flicking through Instagram, eating when you’re not even hungry.

All of those things are spontaneous actions that don’t contribute to your predetermined goals.

When you resist all of these impulses the end product—what you’re left with—is focus.

But… as Dr. Huberman pointed out, all spontaneity is not bad. After all, creativity is spontaneity with a purpose. The key is just to let that creative spontaneity emerge AFTER a period of deep focus, when you’re already in flow.

3—Carve Out Your Flow Blocks:

Every day should include at least ninety minutes in your schedule that is carved out for your highest priority work.

This time should be free of all distractions.

No phone, email, Youtube, Instagram or even speaking with a coworker.

It needs to be sacred.

It’s your time to drop into flow and knock out your biggest task.

Get this “flow block” on your calendar and make it an absolute non negotiable.

Hope these tips are helpful in your battle against distraction!

Tomorrow we’ll be tackling self sabotage, it’s a juicy one so make sure you tune in.

Rooting for you,

Steven Kotler & The Flow Research Collective

Steven,

You’re making progress towards your goals, ultra consistent, good week after good week and then…

BAM!

You derail yourself.

Binge eating, procrastination, shirking responsibilities—whatever it is—we’ve all tripped ourselves up on route to our goals.

Self sabotage is frustrating as hell.

While there may be deeper psychological issues going on, what helps our clients with self sabotage is understanding that consistency itself is a high performance skill.

The aim of the game is not having all your habits and practices flawlessly dialed in all the time.

Consistent execution is key.

In fact, when it comes to producing results, consistency often matters more than what you’re actually doing.

Imagine working out flawlessly, five days a week for a month straight, then taking a month off and derailing your diet and repeating this cycle for an entire year.

Now imagine working out twice per week. Every week, for an entire year.

The latter option involves 156 less total workouts than the month on, month off approach.

But I’ll bet you’d end up with much better results with twice a week workouts all year long.

The difference?

Consistency.

I like to think of consistency as “keeping your word to yourself”.

Make doing what you’ve said you’re going to do a non-negotiable. Over time your consistency will improve.

When it comes to notching up consistency, avoiding perfectionism is crucial.

The pursuit of perfection all too often cripples performance.

Think back to some time where you’ve been doing great and then slacked off and “messed up your day”.

All too often, instead of just getting back on track quickly, we write off the entire day.

A naughty bite of cake becomes a ferocious feast.

We derail all plans and declare the entire day a failure—simply because some arbitrary notion of perfection was taken off the table.

This is the behavioral equivalent of getting a slight crack in your iPhone screen and then taking out a hammer and smashing the screen to pieces because it’s no longer perfect.

What helps with this?

A cognitive reframe:

The idea that your success is equal to the average of your default day.

When you think of it like that, having a 6/10 non-perfect day is a hell of a lot better than throwing the towel in entirely.

So next time you go to self sabotage because you haven’t been perfect, remember that decent always beats bad.

Do your best to stay consistent.

Tomorrow, we’re going to be tackling the next flow blocker—uncertainty.

Stay tuned.

Rooting for you,

Steven Kotler

“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” — Seneca

That’s right Steven, we’re talking about clarity today.

More specifically how to deal with a lack of clarity.

Also known as uncertainty.

Uncertainty creeps in everywhere, all the time.

We’re uncertain about what task to do next or how to spend the rest of the day.

We’re uncertain about what the next six months should look like in our business or professional life.

Ultimately, all too many of us are pretty damn uncertain about the direction we want our lives to take.

The issue is that this uncertainty paralyzes us and blocks us from flow.

Being clear on where you want to go, and exactly how you’re going to get there, is incredibly important for flow.

Without clear goals, we can’t direct our attention.

We get stuck in analysis mode.

The prefrontal cortex—the part of our brain that drives complex cognitive behavior like decision making—is overactive.

The brain is busier trying to determine what direction to go than it is actually moving forward in any given direction.

The good news is, this is very solvable.

You don’t need to map out your destiny in great detail to harness the benefits of clarity.

You just need to pick a direction and move.

The key point here is that when it comes to achieving peak performance, it’s better to move forward in the wrong direction than to stay static and avoid moving forward at all.

At the Flow Research Collective, we teach clarity as a triple threat clarity stack.

It involves setting goals at three levels—your Massively Transformative Purpose, your High-Hard Goals, and your Clear Goals.

Step 1: Pick A Massively Transformative Purpose:

This is your north star.

An aspirational, infinite endpoint that you want your life to be pointed at.

Dig into a mission or a cause that you’re passionate about and pick something that resonates.

Don’t dither. Again—better the wrong thing than no-thing.

Having an overarching goal that you’re passionate about will drive norepinephrine and dopamine into your system.

These are two of the brain’s most powerful neurochemicals for focus.

Remember, more focus equals more flow.

Step 2: Set Some High Hard Goals:

These goals are long-term, but not infinite.

They should be specific and measurable. Think big and set them to be between 1 and 3 years out.

Ideally, these high hard goals all converge into your Massively Transformative Purpose.

Let’s say, for example, that my Massively Transformative Purpose is to protect animals, plants, and ecosystems.

A high hard goal may be to write a book on environmental awareness in three years and to launch a conference on animal rights in one year.

Now the key is that I map these out somewhere that I can clearly see them, and then start pointing my daily activities at achieving these big goals.

Step 3: Set Daily Clear Goals:

When it comes to getting in to flow, this type of goal setting is the most crucial.

Every day you should derive clear goals from your 1-3 year out high hard goals.

These are the hyper-specific action steps, to be completed daily that will inch you toward your high-hard goals (which will ultimately realize your Massively Transformative Purpose).

You can never be too clear with your clear goals.

Excessive detail is encouraged.

The clearer you are about what a task involves, the less you have to engage in high level prefrontal cortex dominant activities and the more easily you’ll be able to slip deep into flow.

So go ahead, grab a pen and paper and try out this stack.

Pick a Massively Transformative Purpose. Lock in some 1-3 year high hard goals. Then decide on exactly what you’re going to do today to start inching forward.

You can course correct on route. For now, just lock in on a direction and move.

Tomorrow I’ll be showing you how to dodge burnout. Stay tuned.

Rooting for you,

Steven Kotler & The Flow Research Collective Team

P.S. If you consider yourself a high performer but are in the midst of a career transition or are craving more direction, consider applying for Zero to Dangerous.

It’s our flagship peak performance training and you’ll work one on one with a PhD level psychologist to help you get crystal clear on where you’re going in the short, medium, and long term.