“Don’t Force It” and Other Tips to Achieve a Flow State
Adam Goldberg, a software engineer at Belvedere Trading, spoke with Built In Chicago to give his take on achieving a flow state.
How do you personally get into a flow state?
There are two key blockers that prevent me from regularly getting into my groove, and if I can eliminate them, I’m much more productive. One is context switching. Whether that other task is more important is irrelevant — I’ve just shifted my focus and am no longer invested in what I was working on. When I’m in a flow state, I have the energy to quickly look at something else without getting distracted, so I do. What’s the big deal about looking at something else for five minutes? Then, a chat pops up, then an email, and I’ve lost all my momentum. To get into the flow, Microsoft Teams notifications are silenced, and I have zero meetings on my calendar.
The second blocker is too many known unknowns when I know I don’t have the full picture. If my universe of known unknowns is too large, I can’t get into a groove. Clarifying every unknown may require too much context switching. It also means I can’t draw a clear roadmap to accomplish a task, and without a roadmap, it’s easy to put together a solution that needs to be refactored later when other dependencies are introduced.
What tips or advice do you have for others who might be struggling to get in the zone?
Don't force it. Sometimes we mistake productivity as binary. You’re either locked in or you’re getting nothing done. The harder I try to get in the zone, the more stress builds up that I’m not being productive.
It’s important to time-box what you’re working on. Set a deadline, whether that is 20 minutes or four hours. A deadline will keep you on track and let you reevaluate whether you’re making meaningful progress at the end. Time boxing doesn’t necessarily help you get in the zone, but it helps you assess how important a task truly is and allocate resources appropriately.
Lastly, try to set expectations with your team about your dedicated focus time to reduce context switching. It can be stressful to not respond to chats or emails from other team members right away since you don’t want to be a bottleneck for their productivity. My team has a clause in our Team Agreement that says, “Do not disturb means no immediate response. You can expect a response within three to four hours of the working day.” Problem solved.
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