Description: Klevis is a graduate from Kings College University specialising in biochemistry. In this article, he shares 5 tips on how to achieve ‘flow’ and avoid feelings of distraction and procrastination. How exactly does one focus on being in quality study mode as opposed to being reactive to other stimuli that may pull our attention away from studying?
In his 2016 book “Deep Work”, author and computer science professor Cal Newport describes his ideal method for attaining the state of “Flow” while studying or working on a task. Flow, a term popularised by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, is the state of hyperfocus, determination and calm we feel when engaged in cognitively or physically demanding activities. It is the feeling of “being in the zone” or “lost in the work”, which we can slip into during a particularly complex or enjoyable task, or if it is required from us through pressure and time constraints.
Getting lost in your thoughts while cooking or driving, yet still performing to a high standard, exercising or playing a sport while completely tuned in, practicing an instrument and playing well, yet never having to think about it too hard; all Flow states. When your deadline or exam is only a few days away, Flow lets you slip into that panic-zone of rushed yet effective work; learning faster, thinking deeper and remembering more.
What if we could slip into Flow regularly and on demand? How much could we achieve if we were able to work at the last-minute-deadline level every day, except without the stress and panic?
Cal Newport tells us that the top professionals in their field regularly enter Flow by choice, and that the difference between an Amateur and Professional is the amount of hours spent in “Deep Work” each day. He gives us some methods on turning this Deep Work on, and tells us how we can train our Deep Work to last longer and be more frequent.
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Avoid Shallow Work
The number 1 enemy of Deep Work, Newport tells us, is the intrusion of Shallow Work into our scheduled learning time. Shallow Work normally takes the form of checking and replying to emails, attending meetings, making schedules and timetables, and easy, low-reward but high satisfaction tasks that make us feel like we’re working but actually does nothing to get the main task (in our case, studying) done.
In order to slip into Deep Work, all shallow work must be either dealt with or paused before we can begin. Newport suggest scheduling times for us to do our Shallow and Deep work; he likes to leave his Shallow work until the end of the day, after he is all burnt out doing the hard stuff. I personally find I can do my Deep Work much better in the morning, so I make it a rule to not even touch my emails or social media until I’ve at least banged out an hour worth of deep revision.
2. Avoid Fragmentation and Social Media
Flow takes a while to slip into, often you need to warm up into it, but once you’re there, you can quickly get lost in the thrill and speed and find 2 or 3 hours have passed by without noticing it. If time is flying by, and everything around you has been blocked out, you know you’re in a state of Deep Work.
However, this fragile state can easily be shattered. Like a musical song, Flow requires harmony, if and if it is interrupted by discord, it can be hard to slip back into it again. You may find you need to warm up again, or that you can’t go back to what you were at before.
What’s the biggest culprit for shattering a Flow state? By far and away, social media.
Simply one notification on your mobile, a Facebook popup, a text message or even an email can be enough pull you away from Deep Work and break the Flow completely. You may think it may be harmless to “just quickly check or reply”, but in fact, this simple pause is enough to fragment your attention, and break it up into little pieces. Deep Work only works as long block, and once you break that block up into chunks, you can no longer get the momentum and speed needed to power through.
Newport suggest locking yourself away from ALL social media during your scheduled Deep Work sessions; put your phone into another room, and don’t even log into Facebook or Twitter before you start. Even when taking a break, 5 minutes for example, checking social media during this pause Is enough to fragment your attention and slip out of your previous zone. If you take a break, get up out of your seat and walk around for a while, make a coffee, have a quick chat with your family, but do not let yourself get caught up in Instagram scrolling or Reddit browsing.
3. Start with a clear head
One of the problems of starting your day with Shallow Work, or Social Media browsing is that it leaves residual attention for those tasks trapped in your head when you attempt to Deep Work. If you open an email that says something exciting or concerning but you cannot immediately deal with, it will be playing on your mind while you study, if you saw a big family announcement on Facebook or important world news before you begin studying, your time will be fragmented as these things pop up now and again in your head, begging to be focused on and as an easy and cheap distraction from your more demanding task.
As a rule, avoid stimulating yourself with anything too early in the day, and leave that all for the evening, once you’ve actually earned your cheap dopamine fixes. My rule is that when I switch my laptop on the first thing I open is my study notes and lecture resources; I do not “quickly check” my emails or facebook, as this can lead to a large rabbit hole and 3 hours later I find myself having not studied, and already too burnt out to study effectively.
4. High Intensity Interval Studying
Flow can’t last forever, and trying to force yourself to continue to work when you’ve used up your cognitive energy reserves won’t yield results, and in fact will be detrimental to your learning. Many professional writers, artists and scientists actually spend no more than 2-4 hours a day at their craft; but when they are working, they quickly and easily slip into Deep Work and tackle their jobs with efficiency and power. 2 hours of intense focus will always beat 8 hours of slow and fragmented studying. You will take in more, operate quicker and understand far easier. Schedule your Deep Work studying to be the first thing you do each morning, straight after breakfast, before checking your Instagram, and you’ll see yourself immediately slip into Flow and 2 hours will go by like nothing.
Eventually, you will fall out of Flow, once you begin making many typos, or your mind starts to wander too much, or more stuff won’t go in, and then it’s okay to stop studying. After that you have the rest of the day off, you can use it for your other hobbies or relaxing, or you can even slip in another 2 hour session later in the afternoon, but anything past 4 hours and you’re hitting diminished returns. Short, steady bursts are much more effective than long hauls.
The pareto principle tells us that 80% of results come from 20% of the work, whether that be profits from customers, portfolio investment returns, or knowledge gained through studying. Only 20% of your deep study will actually be internalised and impact your final exam, so to be more efficient, realising that less is more when studying, can yield the same or better results, and free up a lot of otherwise wasted time.
5. Avoid self sabotage
It can be easy to tell yourself you’ve worked for 30 mins and can do with checking your group chat for a few seconds; but be warned; this is the lazy trickster we all have inside of ourselves trying to pull you out of working. Stephen Pressfield in his book “The War of Art”, calls this concept Resistance and tell us that it is the principle force driving us away from the most important things we should be doing. Resistance is sneaky and smart, it will make good arguments for why you shouldn’t do this or shouldn’t do that; “oh I have a headache today”, “I worked a lot yesterday”, “the exam isn’t for another 2 weeks”, and can be quite convincing; but in truth we allow ourselves to be convinced because it is easier to avoid the work than it is to actually sit down and do it.
When trying to achieve flow, Resistance will come up with any excuse to try and fragment your time and stop you studying; it may even do the incredibly smart thing of convincing you to do something else productive; “why not go for a run?”, “you should clean this room before you begin studying”.
Beware, Resistance is your enemy, and is trying to sabotage you. Every time Resistance attempts to distract you, tell it “no”, and continue working. It will get easier to defeat Resistance as you practice rejecting it, and eventually, like many Professionals, you will have mastered it altogether.
Summary
These 5 methods are ones that I have learnt from authors like Stephen Pressfield and Cal Newport, and they have helped me not only to study better and more deeply, but also to study less and still get great results. I now have a lot more free time, spend less wasted on social media, and have been able to transfer these skills into other aspects of my life.
When teaching my students, I often find that their problems with studying does not come through lack of competency or misunderstanding the material; but rather with their own resistance and ability to discipline themselves in order to attain a work schedule. I try to teach them the skills needed to master themselves, not just to help their studies, but the other areas in their lives too.
Interested in working with Klevis? Contact Us today to arrange a lesson.