1: So how exactly do we define productivity?

Google productivity expert Laura Mae Martin tells us in her book Uptime that productivity is comprised of three distinct elements:

Step #1: Defining clearly what we want to do,

Step #2: Setting aside the (right) time and place to do it, and

Step #3: Executing well within the designated time.

Productivity, Laura believes, is closely aligned with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi‘s concept of … continue reading

1: Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was working on his groundbreaking research on flow, the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.

Mihaly contacted Peter Drucker, the preeminent management thinker, to interview him regarding creativity.

Peter’s response struck a chord with Mihaly, so much so that he included it in his book:

“I am greatly honored and flattered by your kind … continue reading

1: It was 1968, and the executives at NASA had a problem.   

“The space agency had a lot of smart people on staff, but smart and creative were different things,” Steven Kotler writes in his brilliant book The Art of Impossible.

“NASA’s lifeblood was innovation.    They desperately needed their most creative engineers working their most difficult challenges,” Steven notes.    ”  Yet telling the Picassos from the … continue reading

1: We’ve just had an intense “flow state” experience. 

We’ve been completely absorbed in the activity, losing our sense of time. Our actions and awareness have melded together, and we’ve felt a powerful sense of being in control. 

We’ve successfully traveled through the first three stages of the flow cycle: Struggle, release, and then flow.

How do we feel?

Likely, we’re wiped out. “Even the extra energy … continue reading

1: Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s believed he discovered the “secret to happiness.”

He labeled it “the flow state.” It’s when we are completely absorbed in an activity. Also known as being “in the zone,” we lose our sense of time. Our actions and awareness become one in which we have a heightened sense of control. 

We enter the flow state through as part of a four-step process. So far this week, … continue reading

1: We come home from work tired.  We’ve struggled to solve a problem.  We decide to take a shower.  To wash away all our frustrations. 

Standing there, we feel the water beating against our bodies.  We relax.  Our mind wanders.

Boom.  An idea hits us like a flash of lightning. 

What just happened?  We’ve moved through three of the four stages of the flow cycle: from “struggle” to … continue reading

1: We’ve all experienced the joy of “being in the zone.” 

We’re entirely focused on the task at hand. We have a heightened sense of clarity and creativity. We’re focused, deliberate, intentional. Time slows down. There’s a sense of peace and a feeling of being in control. 

The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first coined the phrase “flow state” in 1975. Mihaly, known as the “father of flow,” defines it as “a … continue reading

1: This week, we’ve been doing a deep dive into peak performance. We must get into a flow state to perform at the highest levels.

We do so by engaging flow triggers, including autonomy, the curiosity-passion-purpose triad, complete concentration, the challenge-skills balance, clear goals, and immediate feedback.

All of these are internal flow triggers. They arise from within us.

However, there are also external flow triggers, Steven Kotler writes in … continue reading

1: Perhaps we’ve been there. 

A “peak experience.” Sometimes called “Being in the Zone” or a “Runner’s High.” That feeling of “being unconscious.”

The scientists call it “flow,” or being in a “flow state.”

It’s the mental state when we are fully immersed. Energetically focused. Total concentration. Complete absorption. Time seems to melt away. 

Being in flow is one of the secrets to peak performance. So, if we want to … continue reading

1: The answer: Yes.

It’s what scientists call “flow” or the flow state.

Flow is defined as “an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best,” Steven Kotler writes in his powerful book The Art of the Impossible.  

“More specifically, the term refers to those moments of rapt attention and total absorption when we get so focused on the task at hand that everything … continue reading