How to get into Flow State (it's easier than you think)

Flow State is a lot easier to find than people make it out to be.

In part one, I wrote about why the happiest people experience flow often. Now let's talk about how to get there. And I'll start with the version you've probably heard before.

How flow usually gets explained

Read anything about flow and you'll get a list of mechanisms. They're all true:

• Challenge vs. skill. The task has to be hard enough to hold your interest, but not so hard it overwhelms you. Bored? Raise the stakes. Overwhelmed? Lower the bar.
• Clear goals and fast feedback. You need to know what you're doing and whether it's working.
• No distractions. Every notification pulls you back out. Protect the downside: phone in another room.
• Push past the struggle. Every flow session starts clunky, with your brain begging for a distraction. Most people quit right there.
• Purpose and people. Flow goes deepest when the work matters to you and you're doing it with others. I get into flow on a snowboard, but it doesn't compare to DJing, where I'm making music to make a room full of people feel something. Research backs this up: in 2010, psychologist Charles Walker found people rated flow they shared with others as more joyful than flow they found alone. Singing in a choir beat painting alone.

All true. And all of it together can leave you feeling like you need to redesign your whole life, find your life's purpose and join a band before you're allowed to experience flow.

You don't.

The atomic unit of flow: focus

Strip all of that away and you're left with one thing: focus. Your attention, held on what's in front of you.

That's the atomic unit of flow. And like any skill, you can practice it, on anything.

It could be washing the dishes. It could be a boring task at work. Do it slowly and deliberately. Notice the contours of the plate in your hands, the warmth of the water, the sound it makes as you rinse it.

Sometimes I take this to the extreme. I do something very slowly and name every step as I go: "I'm getting out of bed. Left leg first. Right leg next. I'm standing up. Now I'm walking to the door. Now to the bathroom. Flicking the light on."

It sounds silly. But every time you do it, you're training the one muscle flow runs on. Practice it on the small things, and dropping into flow on the big things gets easier.

Focus on everything, and good things find you

Here's what fascinates me. The more fully you can focus on everything, even the boring stuff, the more good things start to pile up in your life. And the more purpose starts to find you.

Barry Diller dropped out of college and started in the mailroom of the William Morris talent agency. Sorting mail is about as unglamorous as a job gets. He moved up fast: assistant, then junior agent, then a job at ABC. He went on to run Paramount Pictures and help launch the Fox TV network.

You don't find your purpose first and then start paying attention. You pay attention, fully, to whatever's in front of you, and that's how the doors open. People notice. Skills compound. Opportunities show up that you'd never have seen with half your mind somewhere else.

Start with whatever's in front of you

Pick the next thing you have to do. The next email, the next dish, the next paragraph. Put your phone in another room, slow down, and give it all of your attention.

And if you'd like a little help, that's exactly what Flow State Radio is for: music and short talk breaks, made to help you hold your attention on one thing.

Sources

• Walker, C. J. (2010). Experiencing flow: Is doing it together better than doing it alone? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(1), 3–11. BPS Research Digest summary
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.
• Diller, B. (2025). Who Knew. Simon & Schuster.