The Zone is a beautiful thing. Time doesn’t matter. Your senses are heightened. Everything you do feels effortless and good. Often called Flow, the Zone is where you are at your peak productivity.
The only drawback is the zone can be elusive. It can be difficult to reproduce. That is why it’s a good idea to document how we get into the zone. The more tips we can collect, we can get into the zone more often.
Here are a few of my tips for getting in the zone and an invitation for you to share your tips as well.
1. Put in 5 minutes - I like to call this the 5 minute productivity breakthrough. It works thusly… If you are putting off a task, or not feeling like getting to work on it, that is the time to put in 5 solid minutes on it. This is one of my best Zone inspiring tips. For some reason, just putting in that 5 minutes when you don’t feel like it is enough to start the flow process. It’s great for self discipline too.
2. Eat a mid-morning apple - Eat a light breakfast of a bowl of cereal or two slices of toast and a cup of coffee. Then at 10 a.m. eat an apple. An orange works just as well. The fructose zaps your system and puts you into overdrive. Good for regularity too.
3. Get Regular Aerobic exercise – The central part of any productivity plan is aerobic exercise. It seems like it would make you tired. But consistent heart work keeps your body in tip top shape. An efficient body works efficiently and is more streamlined for the zone.
You get out what you put into aerobic exercise. But I recommend 4-5 times a week of rapid walking or jogging for 30 minutes or more.
4. Take A caffeine nap - If you are on the edge of the zone, but sort of cloudy in the head, try a caffeine nap. You just drink a cup of coffee and immediately doze for 15 minutes. The caffeine clears your body of adenosine, that sleepy time chemical that makes you want to slack off. I’ve taken a few caffeine naps in my time and some I can call inspirational, because I actually woke up in the zone.
5. Stop working at a fun part - If you’ve worked a long stretch in the zone, one way to ensure you get back into it is to stop working at a fun part. Almost like a kid at an amusement park, stopping gives you that “awww man!” feeling of not finishing something fun. By stopping when the fun feeling is high, you will be looking forward to starting again. Often times, you can pick right back up where you left off and the zone will be shortly behind. If it’sjust not happening, try the 5 minute productivity secret until it does.
6. Work fast, very fast - This tip works very well with the 5 minute productivity breakthrough… Take a project and work it as fast as you can. Get some adrenalin going if you can. 1, 2, 3… knock ‘em down and take names. Remember, an object in motion stays in motion. Make your motion faster than flow state and you should relax just fine into the zone.
7. Do 5 on 5 off for 30 - Sometimes your mind just doesn’t want to cooperate. How to deal with it? Beat it into submission. Not literally of course. But take a timer and go on for 5 minutes, then take a 5 minute break. Refuse to work on your project for that 5 minutes. When the next bell rings get back to it for another 5 minutes. Repeat this for 30 minutes. By the end of the half hour, you should be sailing along so smoothly you’ll want to throw out the timer for interrupting you.
Bonus Tip: 8. Anticipate - I believe a critical element of entering the zone is anticipation. There is considerable excitement and enthusiasm when you are experiencing the flow state, so start out by anticipating. Take a 5 minute break and think about your project. Imagine how fun it would be. Imagine how exciting it would be if you were working it in the zone. Try to get in the picture, thinking the thoughts and taking the actions you would if you were operating at your peak.
Like I said above, I welcome your tips on how you get into the zone. Please share them in the comments below so we all can benefit. Thanks!
Every time you stumble one of my posts an angel gets into the zone...
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A looming deadline works well too
Another thing I found useful myself, esp for web workers is to work offline, without an Internet distraction. Even the smallest interruptions such as checking an email or responding to an IM can break the “zone concentration”.
Mike Tees last blog post..Elevyn
Ahh yes. Both very good suggestions. The tight deadline is one of my favorites. Students who put off their papers until the night before it is due (not a suggestion) can sometimes get into the zone and knock it out.
I especially like number 7. If start working and you know you are “not allowed” to work beyond a certain point (after 5 minutes passed), you’ll be much more effective in those 5 minutes than if you have an undetermined amount of time before you. Then you cannot wait for the next 5 minutes to continue from where you “have been stopped”. A couple of these and you are in the zone.
I also find that different times of day make entering “the zone” easier or harder. For example, for me, the first few hours after I get up are my most productive of all so this is the time I try to do my most important work.
I typically get up, head out for a run (helps to oxygenate my brain and boosts the results even further!) then I get home and start writing.
Emails, blog updates and all the other smaller stuff has to wait for a couple of hours until the biggest stuff is done.
Interestingly, different people seems to work best at different times so I would strongly suggest trying to get into the zone at various times of the day (or night!) to see what works best for you.
Great post, will definitely be e-mailing this to a few people. Keep up the great blog!
Chriss last blog post..Reasons to start Sprinting today!
Excellent post! Some of your ideas made me laugh in recognition:
- Moving rapidly to get the adrenalin going
- Anticipation, visualization
- Stopping so that you start with a “fun” part of the work when you start up again
- Segmenting work into “chunks”
- And, of course, exercise, exercise, exercise to be physically well-tuned, endorphin-blessed
I’ll try your other suggestions, too, as I complete the first draft of a book. I may find that, “zone-driven,” the finish line is closer than I thought!
Jan Richardss last blog post..Perfect moments…more than a few
Excellent article. Those are really great tips and your ideas are very original as well. Like what the others said, from personal experience I think having a deadline works pretty well.
I think that the first tip is really something. Putting in 5 solid minutes ought to really get things going. As they say, the first step is always the hardest. After that you’ll have some momentum to keep going.
Enjoyed reading it. Thanks!
All great tips…
another useful thing i do:
I have 3 or 4 songs that I’ve anchored to a feeling of complete productivity. I anchored them by constantly playing them during my moments of complete inspiration.
Now I can simply play those few songs and I will almost instantly get in the zone.
Overdosing on Red Bull helps too…
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