Operating in the zone

If you have ever been fortunate to realize when you are in the zone, then you know how magical it can be. Everything is humming along with no disruptions or friction, and you feel like you are making incredible amounts of progress. Later I explain more about how to get and stay in-the-zone for as long as possible.

PSA: Before that though I want to suggest that Flow Engineering is very similar. Flow Engineering goes above and beyond an individual being in the zone to that of an optimized business process. While Flow Engineering applies to business processes it is both art and science that collaboratively optimizes how value flows to customers from concept to cash. Flow Engineering helps to create those situations where being in-the-zone is possible and magic happens. Flow Engineering is the new secret sauce that formalizes relentless continuous process improvement. As part of this flow metrics establish hidden realities that eliminates the barriers for business leaders that prevent them from seeing the big picture. As such leaders can then make better data driven decisions leading to well-informed experiments.

For me, operating in the zone is a lot like bullet time from The Matrix. I can dodge bullets, zoom past difficult problems and accomplish a great deal in a short period of time. Before you know it, hours have passed, and the day evaporated yet you did a lot of amazing things along the way. Rinse and repeat as often as possible.

A few tips on getting to your personal zone and stay there as long as possible:

• Control your environment – Think about it and then set the mood that works best for you. This should be a place like a home office or a focus room with the right lighting and ambiance. Lighting, music, noise, pets, people and visuals can all contribute to or diminish ability to reach the zone that you want to be in. Maybe you are a whistle while you work sort (like me) who likes music in the mix. Open air music or with headphones can be a good sign to others that you are unavailable for disruption. Maybe you are forced to endure the noise generated by neighbors’ landscape crew or a barking dog nearby. If so, don’t fight it if it cannot be controlled. It might be a good time to switch gears and take a break or do something else not worthy of the zone.
• Establish a quiet or focus time – During work hours make it clear that you are unplugged and trying to work in the zone. This means setting Do Not Disturb or OOF messaging explaining that you are not available for disruption. This is often best accomplished with a private recurring meeting. Apply this concept to your team (which can help reduce opportunities to disrupt) and they will thank you with amazing work. Only you know best when you can be in the zone – in my case early in the morning (before normal work hours for others) about 5 minutes after that first cup of coffee and lasting for about 2-3 hours.
• Limit Meetings – don’t spawn meetings that are not needed nor involve others that don’t need to be there. The same is true for meetings that you don’t need to be involved with. Simply decline and explain why. Over time the culture will pick up on the and it will snowball into something glorious that will improve joy and performance.
• If you must have meetings – make sure they have a purpose, that they start on time and end early. Ideally 25 minutes meetings are perfect and allow for a quick gathering as well as time between meetings to unload/reload for the next if you are stuck with back-to-back meetings in large blocks.
• Batch disruptions – Avoid the temptation to blast an email or a chat every time you encounter a situation where you need to involve someone else. For example, coming out of quiet time you might have realized 5 things that you need to confirm or need help with.
• Do the things you love doing – If you are lucky enough to have a job you enjoy then you should jam on those things that make it enjoyable as much as possible. Batch up the drudgery that you must do and do them so that you can get past those speed bumps and back to the fun stuff.
• Thrive in your IKIGAI – If you are familiar with the concept of Ikigai then you know there is a sweet spot where “your passion” converges with “what you are good at”, “what you get paid for” and “what the world needs”. Those that leverage this concept tend to live long happy lives by achieving the right balance between the various spheres of interest. Living in the center is ideal but rotating through the Ikigai spheres can help to create barriers and as such isolate those activities which can contribute to focus.

Other interesting links related to focus:

• Goethe, Master Of Flow: A German Recipe For Focus, Freedom And Productivity At Work (msn.com)
• How to train your brain to deal with distractions, learn to concentrate, and refind your motivation (msn.com)

Those are just a few offered as food for thought. Please add more from your experience in the comments below: