Yesterday, I found myself designing some graphics for one of the new projects I’m working on.
My process is simple.
I first look online for some inspiration. This could be designs I’ve made in the past, designs used by (indirect) competitors, or general art I remember from somewhere or came across while browsing online for a particular style or imagery.
Then, once I have a vague idea of what I want to do, I fire up my graphic design software of choice, most of the time that’s good old trusty Photoshop, although sometimes I’ll use another for a particular purpose, and I slap together a bunch of stuff, trust in the creative process, and just keep going until I have something I’m relatively proud of.
The crazy part, however, is what happens to my perception of time during this entire process, more specifically when working on the design itself.
I might open up Photoshop at 2 pm, play around with it for what feels like half an hour, save my progress, close the program, only to look at the time and realize it’s suddenly 6 pm!
Whenever this happens, I just smile.
Not because I might have “wasted” a ton of time, potentially even missing some appointments and having to reorganize my schedule—which doesn’t happen a lot, but it happens. But because I realize I just got out of a 4-hour long flow state, as it’s called. A state in which you’re so transfixed, so focused on what you’re doing, you lose all track of time, you have no distractions whatsoever, and almost stop perceiving your surroundings altogether.
You’re truly “locked in” as the youngsters would say.
That’s a good sign. It’s a sign you’ve found something that truly moves you, something that engages you to your core, and more importantly, something you should do a lot more of, because that activity, whatever just got you into the flow state, is something you were, in some way or another, meant to be doing.
Almost as if you were made for it.
Now, the difficult part is realizing when you’re in that flow state because you’re not thinking about anything else except what you’re doing, so let alone thinking about recognizing whether you’re in a flow state or not.
But once you find something, remember it.
Think about it and find a way to incorporate more of that into your schedule, your work, your responsibilities, or whatever else you’re doing.
I’m utterly convinced that thriving, whatever that means to you personally, only really occurs when you design your life in such a way that optimizes your time spent in a flow state, or “flowing” as I like to call it.
So find what engages you, and incorporate more of it into your life.
Which, coincidentally, is a good reason to learn how to write short engaging emails that keep people reading day after day, so you have more flexibility in how you spend your time, and how much creativity, something that’s highly linked to getting into a flow state, you’re able to put into your workday.
If you’d like to learn more about that, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla