Flow

I lost 4 hours of my life going with the flow

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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


The secret to unlimited drive and motivation

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For the past week or so I’ve been completing daily programming puzzles as a part of the yearly Advent of Code leading up to Christmas.

It’s going well so far—better than it ever has compared to my previous track records, at least.

But there’s a curious thing happening.

You see, most days, I finish the puzzle in under an hour, sometimes two. But once every few days, like yesterday, it easily takes me up to five or six (6!) hours to finish this one puzzle.

That’s six hours of non-stop staring at my screen, trying to think of potential solutions, translating it into code, checking for errors, endless debugging, discovering new edge cases, and going over the processes once again.

And yet, it feels like a breeze.

The hours fly by. I stay focused, hyperfocused, in fact, and would easily be able to keep this up for another six hours (and probably ever following day as well).

You might think this sounds miserable, and maybe for you, it would be.

But man, I can’t tell you how almost “natural” this comes to me. How ‘motivated’ and excited I am to finally get it to work, and ultimately how ‘happy’ and ‘at peace’ I am during the entire process.

Sure I might bang my head on the keyboard once in a while, but that’s part of the process. And even that is enjoyable in its own way.

This reminded me of some lessons I learned while reading Psycho-Cybernetics.

Just take the following excerpt taken straight out of the preface:

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“Creative striving for a goal that is important to you as a result of your own deep-felt needs, aspirations, and talents (and not the symbols which the “Joneses” expect you to display) brings happiness as well as success because you will be functioning as you were meant to function.

Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is “built that way,” he is not happy unless he is functioning as he was made to function—as a goal striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other.”

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This excerpt gives a new and helpful explanation as to why I experience these coding puzzles the way I do.

I picked up a new goal—one I’m genuinely interested in and determined to achieve.

The process of doing what man is “built to do”—striving towards a goal—is where you’ll find true happiness and success is to be found.

That’s why it’s so important to have goals, projects, dreams and aspirations.

What kind of goals?

The type where you’re creating something new.

This doesn’t have to be something completely new, that’s nowhere to be found in the whole wide world. But it has to be new to you. To bring to life a book you write, a song you composed, a painting you created, even a promotion you worked for, a deal you closed, a certificate or degree you studied for, a fish you caught, or something as simple as a sweater you knitted.

Creation is what we, as human beings, were meant to do.

And creation is what will keep you healthy, sane, and even thriving if done correctly, for decades to come.

Speaking of which…

If you’d like to learn my entire process for ideating, creating, and launching profitable digital products in 21 days or less, then I’d highly suggest you check out my course Product Creation Made Easy.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/pcme