The Flow Mode

Nowadays, when consuming information is so easy, it's become almost impossible to keep yourself concentrated even an hour without being distracted. Being able to work in a focus mode is the primary goal of every person who wants to be productive and avoid attacks of anxiety.

Table of contents

• Part 1. The Flow Mode
• Part 2. Applications
• Part 3. Notifications
• Literature

Part 1. The flow mode

The flow mode (or focused mode, or deep work) is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity ¹.

ℹ️ You can find additional information about the concept in the literature section.

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

For now, let's talk about different tools that may help you to keep this flow mode.

Part 2. Applications

In this part, I'd like to share applications that helped me to keep focused mode on by taking the "massive attack" of distractions.

ℹ️ Note, you don' t need to use all mentioned applications together, just choose the ones that fit for you. However, I highly recommend giving a chance to all of them. After some time you'll start to see their positive influence.

Pocket

❗️Availability - Web / iOS / Android / Browser Extension

Pocket allows you to save the information and read it later. When you find something you want to view later, put it in Pocket.

So now you won't be jumping forth and back every time you see an article worth reading. Just save to pocket (one click) without fears that you might miss important stuff.

The 20-second rule

❗️Availability - Browser Extension

Application that enables you to make distracting sites 20 seconds harder to reach by showing you loader 🔄

This extension will give you 20 seconds gap to fully realize whether you want to continue browsing to the site or not. You will have to just add distracting apps to the list.

Blank page

❗️Availability - Browser Extension

With this extension, new tabs display a blank page instead of the usual new tab page with thumbnails

"Blank Page" will help you to avoid opening "another important social network" every time you see it on your favorites list cause now you can see only a blank page.

Tabsets

❗️Availability - Browser Extension

Stores sets of tabs for later viewing

Tabsets helps you to avoid keeping tons of different tabs at the same time by saving them into structured named folders.

Haze Over

❗️Availability - MacOS

This app automatically highlights the front window by fading out all the background windows

Haze Over will give you an opportunity to focus on the one tab so your attention won't be taken away.

Part 3. Notifications

If you want to remember just one thing from this article, then here it is: "Mute all (no, I'm not kidding, ALL) notifications".

I have dedicated an independent chapter for the "Notifications" to make clear its importance.

From my point of view, the role of notifications is underestimated. They are unnoticeable but very dangerous so I recommend to start following them and you'll understand how often they are distracting from important tasks. My advice is turning them off (in case of messengers, mute almost all chats).

🚫 If you have a fear of missing out, I'd recommend to create routine tasks to check notifications every couple of hours in a bunch. You'll be notified about everything without moving attention to the phone every time some shitty advertisers consider you as their target.

Thanks for attention, be healthy and focused.

Literature

1. The flow mode - Wikipedia

2. "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" — Mihalyi Czikszentmihalyi

3. "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" — Cal Newport

4. "Путь Джедая" — Максим Дорофеев