00:00have you ever struggled to complete a
00:01task that should have taken 90 minutes
00:03yet after 8 hours of slaving away you
00:06still haven't finished the thing
00:09well there's a neuroscientific
00:10explanation for why this happens and a
00:13simple way to solve it behind the
00:15world's most successful people
00:18stand the four pillars of flow which
00:20allows anyone to become effortlessly
00:23productive now my name is Ryan Doris
00:25co-founder and CEO for research
00:27Collective along with my partner Stephen
00:28Cutler and we've taught thousands of
00:30professionals and organizations how to
00:33access Flow State at will so they can
00:36become drastically more productive in
00:38their working lives it all comes down to
00:41the four pillars of Flow State first
00:43there's the flow blockers second flow
00:46pronus third the flow triggers and
00:48finally and fourth the flow cycle these
00:51are the pillars that power the brains of
00:53the most productive people on the planet
00:55well coverage in a moment but first what
01:01I want you to remember for a second the
01:02last time you were hyper productive and
01:04totally absorbed in what you were doing
01:06that was flow now flow is a state of
01:10consciousness that makes work feel
01:12effortless you've experienced flow
01:14perhaps when you were riding a bike
01:16surfing a wave making music singing
01:19dancing maybe working on a big project
01:22many of Humanity's greatest
01:24accomplishments have happened in this
01:29Alex Honnold in the movie free solo was
01:32in a flow State when he summited El
01:34Capitan with no gear Sam Altman and his
01:36team at openai when they were coding
01:38chat GPT which has already changed the
01:40world were deep in flow while doing it
01:42when Mari Curie did her pioneering
01:44research and Einstein finally figured
01:46out the theory of relativity they were
01:48harnessing the power of flow to pull off
01:51these superhuman Feats that drove
01:54Humanity forward and flow isn't just a
01:56metaphor in fact over ten thousand
01:58research papers on Flow have found that
02:00the neurophysiological shifts that occur
02:03while in flow increase the exact skills
02:06that research has shown are most
02:09critical to thriving in the 21st century
02:11like learning creativity productivity
02:13and the reason why Alex and Sam and
02:16Marie and Einstein were able to
02:18accomplish such Feats is because of what
02:21happens in the body and in the brain
02:22when flow kicks in from the
02:24neurochemical Cascade of dopamine
02:26norepinephrine anandamide serotonin
02:28endorphins the alpha Theta brain waves
02:30and the performance enhancing alteration
02:32to the neuroanatomical changes that
02:35occur in the brain in flow listen this
02:37all sounds great flow sounds like some
02:39kind of a Panacea that's going to solve
02:41all of your productivity and Peak
02:43Performance problems in a heartbeat and
02:45that would actually be true if you could
02:47access a flow State on demand but the
02:49problem is most of us can't
02:51so until you train yourself in the four
02:53pillars of flow flow is going to remain
02:55Elusive and nowhere is less conducive to
02:57accessing flow with consistency and
02:59reliability than the 21st century
03:01workplace and the 21st century way of
03:04working where distractions are rapid
03:05Across the Nation plagues us and chronic
03:08stress is just considered the norm you
03:10know that horrible feeling of being over
03:12caffeinated and riddled with
03:14productivity guilt from delaying doing
03:16what you know you should have been doing
03:18and then hitting Lunchtime with barely
03:20any work done even though half the day
03:23well if this has ever happened to you
03:25it's due to the flow blockers
03:29if you go were to run a marathon first
03:31off you'd have to ensure that you don't
03:33have some foundational injury or health
03:36condition that simply blocks you from
03:37doing it and it's kind of similar when
03:39it comes to Flow State because research
03:41shows we're evolutionarily wired for
03:43flow your brain and body actually wants
03:45to kick you into a flow State when the
03:47condition is necessitated most of the
03:49time our 21st century work style blocks
03:52flow at every turn think about it when
03:54you get up in the morning what's the
03:55first thing you look at well if you're
03:57like 80 percent of people you check it
03:58within 15 minutes of waking up and it's
04:01packed with flow blockers distraction
04:03uncertainty task persistence deficit
04:05attention deficit trait and this one
04:07thing is the source of over a dozen
04:10other blockers for flow like a damn
04:12blocking a river from naturally moving
04:14forward now obviously this thing is your
04:16phone so what's one tool to remove the
04:18most common source of flow blockers well
04:21it's simple we call it flow before phone
04:24the golden rule is to get two to three
04:26hours of productive flow on your highest
04:28priority task in the morning before you
04:30turn on or ideally even touch that
04:32device now this is easier said than done
04:34it's hard to change ingrained habits
04:36especially when the Habit itself is
04:38linked to a device that's designed to be
04:40addictive but once you try this and once
04:42you experience deeper and deeper states
04:45of flow the flow states that you can
04:48access become more compelling and
04:51overrule the addiction next up we have
04:54flow pronus so let's say you have
04:56removed all the blockers and you still
04:58can't get into flow because this is what
04:59happens to lots of people it's because
05:01they missed the second thing which again
05:02is is flow pronus so using the marathon
05:05analogy consider this your overall
05:06Fitness level because flow pronus is
05:08simply your tendency to access flow and
05:10the likelihood of getting into flow at
05:12any given moment we need to make our
05:14physiology our body our psychology up
05:17here and our environment conducive to
05:20flow proneness to maximize our
05:22likelihood of accessing a flow State now
05:23the easiest way to do this is to wake up
05:26and get to work within 90 seconds of
05:29you're probably like what this sounds
05:31like some kind of a weird workaholic
05:33thing to do but it's actually the
05:34opposite by getting your most important
05:36work done within the first two to three
05:38hours of the day in a float state
05:40just going to amplify productivity
05:41dramatically you can relax a lot more
05:44the rest of the day the neuroscientific
05:46reason to do this is that your flow
05:48pronus is highest first thing in the
05:50morning this works for a few reasons one
05:52being that the brain waves of sleep
05:54Theta or Delta are similar to the alpha
05:57Theta brain waves of flow as a bonus the
06:00first 90 seconds of the morning are also
06:02before the rest of the world can impose
06:03its will upon you which makes it easier
06:06to focus okay so you've removed the main
06:09source of flow blockers and you've
06:12increased your flow pronus so how do you
06:15actually trigger flow directly well this
06:17is where the flow triggers come in
06:19these are preconditions that instantly
06:22drive us into flow now back in the 1960s
06:24psychologist mihai chick family had the
06:26Godfather of Flo who coined the term
06:28flow identified several of these
06:31triggers and since then Stephen Cutler
06:33and other researchers have identified
06:34even more while mihai trixemihai
06:37pioneered the psychological research on
06:38Flow kotler has pioneered the
06:40neurobiological research on the state
06:42and is commonly regarded as the world's
06:45leading expert on Flow now the more
06:47triggers you have present in an activity
06:50at any one time the faster you'll enter
06:52flow the deeper the flow state will be
06:55and the longer you'll be able to hold
06:57and sustain that flow State certain
06:59activities are naturally rich in flow
07:00triggers like surfing playing music
07:02video gaming the three first triggers
07:04for flow that mihai chick sent me high
07:06identified or clear goals immediate
07:08feedback and challenge skills balance so
07:10here's an example of each of these in
07:12action let's say you're surfing you spot
07:15the wave you catch it you write it these
07:16are the clear goals that are going to
07:18pop you into flow then you're feel the
07:20balance on the board and the waves power
07:22this is immediate feedback you're taking
07:24action in response to the information
07:26you're receiving from the wave and as
07:28you continue surfing you ride waves of
07:30varying sizes varying difficulty and if
07:33you're a surfer varying weight matching
07:34your skill level to keep engaged which
07:37is the challenge skills balance of play
07:39now that's all well and good for surfing
07:41but what about your work well the trick
07:43is to take these triggers and add them
07:44to activities that they don't
07:46necessarily show up within so to apply
07:48this right away you can tune the
07:49challenge skills balance by engaging in
07:52tasks that are about four percent more
07:55difficult than your current skill level
07:58our constant goal as mihai chick sent me
08:00High's book title suggests is to move
08:03beyond boredom and anxiety That's The
08:06Sweet Spot that leads to flow the fourth
08:09pillar flow is seldom discussed but it's
08:11the reason behind the world's most
08:14productive people and how they operate
08:16and it's called the flow cycle herb
08:18Benson was a Harvard cardiologist and he
08:20wrote about this for the first time in
08:22his book called The breakout principle
08:24and then Stephen Cutler mapped it
08:25further directly to flow in his book The
08:27Rise of Superman what the flow cycle
08:29tells us Is That Flow states are more
08:31like dimmer switches than light switches
08:33now first there's struggle this is a
08:35loading phase that's when you first
08:37start a task in the neurochemistry
08:39involved which is cortisol and
08:40norepinephrine kind of makes you squirm
08:42the discomfort causes us to want to
08:46avoid the task relieve ourselves of the
08:49discomfort and distract ourselves the
08:52sad truth is that most people spend
08:53their entire careers dropping in and out
08:56of the first few minutes of the struggle
08:58phase they never persist long enough to
09:01get into flow they're an inch deep into
09:03work forever so start by getting Grace
09:05at persisting through the struggle phase
09:07this comes down to task persistence you
09:11can do this with something that we call
09:13attention span stretching
09:15so if you had a bar that you were
09:19hanging from every day research shows
09:22that if you did that you would actually
09:23grow by an inch in height
09:26similarly if you stretch your attention
09:28your attention span becomes longer so
09:31for example read a book all the way
09:33through even if it's uncomfortable even
09:35if you retain less you gain more
09:38sustained attention you're training your
09:41intentional capacity if you do a long
09:43meditation just try adding another
09:46minute and another minute same with deep
09:49focused work add another minute then
09:51another treat it like a Muscle Max out
09:53the Reps then release happens once you
09:56reach the edge of wrestling with the
09:58task or problem true sustaining focus
10:01and attention as you persist your brain
10:03increases dopamine enhancing focus and
10:06motivation finally popping you out of
10:08struggle through release and into the
10:10Flow State itself then next up we have
10:12flow which is the state we've been
10:13talking about this whole time during
10:15flow the prefrontal cortex deactivates
10:17to allow efficient instinctive rapid
10:19decision making to occur after the Flow
10:22State itself we have the recovery phase
10:24on the back side of flow where we're
10:26replenish finishing the expanse of
10:28neurochemistry that's involved in flow
10:30or recuperating after expending so much
10:33energy and we're integrating the
10:34knowledge or skills acquired during flow
10:37so there you have it the four pillars of
10:40flow which underscore Elise productivity
10:44extreme accomplishment and Hyper focus
10:47by understanding and applying these
10:48pillars of flow you can become
10:50consistently productive and Achieve
10:52incredible results our goal here is to
10:54take every research paper on Peak
10:56Performance and flow and decipher it
10:58down into easy to watch instantly
11:01applicable steps so that as you stay
11:04tuned to our Channel you build the skill
11:07set of driving yourself into a flow
11:09State consistently which the critical
11:11skill set to thrive in the 21st century
