How to Activate your Beast Mode

With the pandemic resulting in online working environments becoming the norm have you been, one in many, noticing a reduction in your motivation and ability to get ‘in the zone’? Well, no more! Research shows the ‘zone’, referred to as the ‘flow’ state in positive psychological research, can still be instigated in the work environment and illustrates the elements required, to enter the ‘flow’ state yourself.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi created the notion of ‘flow’, where people immerse themselves into an activity with intense focus and lose track of time. Rodriguez-Ardura and Antoni Meseguer-Artola (2017) explored ‘flow’ specifically in an online education environment, which holds particular importance in today’s climate.

Rodriguez-Ardura and Antoni Meseguer-Artola (2017) analysed 2,530 students’ responses to a questionnaire looking at ‘flow’, the contributors to ‘flow’: task must surpass a certain level of challenge, control – feeling confident in your ability to carry out the task – and focused attention – focused concentration on specific parts of the environment – and academic performance and positive affect (or happiness) as consequences of ‘flow’, and continuance – whether engagement of ‘flow’ and its associated benefits continued with the student in the next academic course.

They found ‘flow’ significantly influences academic performance and positive affect, in turn influencing continuance. Interestingly, challenge, control and focused attention were significant factors in instigating the ‘flow’ state. So, these are the factors to pay attention to if you want to get ‘in the zone’ at work or school, even online, and activate your boost mode.

Reference:

Rodríguez-Ardura, I., & Meseguer-Artola, A. (2016). Flow in e-learning: What drives it and why it matters. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(4), 899–915. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12480