Your brain on flow

You know how it feels to be in the zone at work. Fully focused, the external world fades away, and existence itself is temporarily suspended. In this state, hours seem to pass in minutes, and every action you take flows effortlessly into the next one.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, known for his research on happiness and motivation, calls this the flow state. We’ve all experienced it when we’re pushed to the peak of our capabilities, working on a challenge that’s intrinsically rewarding. These are the times when we’re the most confident – even ecstatic – about what we do.

There’s a neurological explanation for this feeling. Our nervous systems are only capable of processing 110 bits of information per second. In a state of flow, when you’re completely immersed in a challenging task, you’re using all 110 bits of your processing capabilities. And that means you don’t have attention for anything else, like how your body feels, what time your next meeting starts or how you’re going to solve a thorny personal problem. In this flow state, when your neurologic processing capabilities are maxed out, everything else disappears from consciousness.

But can workplaces actually induce this flow state for their employees? Yes and no, says Carol Sansone, Ph.D., chair of psychology. While flow is a uniquely internal experience, it can only happen when certain external factors are in place. “Organizations must recognize the factors that make flow possible and avoid creating policies that interfere with it,” she explains.

And it entails providing the opportunity for variety in daily tasks, even if that means sacrificing a little short-term efficiency. “Although standardized procedures can be necessary for some tasks because of safety and health concerns, when organizations tell us how to do everything, we get frustrated and disengaged, even if it’s a job we like to do,” she says. “That’s just how our brains function.”

The sweet spot for a flow-friendly workplace is to create an environment that supports both “fast thinking,” so we can make decisions quickly, accurately and automatically, and “slow thinking,” so we can fulfill our need to ask big questions and play around with all kinds of answers. “When a task is more interesting, we’ll stick with it,” says Sansone. “To keep talented people motivated over the long term, we must never lose sight of the things that got them interested, excited and involved in their professions in the first place.”