When to Pull Up & Out of Flow
When does being in Flow become too much of a good thing?
One component of Sustainable Ambition and Right Success is aligning your work to your strengths and the activities that put you in flow, those that you enjoy, want to master, are satisfying, or are worth putting in the hard work to succeed.
The beauty of flow is that you can lose track of time, because you are so enjoying what you are doing. The danger of flow is that you can end up spending more time on an activity that puts you out of alignment with Right Effort, the amount of time and energy that is in sync with your aspiration and ambition for the project at hand.
So, are there times you should pull yourself up and out of flow? The answer is yes. But how should you do that?
Here are some tips to guide you:
Start by defining your success for the project or task at hand. Ask, how does this project align with my goals and priorities? How will I know when I’m done? What is my end goal? What will make the effort worthwhile?
Next, ask if you are willing to invest time to indulge your pure satisfaction and enjoyment of the task. How much time?
Check your ambition for the project or task. How good do you want to be? Do you want to lean in here to deliver an “exceeds expectations” result? Or, will doing your 80% be both satisfying and sufficient? Are you in a stage where you are highly engaged in your career with full ambition and is this a project that is going to help you get to your next desired achievement?
Now, get clear on how much effort you want to invest in this project or task based on your above answers. Ask, is this an activity or project in which I’m willing to invest significant time? Again, get clear on how much time. Or, is this an activity or project where the reward and outcome isn’t aligned to a lot of hours? If the latter, time box how many hours/minutes you’re going to put towards the activity, even if you’re enjoying it. Be present and fully take in the enjoyment while you work on it.
If you do want to invest the time, think about other time saving steps to carve out the time you want. Perhaps you can thoughtfully and choicefully de-prioritize another task, or perhaps you can delegate and get support in work or life projects to afford you the time. A final idea is to find a way to carve out dedicated time for the activity so that it is the most focused, productive, and enjoyable. Turn it into a Sprint Day for this type of activity or project. Set the stage to make it a focused, enjoyable day perhaps with a ritual and creating the space that will make it most enjoyable.
Now, we don’t advocate never letting yourself get completely lost in flow.
That’s the beauty of flow. It’s enjoyable and fun! We don’t want to give that up. But if you’re finding yourself working too many hours, pick up this list of tips and see if you can achieve both enjoyment in your work and manageable work hours.
//
Want to sign-up for Sustainable Ambition™ Forum, our newsletter? Join here!