Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 28: Flow Blocks & Flex Time | Finding Deep Work Within an Unpredictable Schedule

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EP 28: Flow Blocks & Flex Time | Finding Deep Work Within an Unpredictable Schedule · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

0:00
Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
0:02
I'm your host John Bloom, and today is going to be a solo
0:05
episode where we talk about flow blocks and flex time, finding
0:09
deep work within an unpredictable schedule.
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And this is something I love learning about diving into.
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I love flow state and Steven Cutler's work.
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I did a whole program two years ago actually on flow state and
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coaching aspects of that. And right now in my life, it's
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something that I'm definitely struggling with, with a very
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busy, hectic schedule, early mornings, late nights, and lots
0:32
of stuff and distractions in between.
0:34
So this is a reminder to myself of some of these tactics to get
0:39
more focused work done, less distractions and indifferent
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tactics there that I've been neglecting.
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But hopefully also something that can provide a lot of value
0:48
to you. Because I think I think within
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coaching, it's a problem a lot of us face with hard schedules,
0:54
but also just problems and tasks and activities and, and, and
0:57
always feeling on call throughout the day, which can
0:59
really make it hard for us to feel like we can have that deep
1:02
focused work. But first, you know, what is
1:06
flow state? You know, some of us might know
1:08
more than others, and some of us probably hear that term thrown
1:12
around a lot. And if we're thinking about like
1:14
an athletic standpoint, flow state is like when, when people
1:18
are in the zone, there's a basketball player and like
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they're, they're just hitting every shot like that.
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The basket seems like it's 100 feet wide.
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They can't miss and the game is slowing down.
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Or if you're, you know, you're playing baseball and the, the,
1:31
the, your, your batting and the ball just seems like it's in
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slow motion when you're trying to hit.
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We, we've probably all experienced those types of
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moments where just everything is going right and the game comes
1:43
so easy and, and, and, and there's no distractions, right?
1:46
We're fully present and in the moment, not thinking about
1:49
anything else besides what we're doing right.
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And then that's probably the most enjoyable and where we're
1:55
our best state for us. But it applies beyond just
1:59
athletics. It can be coaching.
2:01
I'm sure we've all had those moments where we're coaching and
2:03
there's a lot going on. But you were like fully in that
2:06
that session or in that practice, you're, you're going
2:08
from thing to thing and you you're dialed in and you are at
2:12
your very best. But I think one of the most
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important parts where we find flow as coaches and
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professionals is in our work or our creativity, our writing,
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our, our programming, whatever it is, where we're really
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needing deep work and focus work and having to create or think or
2:30
write or do all these different things that need focus.
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But I think there's like I mentioned before, there's so
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many factors that are fighting against us having those focus.
2:40
But but before flow, there's a flow cycle, right?
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There's four phases of flow, the 1st, 1st stage of struggle, then
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release, then actually flow and then recovery and right for
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struggle. That's like, if, if we're
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sitting down, let's say we're sitting on the right, it's like
2:55
you're sitting down and you see that blank page and you haven't
2:58
really think it's not coming effortlessly yet.
3:02
And, and, and you're struggling through and you have that, that
3:05
urge to want to go step away or look at your phone or kind of
3:08
had a distraction. And you have to kind of push
3:10
through that struggle and keep pushing through that struggle
3:13
and fighting to find clarity and focus.
3:15
And, and eventually you might have this, where you have this
3:19
release. And it can be, there can be
3:20
longer periods of release or shorter periods.
3:22
Like a longer period could be maybe I'm trying to write for
3:25
like 40-50 minutes and then I step away.
3:28
I go for a walk or I just, you know, go to the bathroom and I,
3:31
I don't have my phone or a distraction.
3:33
I just let my mind step away from the problem I'm trying to
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solve for a second. And, and we're letting that mind
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kind of without intentionally working on it, it's kind of
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incubating and working on that on its own.
3:45
So then we go back into it and now we drop into flow and some
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other moments you probably felt This is why you've had these
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incredible ideas. Well, in the shower, right?
3:55
Or, or you know, going for a walk or you know, these
3:58
different things where you're doing these tasks or low level
4:02
activities and you're taking your brain away from the
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problem. But then you start having your
4:07
best ideas. OK, it can also be even shorter
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than that where it's a really quick release period.
4:12
And then we drop into flow. So now let's say that we had our
4:15
struggle, we had our release and now we're actually in flow.
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So now the ideas are just effortlessly coming out like
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we're in the moment, like we're, we're doing our best work.
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And it feels really easy. And you might even feel like,
4:28
like it feels like 5 minutes and then you look in the hour, hour
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and a half has passed. That's flow state.
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And then it's important after that, the, the fourth stage of
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recovery, there's actually kind of a drop down phase where we
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actually have to come down from that and recover.
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And you know, how intense the flow was to kind of depend
4:45
determines what that level of recovery is.
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But that's kind of the flow, flow state cycle.
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Now, some of the problems, and we, we've mentioned this before
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that I mentioned this before earlier, but it's like as, as
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coaches or professionals in our in our jobs, a lot of times it
5:01
feel like there's a million distractions where we don't have
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time to have that, that struggle time and then go into release,
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right? It feels like there's always
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something coming up. There's, there's always an an
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athlete or or a Co worker coming in to ask you a question or your
5:15
head coach, your boss is calling you or this or that.
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There's always just something popping up and an hour later you
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look up from, from trying to be focused and you haven't done
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anything. Or, or I've also felt it to
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where maybe there's not even something that's actually
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distracting me, but I just feel like I've I've always got to be
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on call because maybe the head coach is going to need me or a
5:35
player is going to need me and I got to be ready for that text or
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that phone call. So I have my phone by me and I
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just have this like low level stress of being alert or feeling
5:45
like I'm on call there and I can't then shift my full focus
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to what I'm trying to get done. I'm sure you've experienced
5:52
different things like that. Now as we talk about flow,
5:55
you've, you've probably heard of the concept of deep work or
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maybe flow blocks. And, and that's a really
6:00
important thing of having these long uninterrupted blocks that
6:04
you have time to actually get through that flow cycle, right?
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So you have time to really struggle and then get into
6:10
release and get into flow and have time to actually work
6:13
within that flow state. And like Steven caller, like
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he's the biggest one I've learned from from this stuff.
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But like, let's talk about flow blocks or even for any calls at
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non blocks where you haven't at least 9000 twenty minutes, even
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like up to 4 hours or so of just completely uninterrupted,
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undistracted time. And some of the things you want
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for this, like that I found is like you got to get rid of your
6:33
phone. You got to and I like to put it
6:35
in my backpack. Definitely put on do not
6:37
disturb. Like even if it's even if it's
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on the table next to you. They found that that's causing
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distraction even if you're not looking at it, just having it
6:45
insight. So for me, I need to get it
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complete out of sight or else I'm going to want to go to
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Earth. Or you start to even hear those
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phantom vibrations that you think someone's texting you when
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someone actually isn't. So get your phone out of there
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right fine, no distractions and and one reason Stephen Keller
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calls it his non time. He likes to do it like really
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early morning or really late at night when like other people
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aren't up yet or other people aren't around you.
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Maybe they're not in the office or maybe doing it at home where
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there's nobody to be around you distract you so you can have
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that uninterrupted complete focus time.
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And during this time, I think it's best to do your most
7:22
important work where you had like work.
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When we're going to get into our very best, where we're going to
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get into the zone of flow, we can have that push towards the
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most important work we need to get done.
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So so that's, that's kind of that's that's flow time or flow
7:40
blocks as I think about. But then I also like to think, I
7:42
started thinking about the concept of having flex time,
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right? Because as we've talked about,
7:47
there's lots of distractions that happen and it can be
7:49
frustrating when you're trying to focus and then someone comes
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talk to you and then you got to try and get back focused.
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And they found it can't even take like 10 to 15 minutes to
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actually get back to focus once you're distracted.
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So there can be a lot of frustration there.
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So I started thinking about maybe there's flow time, but
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there's also this flex time where I'm trying to get some
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stuff done. But maybe that's where I try and
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batch my more tedious tasks or things I don't need to be quite
8:12
as focused for, like e-mail or or messaging or or just getting
8:16
certain coaching things done or different activities or even
8:20
like working out where I'm getting stuff done I need to get
8:23
done. But it's OK if I get distracted.
8:26
It's OK if an athlete comes in and starts talking to me while
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I'm getting these things done and then I can still go back
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into it because I don't actually need to be that focused to do
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this task. It's more so just the time to
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get these things done. So I started thinking about kind
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of breaking my time in between in between those flow block time
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and flex time. Now in this flex time, because I
8:45
have a lack of expectation for focus, there's going to be a
8:48
lack of frustration when I do get distracted.
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And, and, and that, that mental switch might seem small, but I
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found it was actually pretty powerful because it could be
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really, I think a negative to my mindset and my focus when I'm
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trying to be focused and I get distracted and 'cause even
9:09
further problems down there versus now it's like during this
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flex time, like it is totally cool.
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Like if I get more stuff done, great.
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If I get distracted and I get some of my stuff done, great.
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That's OK because I planned for that.
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That was my expectation. OK, so now we can.
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So now I'm, that's how I started thinking about it.
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Now I think about, OK, I'm trying to find my flow block
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time and then fill in flex time throughout other periods of the
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day. Now you might start thinking
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now, OK, I don't know when I can even get 90 minutes, let alone 4
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hours of that actual inner uninterrupted flow block time.
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That's something that I do, I deal with too, where it's like I
9:46
really don't know that I have the time even for that.
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So what do I do when I have no time?
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Well, once one thing I started thinking about is micro dosing
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flow. And if you're a strengthened and
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conditioning coach, you, you've, I'm sure you've heard of this
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concept of micro dosing training and that there's research where
10:03
like the same amount of volume split between training between
10:07
three or six days per week. As long as it was the same
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volume, just spread out more throughout days, it produced the
10:14
same muscular adaptations. And so now a lot of people do
10:17
training where rather rather than like in season, they'll do
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instead of two or three hour long days, they'll do like 5 or
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6 30 minute days. And they were to just spread
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that out more and, and make it more attainable to get that
10:30
throughout the week. So I thought like, what if we
10:32
took that concept to flow where instead of like the 90 plus
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blocks that might not be realistic all days.
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What if we break those down into smaller blocks throughout the
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day and find little, little spots that we can fill those
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those gaps in. We can, we can try and fill in
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with blocks of 20 to 45 minutes throughout the day.
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And then when we can sneak in those longer blocks of
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uninterrupted time, let's get those, OK?
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Because I think a shorter time is going to be better than no
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time. I remember hearing the story a
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while back where where a coach is talking about this client
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that's like, I really want to work out four times per week,
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but they're struggling to get started with that.
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It's like, OK, well, what if you just started with like one time
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per week or two times a week? And like, no, that won't do
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anything. So they settle for zero times
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per week. And that doesn't make sense as
11:23
we hear it, but we we take that logic a lot of times where it's
11:26
like, I can't do the full thing, so I'm not going to do any of
11:30
the thing. But I think when it comes here
11:32
with the flow, it's like, OK, maybe we can't get that long a
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time, but how can we still try and find those smaller, smaller
11:39
batches of that focus time that's going to be much better
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than just living a distracted day the entire time.
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So like an example is like what if we got a 30 minute period
11:50
earlier in the morning, OK. And then maybe later we, we
11:53
found 30 or 40 minutes and then we got 30 minutes later in the
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25 minutes. That adds up to almost like like
11:59
2 hours right there where I, I feel like all of us can, can
12:02
carve out those smaller pockets of time and it in there, you may
12:07
not even get that much. But again, something is going to
12:10
be better than nothing, especially for being intentional
12:12
with what we do during that time.
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Now you might be thinking, OK, if we're only doing like a 30
12:17
minute block, is that enough time to actually get into flow?
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And I think there's some contents we can take to try and
12:23
drop into flow faster and in less time to, to actually get
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more out of those smaller blocks.
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And I think one of those things is you got to know exactly what
12:34
you're going to work on and have extremely clear, right?
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Clear goals is a major flow trigger, right?
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There's, there's, there's, there's quite a few flow
12:41
triggers that really help you drop into flow faster.
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We're not going to dig into all those, but clear goals is, is a
12:48
very important one for myself. Sometimes the hardest part of
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focus and having deeper work is actually knowing what I want to
12:56
do or need to work on. Sometimes I feel like I'm just
12:58
spinning in circles like I could work on this, I could read this,
13:02
I could go after this and I just keep going back and forth.
13:04
Or maybe I'm like trying to do one thing and I'm not getting
13:07
into it. I go another thing and you're
13:08
just, you're not really going anywhere and, and you look up at
13:11
the end of that 30-40 minutes and you haven't really done
13:14
anything. But it's important before you
13:16
step into that, that block, like, no, what am I going to do?
13:20
What do I need to accomplish? And and even breaking into
13:23
smaller tasks, I think extreme extremely effective and really
13:27
getting the value out of that time and dropping into flow
13:30
faster because if we're just trying to figure out what we
13:33
need to do, it's hard to drop into that deep focus state.
13:36
One thing that also is is a really, really effective thing
13:41
is this concept of peak exits, right?
13:43
I've heard this from Steven Kotler, and I think he
13:46
referenced like Tim Ferriss talking about it and also Ernest
13:50
Hemingway, the author. Like when they write where?
13:54
When? When they're like really rolling
13:56
and they're writing like the words are flowing and they know
13:59
exactly where to go next, that's when they would stop.
14:02
And then that may sound counterintuitive.
14:04
It's like, don't we want to keep leveraging that state?
14:07
But when you quit at your best moment and you know exactly
14:11
where to go when you come back to that the next time, it makes
14:15
it so much easier to get started right away because you know
14:19
where you're going and you can just drop into it and you can
14:21
drop into flow faster. Just like we're talking about
14:24
those clear goals and having clarity, right?
14:26
We don't have to figure out or we don't have to face the blank
14:29
page. I think that's the hard like if
14:31
we're talking about writing specifically, that's the hardest
14:33
thing. When there's just that curt,
14:34
that blank cursor going back and forth on the page and you and
14:37
you're not really sure where to start.
14:39
The words haven't started flowing yet.
14:41
That's the hardest part. So if you can drop in where you
14:45
are already at your best and you know what's coming next, you
14:48
start getting the words flowing right from there, right from the
14:51
start, then it allows you to keep going and go into other
14:55
aspects and it just keeps building from there.
14:58
So I think that's something we can apply to a lot of parts of
15:01
our work where it's like, OK, let's quit at our best moment.
15:05
So then when we pick this up, we can drop straight into it and
15:08
get right into that focused and clarity of what we're doing.
15:11
One other thing I think is to try and use release activities
15:15
throughout our day to remember that release comes after the
15:17
struggle and that's going to be kind of like just tedious
15:20
things. And when we're not having any
15:22
input through that. So like, don't, don't like be
15:24
listening to a podcast, but you know, maybe we're, we have that
15:27
30 minute block. And then, then I, I put flex
15:30
time after that where maybe I'm having to, you know, I don't
15:32
know, like go for a walk or, or clean something or, or fill the
15:35
nutrition station. And I'm doing these things and
15:39
I'm allowing this release to happen that, that I already have
15:42
to get these tasks done. OK, so it's not like I'm adding
15:46
this extra thing in, but now I'm allowing this release to happen
15:50
my, my brain and mind to work on these problems that I was
15:53
struggling through. So then maybe when I get back to
15:57
that next clear or focus block of 30 minutes, my mind's been
16:01
working on that problem. I can drop into flow faster and
16:04
really get the, get the ideas flowing.
16:07
Now, another really, really effective thing I've found to
16:10
think about is sequencing. And, and I heard this, I think I
16:14
remember Tony Robbins was on Tim Ferriss podcast and they were
16:17
talking about sequencing. And he, he brought the idea of
16:20
like, OK, if there's the sentence like Jack ate the
16:22
chicken versus the chicken ate Jack right there.
16:26
They're the same words, they're built of the same exact things.
16:29
But because of the sequencing, it's a very different outcome.
16:33
And what I found it, it's the same with our days and our
16:36
activities. We can greatly impact what we
16:39
get out of our time without actually adding anything, but
16:42
just by changing the sequencing of what we do and how we do it.
16:47
So some some ideas as as you think about this is like we can
16:51
utilize the mindless, tedious tasks that we already have to
16:55
get done throughout our day after our flow blocks as release
16:59
activities. And it kind of what I mentioned
17:01
before as to drop into flow faster.
17:04
And so we're letting our mind work during this time by
17:07
strategically placing these activities after those periods
17:10
of or periods of flow that we had.
17:13
Again, some examples of this could be like cleaning, could be
17:17
cooking, like, and when I was at this is my last year over you
17:20
when I was really digging into this stuff and I would really
17:22
use like when I'd have to like make smoothies, right?
17:26
Or stock to nutrition station or, or like the cleaning, the
17:29
weight room, stuff like that, where I already had to do these
17:31
things, but now I'm OK. I do my, I try and do like 30-4
17:34
minutes of deep work. And then I'm going into this and
17:36
I'm not listening to music. I'm not talking up or listen to
17:39
a podcast. I'm just letting my mind and
17:41
work as I do these easy tasks that kind of take my the
17:45
intentionality of my mind off the problem, but in the
17:47
background it's still working on this great.
17:50
Some other ideas is is putting exercise after flow blocks or or
17:56
doing flex time after flow blocks.
17:57
Like another thing I do is I would at or you I'd cook
18:01
breakfast for the team each morning and I would have maybe
18:04
some of that deep work time. Then maybe I'd cook as release
18:07
stuff. And then maybe I'd have that
18:08
flex time where the guys I would have, I would have like 8 to 9
18:13
is when the guys could come in and collect that breakfast and I
18:15
would be there kind of make sure they get in that.
18:17
But maybe I'd, I'd start working out during that time.
18:20
Or maybe I'm doing tedious tasks like emails and messages and
18:23
different stuff like that where like as the guys are coming in
18:26
versus trying to, again, trying to have that focused time where
18:29
I, I like, I'm for sure going to get distracted and have a
18:33
conversation. Stations guys are going to come
18:34
in and just talk to me. So now I have that I'm going in
18:37
with no expectation to have deep work.
18:41
So then there's no frustration when I get distracted, right?
18:44
So I had those conversations. I can still be working out or I
18:47
still I can, I can be cleaning soccer, nutrition station,
18:49
whatever it is I'm getting these things done, but I'm not getting
18:53
frustrated from a lack of focus. Now, another key thing I think
18:58
with that is to get OK being bored.
19:02
And what I mean by that is like it's so easy to fill the boredom
19:06
and fill the space. Nowadays, if you know, I'm on a
19:09
car ride, I can listen to music or a podcast or talk to somebody
19:12
on the phone. And if I'm walking up, you can
19:14
always have something on the headphones.
19:15
And if you're cleaning, you're always doing stuff.
19:17
If you're doing these small tasks or if you're in line at at
19:21
the store or if you're going the bathroom, you can always be
19:24
scrolling. I think there's, there's a lot
19:26
of there's so much value in being bored in those times and
19:31
not having input coming out because then those times can
19:35
become times of release and recovery release where we're
19:39
doing these small tasks or we're just sitting there and letting
19:41
our mind wander. And it starts to that's when
19:44
often times the best ideas come about or when our brain is
19:47
working on these things are also, if I maybe I've have flow
19:50
and now I'm just letting my mind and recover what it, what it's
19:52
also doing is it's allowing work to become more appealing to our
19:57
brain, right? If we're always doing these
19:58
stimulating things on our phone, right, that's going to be way
20:02
more appealing than the focus work to our brain.
20:06
But if if we have no input coming in and we're just
20:08
allowing ourselves to be bored now, it's like, hey, that work
20:12
and that that deep thinking, that's actually really appealing
20:15
to me because that sounds a lot more stimulating.
20:18
Than doing nothing. So, so it's just a great
20:21
incubation period for your mind and just recovery for your mind
20:24
to sustain more work. So I think that that's a, that's
20:30
a major, major area that I'm struggling in right now as I'm
20:35
definitely filling that space most times with podcasts with
20:39
way too much scrolling of Instagram and all that.
20:43
And I need to re prioritize that for myself because I've seen it
20:47
make a big difference. But I've seen the ideas that
20:51
continue to pop up when you're just even in the car with no
20:55
music or you're going for the walk without listening to that
20:58
podcast or you're just cleaning or cooking or whatever it is
21:01
without input coming in 24/7 throughout the day.
21:05
So that that's something I can't encourage enough.
21:08
I mean, I think that along with those other period points of how
21:11
we're sequencing our days, right?
21:13
It doesn't make us add anything more to our days, but it makes
21:16
such a big difference in terms of our focus and just the ideas
21:20
that are coming in. So I really encourage you to try
21:23
some of those things and, and, and to wrap kind of this whole
21:25
thing up. Some of the ideas we've talked
21:26
about and some practical steps to take is 1.
21:29
I'll try and set time for those flow block flow blocks and
21:33
protect that time. Get rid of your phone, get rid
21:36
of distractions. Find a spot, a quiet place where
21:39
you're not going to get distracted from other people and
21:41
work on your most important work during that time.
21:43
Set other time throughout the day as flex time where you can
21:47
get less focus. Focus need a task done and it's
21:50
OK if you get interrupted or distracted.
21:52
If you don't have time for the longer flow blocks then let's
21:56
let's try micro dosing smaller blocks throughout your day for
21:59
those have task clarity and set clear goals to drop into flow
22:03
faster. You can also use those peak
22:05
exits to know exactly where to start so you can drop into it
22:09
and get into it with real clarity there and be specific
22:13
with your task sequencing to get more out of your time without
22:17
ever actually changing the activities you're doing or
22:19
adding more time into your day. Lastly, fill your day with as
22:22
much release activities after flow blocks and throughout the
22:25
day as possible and get OK being bored.
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I love learning about this stuff and I hope it will was helpful
22:31
to you. If this was interesting, let me
22:34
know and I can dig deeper into some topics like this more
22:36
often. But thank you for listening and
22:39
we will see you next time on the Strength in Numbers podcast.