Friction to Flow

Performance Soars

“In the zone, time slows down, self-consciousness disappears, and performance soars.“

Steven Kotler
Flow researcher & author

Your brain has natural peaks and valleys throughout the day – like waves.

When you catch the right wave and match your hardest work to your peak energy, that’s when magic happens.

Fighting against your natural rhythms is like swimming upstream – exhausting and ineffective.

One thing you could do this week to reduce friction and increase flow:

Individual’s Tip: Track when you feel most alert for 5 days (morning? after lunch?). Schedule your hardest work for those times. Turn off Slack and email during those windows.
Team Leader Tip: Block out 2 hours twice this week where your team can work uninterrupted. No meetings, no Slack. Tell them what needs doing and let them get lost in it.
Executive Leader: Try “Deep Work Wednesdays” – no meetings before noon company-wide. Watch what happens to productivity. Start with one department if needed.