No.1 Flow Expert: How to Enter Deep Lock-In Mode
Flow researcher Steven Kotler joins The Knowledge Project to explain how to train flow states, from the 4% challenge rule to focus habits, and how surfing helped him recover from Lyme disease.
The gist
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Kotler says returning to your primary flow activity, skiing in his case, for 2 to 4 hours a week makes flow easier at work and eases burnout.
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He sets tasks about 4% beyond current skills, writing 500 words a day when starting a book, or 300 when tired.
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For focus, Kotler batches communications, works toward 90-minute blocks, and writes from 3:30 or 4am, when nobody needs him.
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Kotler says be more playful, since deliberate play beats deliberate practice outside fields like math and violin, and read 25 pages daily, ideally textbooks.
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After three years sick with Lyme disease, Kotler credits surfing with taking him from about 10% to 80% functional, saying flow resets the nervous system.
"If you're really burnt out, doubling down on your primary flow activity is sort of the only way back... research shows that like two to four hours a week is about what it takes on your primary flow activity. So, the first place to start if you're training flow is actually the ..."
▶ Play at 8:57"When I'm starting a book, I like to write about 500 words a day. And so that's right in that 4% sweet spot for me... If I didn't get any sleep last night... I wouldn't ask myself to write 500 words. That would be too hard. I'd do 300 words."
▶ Play at 15:502 creators recommend it, including Hunter Biden.
See all on the Writing page"We pay the most attention to the task at hand when the challenge of that task slightly exceeds our skill set. So, you want to stretch but not snap... what we discovered is if you stayed in that sweet spot, you never plateaued. You would get more flow and more flow and more flo..."
▶ Play at 10:01"You have an awake and alert cycle. It's the exact same, like this 90 to 110 minutes long. Your brain is biologically designed to focus for 90-minute slots. So I always tell people, when we're training them in flow, start by starting. If you can only focus for 10 minutes at a t..."
▶ Play at 14:41"So, limit communication channels, keep one channel open for emergency. So, like your boss or your wife or whatever. One channel for emergency. Get rid of the others, batch communications. So communications in the morning, the end of the day."
▶ Play at 14:11"I always talk about the importance of non-time. I get up and start my writing day about 3:30, 4:00 every day. And one of the reasons is nobody bugs me. Nobody owns 4:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. ... there are days I got to spend an hour or 2 hours on a sentence. And if you're asking m..."
▶ Play at 51:54"If you're outside of a bounded discipline, which is pretty much almost everything else other than like musical instruments and a couple other things, deliberate play outperforms deliberate practice significantly... when we play versus when we repeat the same thing with increme..."
▶ Play at 25:16"One of the things I will always have people I'm working with do is read a minimum of 25 pages a day, usually in a book. I think books are the best, cuz you have to stock the pattern recognition system with ammunition... I like reading books because they're just the densest for..."
▶ Play at 36:303 creators recommend it, including Cal Newport and Jonathan Courtney.
See all on the Reading page"I spend most of my time these days reading textbooks, cuz I think it's the ultimate edge. I love them cuz literally you have the best people in the world summarizing and putting all their most important stuff into it, and nobody else reads them."
▶ Play at 40:20What they recommend · 10 picks
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5 picks · Steven Kotler ·Steven's productivity →
"We pay the most attention to the task at hand when the challenge of that task slightly exceeds our skill set. So, you want to stretch but not snap... what we discovered is if yo..."
"You have an awake and alert cycle. It's the exact same, like this 90 to 110 minutes long. Your brain is biologically designed to focus for 90-minute slots. So I always tell peop..."
"If you're outside of a bounded discipline, which is pretty much almost everything else other than like musical instruments and a couple other things, deliberate play outperforms..."
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"If you're really burnt out, doubling down on your primary flow activity is sort of the only way back... research shows that like two to four hours a week is about what it takes ..."
"When I'm starting a book, I like to write about 500 words a day. And so that's right in that 4% sweet spot for me... If I didn't get any sleep last night... I wouldn't ask mysel..."
"She wrote me a prescription, doxycycline. And within 3 days, I just started feeling improvement."
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2 picks · Steven Kotler ·Steven's books →
"One of the things I will always have people I'm working with do is read a minimum of 25 pages a day, usually in a book. I think books are the best, cuz you have to stock the pat..."
"I spend most of my time these days reading textbooks, cuz I think it's the ultimate edge. I love them cuz literally you have the best people in the world summarizing and putting..."
Steven Kotler
9 picks · guest
"If you're really burnt out, doubling down on your primary flow activity is sort of the only way back... research shows that like two to four hours a week is about what it takes ..."
"We pay the most attention to the task at hand when the challenge of that task slightly exceeds our skill set. So, you want to stretch but not snap... what we discovered is if yo..."
"You have an awake and alert cycle. It's the exact same, like this 90 to 110 minutes long. Your brain is biologically designed to focus for 90-minute slots. So I always tell peop..."
The Knowledge Project Podcast
1 pick · host
"She wrote me a prescription, doxycycline. And within 3 days, I just started feeling improvement."
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