How to Get Into the Zone

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

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Everyone aspires to get into “the zone,” or the mental state where you do your best work. Next time you’re trying to achieve peak performance, remember these three things:

• There is no zone for new activities. When you start a new task, you’re not going to find flow. Getting in the zone requires activating the subconscious part of the brain, which is simply inaccessible when you are trying something for the first time.

• You need the right environment. Figure out the settings that facilitate your flow — be it a crowded coffee shop or a quiet library — and work in them whenever possible.

• Emotions are key. Being in the zone requires finding the feelings that allow your subconscious to take over. Music can help activate these emotions. Find songs, albums, or artists that put you in the right mood and block out distractions.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “How to Get into Your Zone” by James Allworth.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

Also, you may wish to check out Management Tips from Harvard Business Review by clicking here.

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To read his other articles, please click here.

James Allworth is the co-author of How Will You Measure Your Life?. He has worked as a Fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation (FGI) at Harvard Business School, at Apple, and Booz & Company. Connect with him on Twitter at @jamesallworth.

You may also wish to check out Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, written by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (mee-hy cheek-sent-mah-hy-ee),  a Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22. Now at Claremont Graduate University, he is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.

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