Today I’ll show you how you can use a cutting edge theory in Psychology called Flow to improve your study sessions.

What’s Flow?

The theory of Flow was developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (His name is as painful to type as it is to pronounce, so we’ll call him Dr. C. for short.)

Throughout his career, Dr. C. has interviewed thousands of experts in different activities, from burly rock climbers to no-so-burly chess players, from tough sailors to limber dancers. What Dr. C discovered in his decades of research is really cool: All these different people used similar language to describe their experiences. Although they were all experts in different activities, the state of mind they were in when they were working was very much the same.

In The Zone

Have you ever been totally bored out of your mind? Well the flow state is the exact opposite of that. You’re completely and utterly engaged in what you’re doing at the moment. You’re so “in the zone,” that nothing could distract you from the task at hand. Sound familiar?

A description might go something like this:

“When I’m [playing video games, climbing, playing ball, etc] it’s like nothing else matters. I’m so focused on what I’m doing, all my other thoughts and worries just disappear. Time stands still, and I feel like I’m in complete control and everything is just flowing along. It’s a great feeling.”

It’s obvious now why Doc C. calls this state of mind “flow,” because that’s one word that many people use to describe their experience.

Dr. C describes it as a state where consciousness is highly organized. Think of it this way: Usually our minds are like a half finished puzzle. A lot of the pieces are in the right places, but a lot of them are scattered all over the place too. In the flow state, most of the puzzle pieces of our mind are in the right place. Everything is organized and in order.

Reading the quote I gave earlier, you might be able to think of some activity that brings about the flow state for you. Most of us have them (One of them for me is writing. I guess that’s good right?) It’s usually something we enjoy so much, that we do it for the sake of doing it.

And it gets even better. Dr. C. discovered that some people can enter the flow state more easily than others. Not only that, but we can learn how to enter the flow state whenever we want to. And some people have even learned how to stay in the state of flow all of the time!

Why is flow so important for learning?

The flow state is all about organization. Your consciousness is so highly organized in this state that super concentration is easy, and memorizing new information is a snap! Who wouldn’t want that when they’re studying for a big test?

Pretty cool right? So now let’s get to the good stuff: How we can apply this theory to studying, which for most people is about as fun as trimming Big Foot’s toenails.

What makes flow?

First of all, we have to know what makes flow…well, flow. This list, courtesy of PickTheBrain.com, has the features that are usually present in a flow producing activity:

1. You’re challenged by the task at hand. This seems to be the ‘prime directive’ to achieving Flow and can actually prevent you from being in a state of Flow. The difficulty of your task has to be “just right”. If the task is to easy, you’ll get bored and eventually stop. If the task is to difficult, you’ll get frustrated and eventually stop. Either way, you loose.
2. The ability to concentrate is key. If there are to many interruptions or it’s noisy, you won’t be able to concentrate on your task. No concentration, no Flow.
3. You have clear goals to achieve. Goals establish a mechanism to measure your progress and provide a sense of achievement. People in Flow achieve their goals.
4. You receive immediate feedback. Either your ball landed in the cup or it didn’t. You know immediately if your goal was reached or not.
5. Your worries and frustrations of everyday life recede into the background. This perhaps is one of the greatest benefit of Flow. You’re busy concentrating on your task and the rest of your world just “goes away” for a short while. Even though you’re challenged, you end up relaxed, satisfied and you achieved something meaningful (all this, and it’s legal too).
6. Your sense of self disappears (only for a while). When it re-appears, you’re refreshed with an even stronger sense of self.
7. You have a level of control over your actions while performing your task.
8. You loose track of time and feel great when you’re done with your task.

So with that list in mind, here are some tricks you can try to turn the typical snooze-fest study session into something that’s more fun and engaging.

5 tricks for making your study sessions floooow

1) Set aside time and place to study

If you don’t have time, make some. Don’t study in between customers at work, or during commercials for American Idol. Study in a quiet place free from distractions.

Decide how long you’re going to study for, and then stick to it. If you set aside an hour, study for a whole hour. The best thing you can do is set a time to finish at, e.g. “I will study until 6:30.”

Try to limit your breaks. How are you gonna stay focused when you’re getting up every five minutes? If you’re constantly taking breaks, you’ll never have a chance to get into the flow state.

2) Listen to music before you start studying.

There has been a lot of hype about classical music boosting brain power. Maybe it does, maybe not. But listening to classical music can help you get into a highly focused state before you hit the books. Of course you can listen to any kind of music you want, but classical music is great for 2 reasons: It is very highly structured, and doesn’t have vocals, which can be distracting.

The key here is to actually listen to the music, not have it on in the background. If it’s just background noise, it’s a distraction. When it’s time to study, turn the music down or even better, off.

3) Turn it into a game by setting goals and creating fun challenges.

Dr. C says that the purpose behind most games we play is to get us into the flow state. So try to make your study sessions fun! Creating goals and challenges will help you get focused while keeping a light-hearted approach.

You want to create a challenge for yourself that’s hard, but not too difficult. How long do you think it would take you to study a chapter? Well chop 15-30 minutes off that, and then see if you can still answer the questions at the end of the chapter.

If you are using flash cards, set a goal of how many you’re going to get right the first time through. Then try to beat your score the second time through (and third time and so on.)

4) Be observant. Notice novelty.

Might sound corny, but you want to be totally immersed in your studying “experience.” You want your whole mind engaged in what you’re doing.

One way you can do this is to make a habit of noticing everything. Feel free to let your mind wander just a little bit while you’re studying. Not a lot. You’re studying, not planning your weekend or deciding what you’re going to eat for dinner. But let your mind go where it wants to within the realm of the subject you’re studying.

Be curious. When you read over unfamiliar words, what images come to mind?

Example: You’re reading about different structures of the brain in your textbook, when you come across the word “hippocampus.” What pops in your mind when you read that word? Maybe it’s an image of a big gray hippo. Maybe you picture a college campus with winding sidewalks and manicured grass. Or maybe you picture a giant hippo rampaging through a college campus!

When you really start to notice things, you’ll discover that you brain makes all kinds of weird connections! Noticing these strange connections will not only help you stay in that flow state, but it will also strengthen your memory.

5) Measure your success with self testing

Another feature of flow producing activities is that they usually provide “direct and immediate feedback.” Translation: they have built in ways of letting you know if you’re doing a good job or not. Like your score in a game.

Try out continuous self testing, which I wrote about a while back.

Alternatively, try writing down sample questions while you’re studying. Pretend like you’re writing a test, and come up with a few questions as you go along. When you have 3-5 questions written down, take a break and see if you can answer them. You might be surprised to find that you’ve already forgotten the answers! That has the added benefit of showing you how little you might actually be paying attention to what you’re doing.

These are just a few examples of what you can do. Everyone is different, and you’d do best by coming up with your own methods of staying “in the flow.” If you do come up with your own, post a comment below and share your great ideas with us!

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