Getting Into The Flow Or The Zone

by Mike Levin

Being able to get into the flow or the zone on-demand is such a wonderful gift, or as it seems, developed ability. As a programmer who has had to work in the cubicle environment for the greater part of the past 15 years, it was an ability that was agonizingly denied to me. Getting knocked out of the zone is a trigger. With lockdown and quarantine, I’ve had the opportunity to re-achieve this state again.

Working from home can help if you can actually block the distractions. For some people it may be exactly the reverse, but ever since the trend of offices has plummeted in the workplace, so had my programming productivity. Happily, it is back! Not everyone can, but at home I find I can filer out those things interruptions about 1000x better than in an office cubicle.

The ability to get into the zone is heavily tied to my “feeding the love-worthiness of things” concepts. An interesting spin was put on it in the Disney Pixar movie Soul where people who do it to excess (collectors and such) living too far removed from objective reality and actually go into dark places. I haven’t heard that spin on it before. Honestly I wish I had the opportunity for being in the zone so much for it to be a pitfall.

Do you live in a cubicle?
Would you like to think?
Heaphones aren’t how you roll?
Feel your spirit sink.
Never fear. The end is near.
Management forbid!
Productive mind is redefined
Thanks to the covid.