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It’s one of life’s ironies that we often choose tospend time passively as a gift to ourselves,when true satisfaction and deep happinesscome from doing the things that require moreof us.

You can’t force the flow state, but you canenable it to happen. Once you’ve chosen agood flow-inducing activity, the first step is toconcentrate on what you’re doing. Don’t try tomultitask—that just keeps you from fullyfocusing on any of the things you’re trying todo. Let yourself be absorbed by one task. If distractions tempt you, acknowledge them butdirect yourself back into your work. If youthink of something else that you really want toresearch or need to remember to do, makeyourself a little note and go back to whatyou’re doing.33
This may be difficult at first. We’re a society ofquick changes and constant interruptions. Butyou can get in shape for it just like buildingmuscles by exercising. To start, plan to workfor 20 minutes straight, then take a 10-minutebreak. Knowing a break is coming as a rewardis very helpful in the beginning, andcommitting to stick with your task for 20minutes is also crucial. Set a timer for 20minutes or write down your start time, anddon’t stop until time is up. You may encountermany distractions and temptations. The worstobstacle may be that you really don’t want todo the task or it seems scary or overwhelming.Keep telling yourself it’s only 20 minutes, thenyou’ll get a break. Keep working until then.When the time is up, feel the satisfaction ofhaving stuck with it. Reward yourself with abreak, and notice how much progress youmade. Twenty minutes isn’t long, but it’ssurprising how much you can accomplish inthat time if you focus.As you keep repeating this process, it getseasier and easier. Especially, for me, thehardest part of a task is starting. Once I’vespent one or two blocks of 20 minutes on it, Iget some traction and have a much easiertime. If you’re stuck at the beginning, anotherthing that helps is using some of your first 20-minute block to make a plan of attack andstart breaking the task down. As you reduce itto smaller and smaller pieces, it becomes moreconcrete. You start to see how you could doeach piece, and it becomes less daunting.As you keep working in 20-minute increments,you may find that the timer goes off rightwhen you’re in the middle of something andyou actually don’t want to stop. Awesome!Keep going! Give yourself a break when you doget tired or reach a good stopping point.As you develop the ability to get absorbed andwork on your project for longer stretches, youmay actually find the timer counter-productiveif it startles you out of your flow state and backinto awareness of the world and time passing.If you find that’s the case for you, instead ofusing a timer, just record the start time of eachsession. If you’re longing for a break, look atthe clock and direct yourself back into the taskuntil 20 minutes is up, but if you’re flowingaway at the task, you won’t be interrupted bythe timer.Try to eliminate or minimize other sources ofinterruption, too. Anything that forces you tosurface from the flow state is the enemy ofyour gratifying work. If you’re working onsomething really serious or important, it’sworth turning off the phone, putting a note on55your door, and definitely turning off the emailauto-notification. If it’s urgent, people will finda way to get your attention, but otherwise,they can wait until your break.Gratifying work that takes you to the flow stateis a great source of true, deep happiness. Thesatisfaction of accomplishing things feels good,and the flow state is downright addictive. Ifyou can combine that with doing somethingyou love, it’s an abundant and reliable sourceof happiness that’s available any time you wantit.