What is your “flow state”? Combined with technology, this can reverse productivity declines

Weak ping. Unread emails. Multiple deadlines. Distractions unnerve even the most productive employees, making it difficult for them to focus on deep work that solves problems and generates new ideas.

Productivity in Canada hits headline-grabbing lows. In 2023, the labor productivity of Canadian businesses decreased by an average of 1.8%. – this is the third annual decline in a row. While this number refers to economic performance on a macro scale, it is worth looking at the productivity of individual workers as a fraction of the total.

Before your eyes roll: We’re working harder than ever. Ontario’s introduction of the right to disconnect is a signal that workers – and their managers – don’t know how to log off.

We have too much on our plate and not enough time in the day to clear it all. Tasks are often of low value, reducing time for valuable work that significantly contributes to organizations, teams and the bottom line.

Bosses who spend too much energy tracking mouse clicks or forcing mandatory returns to the office may be making the workload problem worse rather than solving it.

What is the answer? For many, it is technology – productive.

Lexi Pathak, president and partner of Faulhaber Communications, a Toronto-based public relations firm, has grown her business but downsized her office space since the pandemic.

“Instead of spending this money on real estate, we’re investing it in software,” Ms. Pathak says, noting that various technology subscriptions make up a significant portion of the company’s budget, and spending on these tools has doubled in the past several years.

“In PR, you are expected to see everything, know everything, hear everything and stay informed for our clients. This cannot be done without technology.

Ms. Pathak’s team uses tools such as Tracker, a platform that checks influencer engagement rates and brand offerings, Semrush for search engine optimization, and Sprout Social for social media listening. The team is also exploring project management tools to centralize tasks: Asana and ClickUp are on the way.

“From a management perspective, it will allow us to see the entire workflow in a holistic, simple place.”

Jane Bradshaw, who works in communications and marketing at Canadian startup Silk and Snow, is a convert to ClickUp. “It really helped me to be able to track my contribution to the entire marketing mix, from operations to product to customer experience. I can receive automated emails and notifications to help me meet my deadlines.”

Ms Bradshaw says having visibility into everyone’s work helps her stay on task and prioritize.

Another piece of the productivity puzzle is making sure your team wholeheartedly adopts often expensive technologies and uses them to their full potential. An initial implementation and learning process is inevitable.

To speed things up, Faulhaber established an implementation team.

“They conduct research, validate tools, structure our policies, and then work with the team to ensure comfort levels and implementation,” Ms. Pathak says. “And then there’s the conversation. How do you find it? What are you doing?”

Chelsey Burnside, partner and creative director at content and branding agency Academy Inc, likes to hold quarterly update sessions to make sure everyone on her team is informed and that implementation is consistent.

Ms. Burnside is a fan of Waldo, the new AI research assistant for strategists. “It’s really good at summarizing huge amounts of data and providing information that’s relevant to what you’re working on,” he says.

Nearly all modern software has begun or is already layering artificial intelligence (AI) features to create stacks of features that can do everything from cropping a close-up image in seconds to instantly making agendas and transcribing meeting notes. ChatGPT is arguably the most ubiquitous AI tool of all, following a major technological leap in late 2022.

Ms. Pathak uses it to instantly update her blog posts on the company website. “I’ll put it out there and ask for the facts and figures to be updated to be relevant for 2024, and it’ll be done in a matter of seconds,” he says.

The ideal result of all this adoption and optimization is to give employees more time to “ship” – get products and solutions out into the world and then iterate and improve them.

According to productivity experts like Cory Firth, technology is only part of the story. Mr. Firth is an executive coach, TEDx speaker, consultant and entrepreneur. His coaching services focus on moving overworked managers into their zone of optimal productivity, known as the “flow state.”

Mr. Firth defines the flow state as “moving beyond our normal waking awareness and our attachment to time to achieve an optimal state of focus and heightened awareness.” He compares flow states to dream states. “You have light sleep, REM sleep, and deep sleep.”

Flow has four stages: the struggle phase (“it’s hard to focus, you have a to-do list in your head”), the release phase (“you let things go and the rush of feel-good chemicals flows away”). to the brain”), then a state of true flow (“where you are at a heightened level of awareness and presence, there is no self-awareness and sense of time; nothing stands in the way, everything seems easy”). The last stage, just like after training, is regeneration.

He adds that even the most productive people can only maintain peak flow for about 90 minutes. “When we think about the flow state, we often imagine creators or athletes who optimize this state, but everyone should strive to achieve flow.”

A fluency mindset requires some discipline, eliminating distractions and resisting the temptation to multitask.

“Most clients I work with think they have to do 20-30 things a day when really it should only be four,” says Mr Firth. He also advises his clients to get up at 5 a.m. during the week and start working immediately. “For most people, the flow state occurs in the morning,” he explains.

While Mr Firth is a fan of productivity platforms like Notion (“it’s a universal system that we’re all connected to, but can be personalized”), his final advice is to rely on the natural technologies in our bodies to do our best work.

Most employees are part of larger corporate systems, and introducing “flow states” or reducing the 5 a.m. to-do list may be more difficult to implement. However, putting more trust in employees and giving them more autonomy in controlling their time can make a significant difference.

“A lot of the companies I work with have open calendars,” says Mr. Firth, “so I can go into anyone’s calendar and see when they’re available and book them into a meeting, which makes it even more difficult.” These small disruptions in their daily lives can impact hours of future productivity.

Mr Firth’s advice to employers comes down to “understanding who you work with and how they like to work”. Then you need to build systems and tools that allow for deep work, not distract from it.

It’s not exactly a “productivity hack,” but it’s a good start.