In other words, anyone who’s a knowledge worker spends their working moments somewhere between two states: choke and flow.

Flow is a state of mind that gives you complete, energized focus on the task at hand. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes this state as being completely involved in a task, feeling a sense of ecstasy and clarity, and losing your awareness of time (a summary from Lateral Action can be found here). There are many alternative words used to describe flow. Programmers may call this “deep hack mode,” while athletes refer to it as being “in the zone.”

The other end of the scale is the “choke”, also known as a creative block. When you choke, your performance becomes poor or your work process is halted because of anxiety — even if you’re normally skilled and have performed exceptionally well in the past. Choking is a state full of worry, self-handicapping and pressure. Author Steven Pressfield calls this state “Resistance”, but other words used to describe this feeling include “mental block”, “writer’s block”,  and “performance anxiety”. When choking takes over your workday and accomplishing anything seems impossible, it may feel like an uphill battle.

So how does one encourage flow and break down blocks?

To avoid being crushed into inaction by our creative blocks, we need to understand how to break them. In a radio interview, psychologist Andy Evans of Arts Psychology Consultants discussed a two-pronged approach to breaking creative blocks: eliminate or lessen the elements that are causing the block, and to build up one’s self-esteem and confidence. How this is accomplished varies individually, but here are a few areas to start with:

Removing the Block

Some creative blocks are caused or triggered by complex issues such as depression or personal tragedies. But for the simpler, more mundane blocks we encounter regularly, they are mostly caused by distractions: thoughts and objects that take away our attention from our work. You may be worrying about what to cook for lunch, the laundry you have to do, or a client’s late payment. Instead of using your brain’s energy and resources on your work, they are spent on these. Fortunately, you can deal with these distractions accordingly:

• To avoid being bothered by miscellaneous tasks and errands, give them their own place and time. Schedule them for later so that even if you can’t do them now, you know that you’ve allotted time for them.
• Establishing routines also helps clear your mental clutter. If you find that you worry too much about food preparation, then prepare your ingredients and meals in batches. Or have a list of two or three “default” meals to buy if you don’t want to spend time thinking about what to eat.
• But if you find yourself interrupted by unforeseen, multiple worries such as a late paycheck, an argument with your boss, or other personal concerns, taking a break to mediate or do a mind sweep may help.

Once you feel like all the blocks you can control have been removed, it’s time to build your confidence to start working without choking.

Building Confidence

To gain confidence, we must take the pressure off. During creative work, we may have the tendency to control even the smallest details to ensure that the final output will be great. This may come in the form of editing, rewriting, and re-editing the first sentence of an article before finishing the first draft, or by erasing and redrawing imperfect lines in a pencil sketch. This is especially true if we are working in front of an audience (PDF) — whether they are supportive or not. As some studies (PDF) show, this extreme self-consciousness during a task we’re competent at, especially one we’ve heavily practiced, can lead to a decline in performance.

A simple way to put it is that if we waste our brain’s resources over-thinking how we’re going to do something we normally do well, we don’t leave enough brain power for the creative act itself. So instead of dwelling on unnecessary details, maybe it’s better to remind yourself that you’ve done this work before and trust the instincts that you’ve honed over the years.

Getting to “Flow”

But getting to the flow state requires more than alleviating pressure. It means we should sit down and work long enough to get to the point where our vision of the work is clear and we’re not distracted by anything else. But working on the web gives us easy access to hundreds of distractions. How do we avoid giving in, especially when being distracted has become a habit?

Positive self-talk (PDF) can be a simple way to start. When we encourage ourselves too keep working and not check Facebook or Twitter for the umpteenth time, it may help us curb our impulses and resist temptation.

And if that doesn’t seem to work, previous posts from Amber, Darrell, and Georgina contain other suggestions on how to focus and get back to the task at hand.

Going from choke to flow may seem easy on paper but, in reality, it’s different for everyone. It may even be different for you every time you encounter it. Ultimately, the best way to break down creative blocks and get to the flow state is to be aware enough when it happens so that you can test and apply what works for you.

How often do you experience creative blocks and how long do they usually last? What do you do to break them?

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I, on the other hand, looked forward to these workshops.  I believe that this was the activity that gave me the best preparation for web working.  Like those workshops, online freelance work tends to be a public affair.  Your blog posts, design work, marketing efforts, and most of your business output is done where the public can see them.  In a way, you’re putting your work in front of a firing squad.

Believe it or not, this is a great thing.

Criticism is the best way to see the flaws you’ve overlooked in your work, especially when you’re not expecting it (through an email from a random site visitor, for example).  It’s very easy to overlook your own mistakes since your mind is so familiar with what you’re doing.  But, as web workers, the platform we use for our work isn’t just in our minds – it’s on the computer screen.  Sometimes, there’s a discrepancy between what we’re trying to do and what we actually did.

This is why many people – writers, programmers, and designers – sometimes step away from their computer after working for several hours.  It’s easier to spot errors when you distance yourself from the work you’re doing and you return later with a fresh perspective.  And what could be fresher than someone else’s opinion?  Especially the opinion of someone who is unfamiliar with the details of your work.

This is where your personal firing squad comes in.  They’re the ones who can tell you what you actually did and what you failed to do.  It’s better to get their opinion and correct your flaws before the client or the general public sees your work.

Another important thing you’d learn from critics and naysayers is the difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism.  If you listen to every single troll out there who yells “FAIL!” at you, then you’re accepting the impossible task of trying to please everybody.  When people trash you enough, in time you’ll know who’s giving helpful advice and who just loves kicking you when you’re down.

If you’re looking for your own constructive firing squad, here are some people you can approach: mentors, respected leaders in your field, and your colleagues.  If it doesn’t violate any contracts or policies, show them your work before you put the final version out there.  It’s like having a personal group of beta testers.

You can also request for a critique from your clients through a client satisfaction survey when you’ve sent in your final work.  But by the time they receive it, hopefully your beta testers have helped you weed out the problems.

I’ve also noticed that the more workshops I participated in, and the more negative comments I received from my work, I gradually became immune to the pain of rejection.  You think this blog post sucks?  Okay.  Please let me know why.

One of the editors I worked with told me that other writers he’s handled would have fits if he changed something as simple as a comma.  He was surprised that I was open to hearing him out.  What was it that made me open?  I found out that the more criticism I received, the more I knew I could handle it.  Sure, I don’t have to listen to everything he says, but most of the time, his points are valid and essential.

By regularly exposing yourself to critics, you start taking criticism as a chance to improve yourself rather than something to hide from.  What was once a painful experience becomes a useful one.  The ability to do this is one significant step to making your work better.

How do you hear about criticism of your work?  How do you react to your critics?

Note: This post is the first part in a 3-part series on better web working.  Please stay tuned this week for parts 2 and 3.

Image by Steve Woods from Sxc.hu

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Many artists and writers have their own rituals before working.  Carson McCullers reportedly made sure to wear her lucky sweater before writing, while W. Somerset Maugham would read Voltaire’s Candide.  Henry James has a longer ritual that starts at breakfast and ends after lunch, with occasional interruptions in the afternoon.  Despite half his day devoted to these rituals, James penned 23 novels during his career, plus several other shorter works.

Whether you clean your office or have a more elaborate routine, pre-work rituals are an essential part of your workday. Here are some ways in which they help:

• Builds your mindset. You might not be aware of it, but pre-work rituals can help you establish your work rhythms for the rest of the day.
• Keeps you energized. Before you start work, whether your workday has just begun or you’re returning from a short break, it’s important to have rituals that will energize you and allow you to regroup after grueling mental gymnastics.
• Shifts your perspective. This is especially true for the things you do during breaks.  For me, I find that walking my dog or working on a carpentry project for a brief period allows me to stop my train of thought and focus on something else.  After I’m done with that, I go back to my work with a fresh perspective and approach it in unexpected ways.

But what if the hours you spend on your rituals really take away from your productivity?

Find your ideal working hours. Before you tighten up your schedule, you need to define your ideal working hours first.  This is the span of time where you produce the most amount of work in the least amount of time.  For some reason, you just feel as if you’re more focused and creative during this time.  The reason why you work better might be the weather, the lack of distractions, your body clock – it doesn’t matter.  Find those hours, make sure you factor them into your schedule, and guard those hours with your life.

Once you’ve defined your ideal work hours, it’s time to cut back on your “ritual time,” if you really think that you should be spending time on your work, with your family, or on other projects.  The most important thing is to decrease the time spent on these rituals gradually, over 1 or 2 months, rather than quitting cold turkey.

Let’s say your pre-work ritual currently starts with an hour of walking, a half-hour preparing breakfast, and another two hours of leisurely reading.  Look at all those activities and see which ones are the most essential to you, and which ones you can reduce without hurting your creativity or productivity.  If you feel you’d rather spend less time reading, you can lessen your reading hours to an hour and 45 minutes for one week, then reducing 15 minutes each week until you reach your target time.  You can always make up the lost reading time after work.  Or, if you also feel like you can spend less time making breakfast, find a way to at least prepare part of it the night before.

Your pre-work rituals should be there to allow more creativity into your life and enhance the way you work.  They are, after all, one of the perks of web working.  In a traditional office setup, most employees probably don’t get to customize their schedules and activities the way web workers can.  Take advantage of your ability to do this.

What is your pre-work routine?  How does it affect your work?

Image by Luis Alves from sxc.hu

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