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If scrolling on your phone in front of a movie, spending two hours on TikTok before falling asleep and staying on Instagram until you forget what you were there for are physiological reflexes that you want to get rid of, you should try to immerse yourself in the “flow” by performing these three activities daily.
“Flow”, or “flux” in French, is a concept invented by the American-Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. This is a mental state in which your attention is completely engaged in an activity and you forget about the passage of time. This change in the perception of time can, conversely, cause boredom. A mathematics lesson, travel time or even a simple conversation for some, become difficult to appreciate. In the age of attention culture, lack of motivation, procrastination and difficulty concentrating are omnipresent. But reprogramming your brain is possible by performing these few activities daily.
Reading
It’s no surprise that reading engages your body and mind: you feel, imagine and create. However, reading seems to be one of the most effective activities. According to a study carried out in 2023, by Newcastle University, in the United Kingdom, reading reduces stress levels by 68%, compared to 61% for listening to music, 42% for walking, or even 21% for video games. “Researchers believe that the concentration required for reading has a physiological effect on the brain… As stress hormones dissipate, the fear center of the brain becomes less active and the rationalizing areas of the brain take over. relay. This change in the brain makes you feel calmer and more in control of the situation“, explains the study.
The sport
Exercising physical activity is, of course, essential for your physical well-being, but it is also, and above all, for your mental health. Sport requires you to push your limits and constantly encourages the achievement of new performances. This gradual progression, where all your sensory acuities, your skills and your emotions combine, leads to an optimal state of concentration. It is the feeling of accomplishment, after having made such an effort, that becomes addictive for some sportsmen and athletes. Cure for depression, as stated in a 2021 study published by Harvard Medical Schoolsport therefore fights against this culture of attention so cultivated by social networks.
Good in his body, good in his head!
Meditation
Achieving “flow” through meditation evokes a sensation quite different from that of the first two activities. Where in reading and sport, you become immersed in your task with a goal in mind – the end of a chapter or a milestone of kilometers to reach – in meditation, your body and mind find a new anchor , a brief moment of letting go that disconnects you, literally. A study published in 2023 in the journal Learning and Individual Differences believes that meditative exercise significantly reduces procrastination, notably through attention control, emotion management and self-awareness.
With these three activities, your attention is no longer a consumer product but a productivity tool. Whether it’s reading, sport or meditation, practicing them occasionally is enough to integrate them and become familiar with this “flow”, which you can then reinvest to work effectively.
Slide: Improving your concentration