😶🌫️The Procrastination Before Peak Performance: Why Your Brain Fights Flow (And How To Win The Fight!)
Picture this: You've blocked out two precious hours for that project that's been haunting your to-do list. Coffee's perfect temperature. Headphones on. Notifications silenced.
But the moment your fingers touch the keyboard, your brain stages a rebellion. Suddenly, checking your phone feels urgent. That glass of water at the other end of the office becomes essential. Teams notifications demand immediate attention. Even reorganising your desk drawer seems more appealing than the task at hand.
Sound familiar?
Welcome to the struggle phase of flow - and here's why it's actually a sign you're on the right track.
If you're new to flow states (check my previous post for the basics), they're those magical moments of complete absorption where hours feel like minutes and you feel and perform at your absolute best. But here's what most people don't realise: flow follows a predictable four-stage cycle, and it always starts with struggle.
This isn't a bug in your brain's operating system - it's a feature. Let’s look at what's actually going on.
🧠Neural Rhythms: Your Brain's Frequency Shift
Right now, as you read this, your brain is humming along in beta waves - the frequency of conscious attention and effort. But flow demands something radically different: a shift to frontal theta and moderate alpha waves (frequencies usually associated with sleep and deep meditation).
This transition from beta to alpha/theta represents a fundamental shift from:
- Effortful → Effortless
- Conscious → Unconscious
- Analytical → Intuitive
(If this sounds familiar, you've probably read Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow)
⚡Network Activity: Dialing in the attention
During normal waking hours, your Default Mode Network (DMN) runs the show around 60% of the time. This network handles:
- Self-referential thinking
- Mind-wandering and daydreaming
- Future scenario planning
- Ongoing cognitive processing
But flow requires a reduction in the DMN and firing up the Task Positive Network (TPN) - a collection of interconnected systems including:
- Salience Network: Filtering incoming information
- Executive Control Networks: Managing working memory and attention
🧪Neurobiology: The Chemical Cocktail of Peak Performance
As we discussed in the previous post, the neurochemical changes during this transition are an exquisitely dialed in recipe:
- Dopamine (from the Basal Ganglia): Boosting motivation and pattern recognition
- Noradrenaline (from the Locus Coeruleus): Heightening arousal and optimising explore-exploit dynamics (more on this fascinating push-pull in an upcoming edition)
- Cortisol and sympathetic activation: Mobilising energy resources
These changes explain flow's remarkable effects on performance, learning, creativity, and memory - but also why recovery is non-negotiable (we will cover that phase of flow soon as well).
🤯So, why the struggle?
All these changes are massive, energy-intensive, and temporarily disable crucial functions like future planning and self-awareness.
The struggle phase isn't a flaw - I like to think of it as evolution's quality control system, asking: "Is this task worth the resources we're about to commit?" or else, we might fall into flow watching chasing a butterfly and emerge hours later wondering where the day went. 🦋
Lean into the feeling
Next time you feel that familiar pang of procrastination, that overwhelming urge to check your email or reorganise your desk - double down on focus.
This discomfort isn't a sign you should stop. It's proof you're on the threshold of flow. Hang in there!
Even better: reframe struggle as something to crave rather than avoid. This mental shift alone triggers anticipatory dopamine release, boosting motivation and helping you push through to the other side.
But as we discussed last week, flow follows focus - So embrace the desire to open teams, but don't actually open teams! You got this!