How online writing gives your brain the drug it craves

Finding your digital voice to enjoy more flow states

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Writing online is the brain tonic you’ve been waiting for.

Why?

It helps you find a state of flow.

That’s the brain state where you’re fully immersed and engaged. You’re completely in the moment.

You also find flow when

• running

• playing music

• painting

• dancing

• skiing

• performing surgery

• or whenever you feel lost in an activity you enjoy and can do well.

Your brain is hungry for that state.

Professor Mikhaily Csíkszentmihályi wrote the groundbreaking book on the flow state. He was interested in what makes us enjoy something. And why people pursue activities for pleasure, even if they don’t result in money or fame.

This research led him to invent flow theory in the 1970s.

Csíkszentmihályi found that the flow state doesn’t happen when someone is relaxed or passive. It occurs when they’re intensely involved in a challenging activity, often at work. They described the experience as like being carried down a river by the current, thus the name “flow.”

Csíkszentmihályi described how flow feels,

The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.

Science shows that during flow states, our brains release dopamine. That’s the hit of the feel-good neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, learning, and motivation.

The dopamine release explains why we’re motivated to try the activity again and even increase the challenge next time. We do the activity for its own sake. So flow states really optimise productivity.

What’s needed to get into the state of flow?

Csíkszentmihályi listed four flow essentials:

• A task with a clear goal and specific response.

• Using your skills but also being challenged.

• An activity you enjoy.

• No distractions.

Online writing lends itself to all four of these elements.

Flow Essential 1: A task with a clear goal and a specific response

To cultivate the flow state, the task should have an end goal with a specific outcome.

How to do that with online writing:

1. Write a blog post about... to help a reader with ...

2. Write a tweet thread to expose the reality of… and dispel the myth of...

3. Write a newsletter for subscribers who want to go deeper on the subject of...

4. Write a long post explaining how something works so readers understand it better.

5. Answer readers’ questions about the industry you know and how to succeed in it.

Flow Essential 2: Using your skills but also being challenged

There’s a sweet spot in the challenge spectrum for finding your flow state.

As Csíkszentmihályi explains,

If challenges are too low, one gets back to flow by increasing them. If challenges are too great, one can return to the flow state by learning new skills.

There are multiple ways to write online. Long-form, short-form, newsletters, video scripts, and answering questions are just a few.

So you can start writing where you feel comfortable and ramp up to bigger challenges when you’re ready. You might need to upskill along the way if you get frustrated and realize there’s something new to learn.

Some common challenges in online writing include:

1. You already write well, but the digital world demands a fresh conversational voice.

2. You know your topic, but you encounter new questions, challenges, and perspectives. These keep you on your toes and require you to do research and think deeper.

3. You must compete for attention online, but you’re not used to writing in a captivating way. Storytelling skills and getting to the point quickly are expected.

Flow Essential 3: An activity you enjoy

Most writers know they enjoy the activity of writing.

But if you’ve been stuck writing office memos, emails, or academic papers for the last decades, you may dread it.

You’re not sure writing’s something you’d do for the love of it.

So think back to when you enjoyed crafting a long letter. Or having a good debate over dinner. Or brainstorming an exciting project with a colleague.

Ease in conversation and capacity for deep thought are a great start to quality online writing.

You may need to explore and experiment to find the kind of writing you relish. Where you feel most at home in the online world. By writing regularly, you’ll find your topics, your process, and your style.

And the readers who connect with you.

And once you experience the flow state, you’ll know this is for you.

Flow Essential 4: No distractions

Your phone.

Your email.

Your to-do list.

Your doorbell.

Your cat.

Keep away from them all and see the magic happen.

You don’t want interruptions and distractions to prevent you from entering the flow state. It may take 10 to 15 minutes of focused attention. So, the more prepared you are, the better you can lose yourself and any sense of time and just write.

To sum up, online writing is the perfect way to get into flow and bask your brain in feel-good chemicals.

It’s not just basketball players and extreme sports mavericks who get to

• be in the zone

• be on the ball

• be in the groove

• feel when everything clicks

• live for magic moments.

Writers get that too.

So, if you’re an aspiring online writer, take the leap and keep putting your words out into the digital world. As you challenge yourself and learn as you go, you’ll find the flow state and your brain will light up.

Then you’ll write because you feel good doing it. And your words will reflect that.

And as your writing catches fire, your readers will be helplessly drawn to the flame.