

Ask HN: Hours of flow per week? - eof

Having moved from free lance to a full time 9-5, I have struggled with getting 'in the zone.'  I used to do virtually all of my hacking in the evening to the wee hours of the morning.  I have had to supplement my 'regular hours' with late-night sessions more akin to the free lance days to keep up production.<p>It got me wondering how productive some people are, and what you have done to increase the amount of flow you can achieve in a given week.
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michael_dorfman
If anybody has any good tips for getting in the zone, I'm all ears.

Meanwhile, my advice would be: learn how to be as effective as possible when
you're _not_ in the zone.

"Flow" feels magical, and it's easy to get addicted to that feeling.
Unfortunately, that sometimes means that people lose sight of the fact that
what we do is work, and it's not always going to be fun. If you're relying on
the buzz of being in the zone to motivate you, you're setting yourself up for
failure (if the "flow" fails to materialize.)

My advice: start where you are. It's a truism that the journey of a thousand
miles begins with a single step, but what people often forget is: it's _all_
single steps. So, even if you're not in the zone, take the next step. And the
next.

