Happy Friday, everybody. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. You're listening to another Friday Refill episode of Developer Tea. You know the feeling, probably as well as any of us do, the feeling of the flow state. The feeling of the flow state, getting into your work and having a high degree of focus. Maybe you have a very clear goal that can help you get into flow state. Maybe you have a very clear process, and especially when that process is repetitive in some way or it is right on the edge of keeping your attention. It's challenging enough to keep your attention, but it's easy enough that you are fluent. You're able to do the task without tripping over yourself. This is when flow state tends to occur. There's a lot of science around this, and there's a lot of research on the subject. But today, I want to talk about a potential red flag, or at least a trigger, to look for when you're seeking flow state. And you may actually feel like you're in flow state when these triggers occur. The reality is, when we're in flow state, it's possible that we feel that no improvement can be made to whatever it is that we're doing. Usually, it's hard to actually get to flow state. If what I'm getting ready to do is to get to flow state, and what I'm getting ready to talk about is true, so usually in that flow state, you're probably safe to continue. Interrupting that would be more detrimental. But the trigger I want you to look for is something that prevents you from getting into that flow state. Now, you may recognize the trigger, but here's what often happens. Even though we're having a hard time, making the process smooth, even though we're realizing that there are bumps in the road, that whatever the repetitive action is that we're trying to take, whatever the work is that we're trying to do, there's something that's making it more difficult than it needs to be. But what ends up happening is, we've done our thinking mode work, we've done our slow thinking, and because we're already in work mode, execution mode, we're reticent to stop. We're reticent to stop and do the meta work necessary to fix that flow, to fix the process. And here's why this is a problem. There's a delicate balance between working on the process to a degree of diminishing returns, and working on the process to the degree that you're influencing positively your ability to get into flow state. So I want you to pay attention to this trigger, this feeling that something is tripping up. And most importantly, as you are in the execution process, don't turn your brain into automatic mode. Especially if you haven't gotten to the point where you're like, you're not going to get to that point where you feel like things are flowing easily and naturally. Don't go into pure execution mode. Because what can happen is, we get kind of, we become prey to a confirmation bias. We believe that whatever those difficulties are will either take care of themselves, or that it's partially our job to just deal with the difficulty. Maybe just practicing, you know, strict perseverance, and trying to deal with them. And so, we often work suboptimally, intentionally, not recognizing that the amount of frustration, or the amount of inefficiency that we could subvert, greatly outweighs whatever the positive gain is by just sticking to it, by just having that grit. So this isn't the same thing as knowing when to quit. Instead, this is a recognition of the rough edges. Now, what does the intervention look like? What does the change that you're going to make actually look like? It's going to depend on the process that you're running. Maybe you're using the wrong tool. Maybe you are working with too few or too many people on a given team. It's possible that you are using the wrong, kind of, research method or maybe even the wrong team structure, there's a lot of things that could be wrong that are tripping your process up. Be mindful of these things. Also recognize that there is no silver bullet. It is very possible that some of the things you're going to experience in terms of the difficulties or the bumps in the road that you experience may simply be a factor of time. This is our intuition. We believe that some of those bumps in the road are just going to deal with themselves. We believe that because sometimes that's actually true. So there is no silver bullet here. There's no way for you to know how rough is too rough. Creating a strict kind of prescription for dealing with this would be a fool's errand. It's not what we're going to do here on this show. Instead, what I want to call for you to do is to think about the things that you're going to do. Just pay attention to whether that process is rough or smooth and how it's changing over time. If you recognize that the roughness is not getting any better, it's worthwhile to at least ask why. Don't buy into the process just because you're down the road on the process. This is the equivalent of just doing it because it's what we've always done. The things that we're already doing. Very difficult to stop doing. Remain mindful through all of your execution. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Developer Tea. This Friday refill episode. If you don't want to miss out on future episodes, which there are three of every week, go ahead and subscribe in whatever podcasting app you're currently using. By the way, we did an episode about scheduling something. I want for you to take a moment. And schedule a time. If you like this show, if you want this show to continue existing, one of the best things you can do is help it spread to new engineers. We've talked about leaving reviews in iTunes. We've talked about subscribing yourself. But what I want you to do next is to schedule a time. If you think this show is worthwhile for your time, then one of the best things you can do to help the show, but also to help yourself with your network, is to share this show with somebody who you think would benefit from it. Specifically this episode. I want you to schedule a time to share this episode with another engineer. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time, enjoy your tea.