Flow - finding it and following it.

A cheeky Herdie stitch marker in my current sweater project

Someone asked me last week what my super power would be if I could pick anything. And I, slightly flippantly, said I would be be able to wave a magic wand and have my garment sleeves knit themselves.

Words cannot express how much I dislike sleeve knitting. Which is kind of ironic given that it is mostly the same as sock knitting. Knitting round and round in stocking stitch for a sock is one of my favourite things ever. Doing the same thing round and round for a sleeve feels like torture (slight exaggeration).

I think it is partly the hassle of finding a small circular in the right size (although investing in a set of Lykke short tip interchangables, following a tip from a pal, has helped a lot). But also the fact that even though you are working on a small number of stitches you still have the rest of the sweater sitting there, in the way.

Wherever possible I try to work the stitches as soon as possible. Sometimes this means leaving the body on the needles while I at least get the sleeve stitches picked up and on needles - that way there is less of a barrier to starting them.

But seriously…

Reflecting on the question later though and giving it some serious contemplation I realised that I would very much love to have a different super power. The ability to get into flow - and stay there for as long as I needed to be.

For years I prided myself on my ability to multitask, juggling different projects, timescales and other commitments with not too much effort.

As I have got a bit older though a few things have changed

• Realising that what I thought was multitasking was actually plate spinning. Turns out that the stress you are under diminishes considerably if you actually finish a few tasks and hand them off to someone else, rather than adding more plates into your spinning routine.

• Increasing brain fog and forgetfulness (thank you menopause) have made me realise how much time I lose in switching from one task to another. Something as simple as being interrupted by a cat or the doorbell is enough to totally knock me off my stride. Jumping in to answer an email from working on my website requires a total brain gear switch now in a way that it never used to before.

• I find it increasingly difficult to actually get into a flow state in the first place and once there I have the attention span of a ‘flea on a flitting’ as my Nana used to say.

• Transition times are my nemesis I have noticed. Does anyone else find themselves stuck in the car when you get home or when you arrive for work or an appointment. I grab my phone to check for messages that might have come in while I was driving (I always put it on mute to avoid distraction). And the next thing I know I’m still there 10 or 15 minutes later 😂

Things that help

Loop earbuds when I’m working, even when I’m at home in a quiet house. They signal ‘work time’ to my brain and also mean I’m less distracted by mundane domestic things like the annoying beep on the washing machine that defies all attempts to disable it.

The Pomodoro technique. This one annoys me intensely. Not least because of the daft name but also because I can still recall my O level Biology teacher telling me this strategy circa 1985 during a revision strategy session.

She had graphs and everything to prove to us that the attention span of the human brain for ‘deep work’ was capped at around 20-25 minutes and that factual retention was significantly higher after 4x25 min revision sessions than after 2 solid hours. She didn’t call it the Pomodoro technique because it hadn’t been invented then, but considering that Francesco Cirillo wrote about it in 1987 now I’m wondering.

Maybe Miss Webb taught him biology as well?🤣

Phone away (and silent). It’s annoying how so many of these ‘hacks’ actually work isn’t it. Although I have learned from painful experience that the second I close my phone and leave it to grow a tree (yes - really - I use the Forest app) I’ll realise that my first job of the day needs me to open the Authenticator app on my phone - and my poor little tree dies before it has a chance to sprout.

No more than 2 hours at a time (in 25 min bursts - thanks Miss Webb) After that it’s time to close the laptop and do something else for a bit. Otherwise I tend to stay there, fiddling around on social media and telling myself that it is for work, when really I am scrolling aimlessly or distracting myself with a million Canva templates.

✏️ What would your superpower be - if you could pick anything?

And if you have any top tips for boosting your productivity do please share them in the comments - seriously - I’m always on the hunt for good ideas.