I think the common and biggest problem of the people of our age, who strive to be productive, is lack of time, not finding time.  How many of us didn’t think that if there were more than 24 hours a day, I could do the work that I needed to do or “fit more watermelons under the armpits”

 I’m sure we’ve even thought: “How did the past scientists find time to prove so many theorems and make new inventions?  Why are we experiencing this time constraint when there are so many technological tools that we can use to make our lives easier?  The answer is somewhat hidden in the question.  Maybe surfing social media is more complex than smashing the atom.

 The 3 books and a few articles I read in a year were not content with showing that the truth of the matter was like that, but also generously gave the correct answers in order to be productive.  One of them is Daniel H. Pink’s “Drive“.  The book, which has been translated into Turkish with the same name, tells how dangerous the reward and punishment mechanism that we use abundantly in business life and in matters such as raising children is.  The book “Don’t Punish Me with an Award“, which deals with a similar subject, is written by a Turkish author, Özgür Bolat.  When you read the experiment conducted by the Turkish scientist Muzaffer Şerif, who is referenced in both books, you will definitely think of a popular competition of today 🙂 And these books introduce the main subject.  So what motivates us: Don’t go with the flow..

 I suggest you read the books I mentioned.  I will be happy if you share the resources that you find helpful on the subject as comments.

 So what is it to be in flow?  And how can we achieve this?  I can summarize it as “to focus on the subject without being interrupted, to give oneself to the subject“.  While these interruptions can come from the outside (phone notifications, ambient noise, your colleague interrupts you in the middle of a job, your brain is constantly lazing around and directing you to social media, it encourages you to constantly check your e-mail box, etc.), internal interruptions (your thoughts constantly go around) can come from outside. swing: Monkey Mind).  Let me briefly share the statistics I got from:

• Working with focus / being in the flow increases productivity by 500%

• If you dedicate 2 hours a day to focused work every day, you produce much more than the average employee produces in his 40-hour work.

• When you’re cut, it takes 22 minutes to recover and get back to work.

• While in the flow, your brain waves switch to Alpha and Theta wavelengths, making it incredibly easy for you to learn and acquire new information.

• 5 different chemicals that are effective for our brain (norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins, anandamide, serotonin, and sometimes oxytocin) are released at the same time only in this phase.

• And in modern life, we can only spend 6 to 8 minutes without interruptions.  Unfortunately, only 5% of our working time is spent in streaming.

“Deep Work” is a good book recommendation about what we can do to stay in the flow. In fact, modern people have a powerful weapon in their hands to be productive.

 So how do we manage to be in the flow while riding a motorcycle like other jobs that require care and attention?  If we can’t achieve this in motorcycle riding, if we keep in mind that a result such as injury or even death is waiting for us, it becomes more important to be in the flow.

 Paolo Volpara discusses the issue and shares his own experiences and solutions in his article on the thinkingomm.com blog.  Remarkable suggestions are to do a little meditation before driving, relax the brain and body, and apply a SYSTEM while driving.

I have to admit, although the meditation part does not suit me very well, I think that making an effort to apply a SYSTEM such as RoadCraft while driving is a method that will quickly get you into the flow.  Think of any hobby you enjoy.  You can enjoy your hobby by staying in the flow for hours.  After all, motorcycle is a hobby in itself that makes it easier to be in the flow.  You are alone in the helmet (I assume you have the freedom to keep your intercom turned off if you have one) and all you have to do is implement the SYSTEM. You can also reinforce being in the flow by talking to yourself.

 In addition, the external interruptions that prevent flow, which we mentioned above, are part of the game when riding a motorcycle.  What danger may come from, if we see an interruption in our peripheral view that will endanger our driving, let me adjust the Position and Speed ​​accordingly… As if you are a master player who quickly decides the moves in a very fast chess game.  And you can play this game freely without disturbing anyone by talking to yourself: “Should I act like this, should I adjust the position and speed of my motorcycle, in case the refrigerator falls out of the truck’s box?”

 Before I started riding, I stated that it was not for me to make an extra effort to empty the mind and relax the body.  But I also have a theory.  Equipping with our fully-protected clothing before riding a motorcycle may be preparing our body and brain to ride/flow.  You’ve heard it many times.  “I was going to go buy bread, there was no need to even wear a helmet.  Here’s my bad luck.”  I think the main reason for news of accidents without clothes in short distances or scenarios such as “I just got out of the house” or “I had an accident when I was home” is not preparing oneself for the flow or leaving the flow early.  The ceremony of donning protective clothing can be a moment of meditation that gets us into the flow sooner.  The moment I put on the helmet, I am just myself and there is no other person or thought there anymore.  I’m ready to drive..

 In our correspondence with Cemal Çetin Yıldırım, a paragraph that Sinan Canan quoted from the book “İnsanın Fabrika Ayarları” carried the term “being in the flow”, which I perceived as just being in the moment, to another dimension:

 Let’s think of an artist painting.  If he only saw the area of ​​canvas where he was painting, if his mind were there completely at that moment and momentarily, he would not be able to produce any work.  In such a case, each brush stroke would reveal a series of irrelevant and random spots in areas independent of the previous one.  Of course, a painter is busy applying the most appropriate colors to the most appropriate place of the final painting, which will be finished maybe five days, maybe five years later, with each brush stroke he uses while painting.

 The painter must be exactly there and at that moment with each brush stroke;  while doing this, he should be able to include the whole of that picture in that moment.  Moreover, it is not enough for the artist to simply provide this.  Many techniques and movements that we will use as the painting progresses require the successful use of past behavior patterns that he has learned and mastered from previous experiences.  In other words, while one side of his mind is focused on the future target, the other side should be interested in using the most appropriate experiences in his saddlebag.

 Riding a motorcycle is a way of being in a flow. The degree of enjoyment you get at the end of the ride (thanks to endorphins, serotonin, and other hormones) is a testament to how focused you are.

One More Mile..