reFilM Day 4: Habits, Yesterday, How to get into the Zone and Flow
This is a 100-day journal on remote filmmaking and production. For the full list of journals, see this page:
Today’s tip
If you want to start a habit, say write a blog or exercise every day, it is natural to feel stuck. Even if you drag your ass to your chair and open a notepad or a book, the empty page could be scary or freeze you. You could convince yourself to do it later, that turns into evening, tomorrow, and then maybe never.
A few things you could do are:
- Start small and build upon the complexity and duration of the task.
- Prepare ahead of the start time. To write an article, think about the topic and the overall points you want to highlight. To exercise, think, and decide on the type of activity (run, walk, push-ups, etc.), place, and a time that typically has minimal interruptions.
- Share your plan with your family members. They would understand and let you get to your task.
- Use a timer and just write without much thought as to how (or do anything else you are keen on, say exercise) for the designated time period (5, 15, 25, or 60 minutes).
- Try taking a 7-day or a 30-day challenge to do your task every day. Mark your calendar as a task done for the day :-)
- Pro tip — use a journal to track what went well, what didn’t, and how you could make it better.
- Remember, move forward every day!
Yesterday — All work
Most of the thinking in the AM went into the job and how we can keep our family unaffected, trying to find that shock-absorber.
Post lunch, I had to work on a knowledge-sharing presentation about the product I work on. It took most of the day and the session was well received in the night call.
How to get into the Zone
If you’re writing a story set in a certain location or time period, it would be ideal to live in such a place, emotion, and time. The next best thing is to get our mind transported to that space, which I call the Zone, at our beck and call. The story we create gets written well if we’re in the zone, in the home setting of the characters that live in the story.
It used to be a struggle to get into a particular zone, but I seem to have cracked it with a trick or two:
- Watch scenes, videos, or movies of the zone close to your target zone.
- Listen to the musical tracks that project the emotion of the characters.
- Read articles on topics related to the zone.
Bonus tip on the flow
Once you transport your mind to the zone, use it well. As time progresses, you’re working at a smooth pace. I call it the flow. Try and stretch it.
The more you get into the zone, the lesser time it takes for you to get into the flow.
Now you’re driving your luxury sedan on the highway without traffic.
Enjoy the magic!
