First: My thoughts on what it takes people (overall) to get into flow are not wholly from my own experience. I have regular conversations with other writers (of all genres) on what helps them focus. Not all of the answers are the same... but I&#x27;ve never heard someone say that a ticking clock was helpful.<p>(Other than, &quot;I need a deadline, because I start writing the night before it&#x27;s due,&quot; which is different.)<p>There are books about the topic, including &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;1T4Nf4H&quot;&gt;Finding" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;1T4Nf4H&quot;&gt;Finding</a> Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life&lt;&#x2F;a&gt;. It&#x27;s years since I read it, but the overall discovery is that for _most_ creative people, the way to get into flow is to do something active that you can do on automatic, which somehow gets the hindbrain in motion. That&#x27;s why so many people &quot;get their best ideas&quot; while they are taking a walk or in the shower. You can let your mind drift... effectively.<p>What I&#x27;ve learned from conversations with everyone from Hugo award-winners to household-name tech journalists to famous software developers is not that everyone has the same way of getting into flow. It&#x27;s that every one has noticed what it takes for _him_ to get into flow. To look back at the commonalities of, &quot;When did you figure that out?&quot; and to recognize that process for oneself.<p>For instance, 30 years ago (when I was still programming professionally) I was listening to a public radio station interview in which the interviewee explained how she worked with people to &quot;reach their inner child.&quot; (That meme dates it, doesn&#x27;t it?) I snorted in derision, but it was a long car drive so I listened to the interview anyway. During which the psychologist explained that she got adults to lie down on the floor, on their tummies, with a pad of paper and crayons... and discovered that _their handwriting changed_ when they did that. And they came up with more creative ideas.<p>--Whereupon I practically dragged the car over to the side of the road, because I realized that whenever I was stumped, I&#x27;d lie down on the living room floor with a pad of paper, and I&#x27;d write in just the same way as a 3-year-old with a coloring book.<p>So next time I was frustrated with what I was working on, I _deliberately_ lay down in that way... and 20 minutes later I had a solution. Eventually I just started an important project by going into that coloring-book mode, and I found that by the time I was physically uncomfortable I had the entire thing scoped out in my head.<p>It DOES change, however. Originally I found that I wrote best when my first draft was longhand; then I found I could kind of put myself into the same head space. I used to write in silence; then I discovered that (for reasons I cannot fathom) I can get into flow by playing old Cat Stevens albums. But for me... the key is paying attention to what works, and repeating that. I also recognize that I write best at some times of day; please don&#x27;t ever ask me to get fired-up before 10am, though I&#x27;m happy to write email or other general conversation at 7a.<p>Obviously, &quot;your mileage may vary,&quot; and this does not necessarily match the other writers I know. A few (particularly fiction authors) need to completely turn off all distractions. One award-winner has a PC that has NO Internet access on it at all, in a separate room, which is where she does her writing.