But with <\/span>digital distractions everywhere<\/span><\/a>, maintaining flow is more challenging than ever. Students find themselves planning productive work sessions, only to spend hours scrolling and texting.<\/span><\/p>\n In an <\/span>interview with the New York Times<\/span><\/a>, 14-year-old Allison Miller attributed her middling grades to her habit of multitasking: “I’ll be reading a book for homework and I’ll get a text message and pause my reading and put down the book, pick up the phone to reply to the text message, and then 20 minutes later realize, ‘Oh, I forgot to do my homework.’ ”<\/span><\/p>\n Students who work in the flow state more often <\/span>experience better academic performance<\/span><\/a>. Learning to utilize it stands to benefit students’ time management and grades. <\/span><\/p>\n In an effort to better understand flow, researchers have <\/span>proposed two main theories<\/span><\/a>: the transient hypofrontality hypothesis, which says that flow increases focus by reducing self-consciousness, and the synchronization theory, which says that enhanced communication across brain regions is to credit. Both theories align with many people’s <\/span>general experience of flow<\/span><\/a>, where they gain a sense of control over the activity and lose awareness of both time and themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n According to <\/span>Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow<\/span><\/a>, the state is achieved when two key factors – the challenge of the task and the doer’s skill level – are both at medium-to-high levels. <\/span><\/p>\n So what can students do? Setting clear goals is a good start: they’re <\/span>associated with flow<\/span><\/a> because they lay out a challenge level that matches the capability of the student. Reducing digital distractions is crucial. Flow is a state achieved when doing a single task, not multiple – students should mute their notifications and ask family or roommates to respect their space in order to avoid <\/span>frustration caused by breaking the immersion<\/span><\/a> of flow. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/files\/2024\/11\/behavsci-10-00137-g001.jpg\")