Below is a lesson from The Flow Research Collective on using darkness to get into flow, as well as our key learnings.

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

Flow Hack of the Month:

Steven Kotler, The Flow Research Collective

Darkness. That’s the hack.  

Here’s the 411:

I get up early. It’s pitch black outside. I keep it pitch black inside as well. 

My day starts with the lights out. Every morning, when I sit down to write, I embrace the darkness. No desk lamps. No overhead illumination. No sun creeping in through the blinds. Just me and the screen, floating in space.  

This isn’t about atmosphere. It’s about advantage.

First, distraction management. Flow follows focus. Focus follows the eyes.

As Nobel laureates David Hubel and Torsten Wisel proved, our visual process dominate our cortical activity. Up to 50 percent of the brain’s neurons are devoted to the processing of visual information.  Take the input away, you liberate bandwidth. Energy gets repurposed. Focus deepens.

Second: creative flow.

In a 2013 paper in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, physicist Anna Steidle and psychologist Lioba Werth ran six studies on lighting and creativity. The main discovery was that dim light enhances divergent thinking—the kind of thinking that breaks patterns, makes novel associations, and fuels innovation.

Divergent thinking is the opposite of convergent thinking, which is about narrowing solving defined problems and narrowing options to a single solution. 

Think of convergent thinking as a spotlight. Think of divergent thinking is a disco ball.

Divergent thinking is highly-correlated with insight-based problem solving, which are those sudden, intuitive leaps into the abyss of imagination. 

These insights are often accompanied by a burst of gamma-wave activity, a sign of widespread brain integration. This gamma-burst is often followed by a spike of dopamine—one of the main drivers of flow.

Dopamine is one of the main drivers of flow. It’s one of the primary neurochemicals that helps trigger and sustain the state. It sharpens focus, increases motivation, and enhances pattern recognition—all of which drive us or keep us in the zone.

when I sit in the dark to write, I’m eliminating distractions and setting the stage for insights. And with each insight comes a little blast of dopamine—enough to nudge me into flow and you.

Thus, here’s the hack:
If you’re doing creative work—writing, brainstorming, problem solving—try turning out the lights. Your brain will reward you with better ideas, more insight, and a faster ride into the zone.

Try it for a month. Same dark time. Same dark space.  

Flow on, my friends, flow on…

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Key learnings:

• Darkness is a tool for enhancing flow, not just an atmospheric choice.

• Kotler starts his day in total darkness—no artificial or natural light—while writing.

• Visual distraction is minimized, helping focus deepen since the brain’s visual system consumes up to 50% of its processing power.

• Less visual input = more cognitive bandwidth for attention and creativity.

• Dim lighting boosts divergent thinking, which is key to creative problem solving and idea generation.

• Divergent thinking (disco ball) contrasts with convergent thinking (spotlight); the former fuels innovation and insight.

• Insights trigger gamma brain waves and dopamine spikes, both associated with flow states.

• Dopamine enhances focus, motivation, and pattern recognition, reinforcing and sustaining flow.

• Sitting in darkness primes the brain for insights, creating a feedback loop that accelerates entry into flow.

• The hack: do creative work in the dark, consistently, same time and place, for a month to amplify results.