As future public relations professionals, we are repeatedly told that we need to multitask, be aggressive and "network, network, network!" Sure, a major part of our job involves interacting with coworkers, upper-level staff and clients, however, a successful public relations professional is doing more than running up and down the office corridors all day shaking hands. When it comes down to it, we need to designate large amounts of time to planning and creating plans for clients, and this requires a huge amount of commitment and focus.
Think about the last time you completely forgot about the clock. This is what Everett Bogue challenges us to do in his post, The Hidden Art of Achieving Creative Flow. Bogue explains that flow is when part of the mind switches off and we "just do." The best work is sometimes created when we are in a state of flow because we are not constantly pausing to attend to other matters. If you were writing a PR plan in a state of flow, all of your thoughts would spill out on the page without your conscious brain having a chance to stop and look for faults and errors. (You can always go back and edit the work for simple corrections later). It is hard for PR professionals to achieve a state of flow because we experience so many distractions. To practice experiencing flow while writing or brainstorming, follow some of these steps recommended by Bogue:
1. Eliminate distractions- your phone, email or neighbor could easily break your state of flow.
2. Give yourself a time limit- it will be easier to dedicate complete focus to something for a designated amount of time.
3. Practice- we are so used to multitasking that focusing on a single activity is challenging at first. Stay with it!
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