Locked In: The Neuroscience of Flow, Focus, and the GRiT to Get There

Chris was working his way through a stack of learning modules in his computer science course. I had known Chris for years. I’ve taught him in multiple courses, and over time, he’s come to understand the expectations I hold, high support and high challenge. He knows I’ll be there to guide him, but I won’t do the work for him. On this day, he wasn’t asking for help or waiting to be told what to do. He was “locked in”. His words.

As I watched him, it was clear: Chris had entered a different zone. There was no phone in sight. No distractions. Just focus. He was powering through each lesson, completing one module after another with purpose and clarity.

It wasn’t just a productive day. He had found flow, that elusive state where challenge meets skill, and time seems to disappear.

What Flow Really Is and Why It Matters

The term flow was coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to describe a mental state of deep immersion and energized focus. It is the experience of being fully absorbed in a task, operating at the edge of one’s ability, and finding satisfaction in the process itself (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

Neurologically, flow is powerful. When a student enters a flow state:

• The prefrontal cortex temporarily reduces activity, which helps quiet self-doubt and overthinking (Dietrich, 2004)
• The brain increases production of dopamine and norepinephrine, chemicals that sharpen focus and sustain motivation
• Brain systems responsible for self-monitoring, fear, and impulse control are dialed down, allowing for uninterrupted engagement

In learning environments, flow is linked to increased retention, intrinsic motivation, and a sense of control. But flow does not appear on command. It has prerequisites:

1. A clear, meaningful goal
2. A challenge that pushes the student just beyond their current ability
3. A sense of progress or real-time feedback
4. Minimal distractions
5. A growing sense of internal motivation

On that day, Chris had every one of these in place…not by accident, but by design.

Flow Follows Grit

Chris didn’t start the semester locked in. He faced the same frustrations and distractions most students deal with. There were days he struggled to get going, or found reasons to avoid the work. But he kept showing up. He kept adjusting.

Over time, Chris developed something deeper than compliance. He built confidence, and more importantly, he built grit.

He learned how to push through difficulty, how to regulate emotions when things felt overwhelming, and how to manage his time when deadlines were looming. He stopped seeing challenge as a threat and started seeing it as an opportunity.

By the time he reached that day of deep focus, his brain had already been trained. He knew how to engage without waiting for a prompt. He had worked through productive struggle enough times that it no longer felt like failure. It felt like growth.

Focus Requires More Than Willpower

One of the things that stood out to me that day was what wasn’t happening. Chris didn’t have his phone out. He wasn’t toggling between tabs or chatting with his peers. He had made a conscious decision to tune out the noise.

According to Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation (2024), phone-based distractions and hyper-connected digital environments are key contributors to rising anxiety and declining focus among teens. When we live in a world of constant alerts and fragmented attention, our capacity for deep work is undermined.

Chris had learned, through experience, that his best work happened when he reduced those distractions. He didn’t need me to take his phone away. He made that call himself. That’s agency. That’s discipline. And that’s the kind of decision-making that emerges when students feel empowered and equipped.

How GRiT Builds the Capacity for Flow

What Chris demonstrated that day wasn’t random. It was the result of months of intentional development and practice through our GRiT curriculum.

GRiT gives students the tools to:

• Understand their emotional patterns and manage them in real time
• Push through resistance with a healthy mindset
• Reflect on their leadership style and how they affect others
• Stay focused on long-term goals and milestones
• Experience productive struggle as part of normal, healthy growth

These skills are reinforced through journaling, team-based projects, self-preservation mapping, and real-time feedback. It’s not simply SEL in theory. It’s neuroscience in action.

GRiT helps students build the inner capacity to enter flow — and stay there longer. Because once students know how their brains work and what they’re capable of, they stop waiting for motivation. They create it.

A Call to Educators: Help Students Get “Locked In”

Watching Chris that day reminded me what’s possible when we commit to developing not just students’ knowledge, but their capacity — their mindset, resilience, focus, and ownership.

Flow states don’t come from content alone. They come from a learning culture where students are challenged, supported, and equipped to push through.

Here’s how we can help more students reach that place:

• Teach students how their brains work under pressure
• Celebrate productive struggle as a normal part of growth
• Encourage deep work and reduce environmental distractions
• Focus less on compliance and more on capacity-building
• Implement frameworks like GRiT that center identity, self-regulation, and perseverance

Chris didn’t find flow by chance. He built it, one small decision at a time. Our job is to help every student realize they can do the same.

Let’s help more of them get “locked in.” Because that’s where real learning begins.