The book — forthcoming
FLOW STATE
Drop into the zone on demand and do the best work of your life.
Rían Doris
Flow
State
Drop into the zone
on demand
Fifty years of research distilled into the most powerful manual for accessing flow state ever created.
get early access + updates
about the book
Deep Work, Atomic Habits, Stolen Focus — every bestseller on the shelf circles the same state without naming it. The definitive book on flow itself, the science and exactly how to reliably access it, still hasn't been written. Flow State is that book.
Habits followed the same arc — decades of research, then one book that turned the science into a blueprint and sold 25 million copies. Flow is at that moment now: 2,700 peer-reviewed papers, 15,000 trained entrepreneurs and executives, and no defining book.
inside the book
The science, turned into protocol.
Flow State walks through what actually happens in your brain and body when you drop into the zone — then turns each mechanism into something you can run.
Flow runs in a cycle.
Struggle, release, flow, recovery. Most people white-knuckle the struggle phase and skip recovery entirely — which is exactly why flow stays rare. The book teaches you to ride all four stages deliberately.
The flow cycle
one work session
The first seconds of flow.
Flow onset is a real, measurable transition — attention stops sliding off the work and locks on. Our research group published the first paper mapping it. The book turns those findings into a repeatable entry sequence.
The brain shifts gears.
In flow, the fast beta chatter of ordinary self-conscious thought gives way to slower alpha-theta waves — the signature of effortless attention. You stop narrating the work and become it.
The neurochemistry underneath.
Norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins, anandamide, serotonin — flow recruits the most potent focus and reward chemistry the brain produces. The book shows you how to trigger the cascade instead of waiting for it.
The body follows.
Flow shows up below the neck too: heart-rate variability shifts into coherence as the nervous system settles into the state. Which means your physiology is trainable groundwork for flow — and the book treats it that way.
advance praise for flow state
What early readers say.
In decades of advising the world's top CEOs, Rían has done something I've never seen. He's turned the neuroscience of flow into an operating system for peak performance. This book will forever change how the best leaders work, how they live, and what they're capable of. Mandatory reading for all ambitious professionals.
Keith Ferrazzi
#1 New York Times bestselling author of Never Eat Alone
“I've had the honor to observe Rían Doris become one of the most rigorous and compelling voices on flow and human performance. He brings that rare range — the neuroscience, the lived practice, and a wonderful, compassionate human sensibility — to the question of how we cultivate our minds at their best. Flow State distills years of that life's work, and it's a book the field and our world needs.”
Dr. Dan Siegel
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA; New York Times bestselling author of Brainstorm, Mindsight, and The Whole-Brain Child
“Rían is a force of nature. He's the number one in the world at this stuff.”
Steven Kotler
New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Impossible, Bold, Abundance, The Rise of Superman, Stealing Fire
“The best performances of my career all had one thing in common: flow. The mind quietens, the game slows, the right actions happen effortlessly. I've watched Rían spend 15 years figuring out the science behind these states to show how they can be accessed consistently. This book provides a complete blueprint for anyone looking to unlock flow and perform at their best.”
Caelan Doris
Captain of the Irish National Rugby team & Captain of Leinster Rugby
“For decades, I've explored how healing and inner integration unlock our deepest capacities for creativity, clarity, and connection. In this important book, Rían Doris has created a practical roadmap for cultivating these same qualities through the experience of flow at work and in daily life. It is a valuable contribution to our understanding of human potential and how to realize it.”
Richard C. Schwartz
Creator of Internal Family Systems therapy, Harvard Medical School faculty, author of No Bad Parts
“Anyone who has experienced flow state knows it's more than a productivity booster — it's one of the deepest experiences we humans can access. Rían's book takes that experience seriously and grounds it in science to show you how to reliably return to flow and spend more of your life in that state. It's one of those rare books that can fundamentally change how you live.”
Henry Shukman
Zen master and author of Original Love
“For 20 years I've coached people who have already won. Founders after an exit. Performers at the top of their game. They don't need to work harder. They need permission to stop – and proof that stopping makes them better. This is the first book I'd put in their hands. Rían shows that the strongest performers aren't the ones who grind hardest. They're the ones who recover with the same intensity they work.”
Rich Litvin
Author of The Prosperous Coach
“A lot of productivity advice is surface level. Flow State is the real thing — the actual science of how your brain produces its best work, turned into a system you can run. This is one I'll be handing people for the next decade.”
Ali Abdaal
Author of Feel-Good Productivity
“Flow state is the warrior's secret weapon — and now Rían Doris has decoded it for everyone. As a Navy SEAL, I experienced flow under the most extreme conditions imaginable. What Rían has done is take the neuroscience behind those peak moments and built a practical system any high performer can access on demand. Flow State is the missing manual for anyone serious about doing their best work and living a fully engaged life.”
Mark Divine
Retired Navy SEAL Commander, NYT bestselling author of The Way of the SEAL and Unbeatable Mind
“I've read a lot of books that describe flow. This is the first one that shows you how to build a day around it. If you're serious about output, not just insight, read this.”
Joe Polish
Founder, Genius Network and Genius Recovery
“Focusing works and this book will help.”
Sam Ovens
Founder & CEO, Skool.com
the backstory
It started with a head injury.
age 13
A hundred-foot waterslide and a three-foot pool.
My Dad screamed “Oh no! Oh no!” as he ran toward me. My head had just collided with the concrete bottom of a three-foot-deep pool after shooting off the bottom of a hundred-foot, near-vertical waterslide. The doctor told my parents that if my head had been an inch forward or backward, I would have died on impact. What followed was seven years of traumatic brain injury. For the first two, the symptoms were so bad I could barely leave my bed.
age 16
A book about the state I'd lost.
When I could read again, self-help nudged me into psychology, and psychology into neuroscience. At sixteen, I found Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on a train through Dublin and almost missed my stop. An optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best — the exact opposite of the state I was trapped in. Just knowing the experience was attainable provided hope. Soon that hope turned into obsession.
the work
From a cold DM to the Flow Research Collective.
In 2016 I found Steven Kotler's personal Facebook account and asked to intern for free. Within six months I was his Head of Research. A few years later we co-founded the Flow Research Collective, where I took the helm as CEO — zero to $15 million in revenue in two years with no outside funding, and 15,000 people trained across 130 countries, including the U.S. Air Force, Audi, Accenture, Meta and Bain. On average: stress down 40%+, distraction down 29%, motivation up 41%, and time in productive flow up 250%.
the question
“Where's the book?!”
In 2022 I took the research and protocols public on YouTube. Growth was meteoric — 450,000 subscribers in 18 months and over 25 million views. Thousands of comments poured in from founders, engineers and executives, all asking the same question: where's the book? Because despite fifty years of research and thousands of papers, there was still no definitive, practical, science-backed book on how to reliably get into flow. Until now.
Be first to know when it lands.
Early access, excerpts and launch bonuses go to the newsletter list first.