Achieving a State of Flow in Work and Play
Flow is that wonderful state of being so immersed in what you’re doing that you’re oblivious to your surroundings. You feel in command of what you’re doing, do it effortlessly, and perform at your best.
Your activity—and flow can happen in almost any activity, whether work or play—just happens, seemingly without mental or physical effort. What’s important is that there’s some level of activity involved; flow rarely happens when you’re in couch potato mode.
In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi wrote that flow is a “state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” (That quote is from my copy, published in 1990. A more recent version of this book is now available.)
According to Czikszentmihalyi, ten factors accompany the experience of flow, such as clear goals that are challenging but attainable, immediate feedback, and a feeling of personal control. Two other important factors are the loss of a sense of time passing and lack of awareness of physical needs.
Writing does that to me. When I have a block of time available, I can write for hours, barely moving at all. Time ceases to exist, and the words flow from brain to screen as if prewritten. When I finally look up, I’m amazed by how much time has passed. And when I try to stand up, I discover I’ve taken on the shape of my chair!
This kind of writing experience is very satisfying; on the other hand, it ignores the adverse effects of prolonged sitting. There’s something to be said for the growing popularity of treadmill desks, and indeed, it seems possible to achieve a flow-like state while working on one. In fact, the rhythmic walking may actually help to get into a flow state, which in turn might make the work easier to do. It may be that the active forms of achieving flow are better healthwise than the sitting-on-your-duff kinds.
Achieving flow doesn’t require all ten of the factors that Czikszentmihalyi cited, but most such experiences include several of them. If you want to achieve flow at work, the key thing may be to do work you love, and especially work that’s important, poses a challenge, and will have a long-term impact on you and your life. You need to be in a place where you can focus, and, ideally, you can undertake your activity at a time of day when you’re at your peak energy.
What kinds of activities have helped you achieve a state of flow?
