3).īut while certain activities can induce flow states more easily than others, to truly achieve flow requires deliberate intention and effort. “Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times….The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile” (p.
GET INTO FLOW STATE FULL
The most enjoyable moments were rather the ones full of challenge and even pain: He found that many of the activities people pursue in their leisure time (watching TV, in particular) were among the least enjoyable. As it turns out, the actual experience itself matters less than the way you approach it (something we’ll explore in more depth later).Ĭsikszentmihalyi’s research also revealed some counterintuitive things about optimal experience. It would make sense that creative, exciting work would easily induce flow states.īut they also found factory workers, farmers, and people living in intense poverty report flow experiences.
What they found was that the specific activity mattered less than you might think. Almost anything can be a flow experience:Ĭsikszentmihalyi and his team of researchers developed the theory of flow through interviewing people (from all walks of life, all across the world) about the times in their lives that they felt most content, most in control, and most in the moment. “I developed a theory of optimal experience based on the concept of flow- the 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”įor the sake of classification, I put this post in the “Productivity” category, but I could just as easily have put it under “Living”, “Health”, “Studying”, “Psychology”, or “Learning”.įlow touches on so many aspects of human experience that it’s difficult to categorize it. I’ll explain what it is, why it matters, and how you can cultivate flow in situations you encounter as a student. In today’s post, I’ll explore the truth of flow, straight from the source. Increased productivity is a side effect of flow, but achieving flow is ultimately about leading a more enjoyable, happier life. As the book’s subtitle implies, flow is about so much more than being more productive. It’s such a powerful concept that all the productivity blogs and business websites have taken the concept and run away with it, offering tips to achieving flow in order to be more productive.īut many of these bloggers have missed the point of the original book that started it all: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experienceby Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Psychologists call this experience “flow”, and it’s essential to doing meaningful deep work. Have you ever experienced a time when you felt like you were “in the zone”? Where you were so involved in what you were doing that everything else around you melted away, and time stood still?
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