Blueprint >> Flow

Disclaimer: This document is in raw form as I process and distill 4 years-worth of my personal development notes. Expect some typos and cryptic language for now. I will be updating frequently and polishing up.

Prescription: Understand flow. Create more flow experiences in your life.
Related Concepts: Happiness, Mastery, Life Purpose, Self-Actualization

What is Flow?

The idea that being in flow — or getting in the zone — is the state in which you feel happiest and perform your best work, and that you can design your life to have more flow experiences.

Why is it Important?

To be happy, you need to do activities that put you in flow. Amazing creativity and performance comes when you are in flow.

Flow Videos

[coming soon...]

Flow: Key Points

Flow is that state of being in the zone, of being absorbed in the activity and in the present moment. Flow is a state where you are active, extremely focused, and unselfconscious. You lose your ego. You literally don't have enough brain bandwidth left over to monitor yourself or think about the problems at home, or event that you're hungry or tired.

It's counter-intuitive, but possessions don't make you happy. Even achievements don't make you happy. Happiness is activity, not a destination point.

Flow happens when the challenge you face is well-matched to your skill level. If the challenge is too easy, you will get bored. If your skill level is too low, you will get frustrated. If it's just right, you will be completely absorbed.

Identify your favorite flow activities. What puts you into flow? Now design your life so that you're doing them more consistently.

Artistic and creative endeavors put you into flow very well. How can you dovetail this with your career/work? The more creative and expressive you are, the more it will suck you in. The more meaningful the work is for you, the more it will suck you in.

Development of technical skill is important for being creative and getting into flow. You need to develop solid technical skills to be able to get into flow easily, whether it's writing, composing, speaking, negotiating, or swinging a golf club.

Make sure you are challenging yourself. If you are doing the same old things all the time, you will have a hard time staying in flow. Find new challenges for yourself.

Watch out for multi-tasking. Even if you're doing flow activities, makes sure you have the focus you need to stay in flow uninterrupted. If you are checking your email every 15 minutes while trying to write a book, you will be miserable. Schedule large chunks of uninterrupted time to do your flow activities. Eliminate cell phones, email, internet, texts, and other sources of interruption.

Besides external interruptions like cell phones and email, you are also interrupting yourself internally by creating stray thoughts, random worries, niggly activities like snacking or checking your texts or dusting off the computer screen. Just quiet your mind, sit still, and focus.

Examples of flow activities:

• Composing music
• Writing
• Reading
• Watching a movie
• Sex
• Programming
• Playing a sport
• Playing video games
• Playing with your kids
• Engaging in conversation
• Giving a speech
• Working on a PowerPoint
• Driving

Almost anything can be a flow activity. The key is, don't interrupt it. How satisfying would sex be if you where stopping every 2 minutes to check your email? Right. But you're doing that in other areas of your life. You are interrupting your work projects, you are interrupting your TV sessions, you are interrupting your reading, etc.

References

1. Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi