Finding Flow is a non-fiction book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It presents research into the experience of “flow”.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi named the concept of flow, and he wrote about it in an earlier book simply called Flow, which I don’t currently own.
“Flow” refers to a state of enjoyable immersion in an activity. There’s an article about the concept on Wikipedia: Flow (psychology). I think that achieving a state of flow in creative work is a goal for many people, but it’s not always easy.
Notes
- Chapter Two states that “Flow tends to occur when a person’s skills are fully involved in overcoming a challenge that is just about manageable.”
- The author’s research has found that active leisure activities (such as sports, games and hobbies) are much more likely to lead to flow experiences than passive leisure activities (such as watching television or listening to music).
Reflections
Creative work is often mentioned as a source of flow (when it’s going well… but often it doesn’t).
The balance between skill and challenge suggests that we could try to plan creative exercises and pieces of work so that the level of challenge gradually increases to keep pace with improvements in our skills.
I wonder if blocking out a short period of time for a specific and slightly challenging creative activity as a prelude to working on a longer project would help create flow and momentum. This could be worth experimenting with.