I first learned about flow when I was reviewing literature on wellness for my masters. I was researching it because it was a characteristic of “work.” I wanted to determine whether work could have a positive affect on well-being or if this was a myth emerging from the capitalist work ethic.
As might be expected, becoming so engaged in an activity that you lose track of time and feel fulfilled does have a positive affect. This is the state you want to achieve when you are learning or creating.
Notes and quotes from the Flow article:
- Levels of flow were higher in active classwork than in passive classwork
- “It is the subjective challenges and subjective skills, not objective ones, that influence the quality of a person’s experience.”
- Awareness of time and self fades
- Thoughts, feelings wishes and actions in concert
- It is a subjective experience, differentiated and integrated
- Too low of a challenge results in boredom or apathy and the attention drifts
- too high of a challenge results in anxiety or self consciousness over shortcomings
- Possessing skills and interest in an activity is a precondition for experiencing flow in it
- Personality is also a factor
- Autotelic personality: A person who tends to enjoy life and achieves things for their own sake as opposed to having extrinsic motivation