Flow

If I had to sum up this book in one sentence it would be that the key to happiness and life satisfaction is to spend as much of your time in a “flow” state as possible. Even if you’re not familiar with the concept of flow itself, you’ve probably experienced it before - it’s that feeling when you really “lock in” to a task at hand, and can focus on it without any distractions, where time feels like it passes quicker, and you emerge with that satisfying sense of a job well done.

This isn’t just another pop science book on “how to find happiness” though, since the author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychologist who had quite extensively studied and was the originator of this concept of “flow”. Although the book is over 30 years old now, it still feels quite relevant. It’s aimed at regular readers so it’s not too heavy on the scientific concepts and is quite an interesting read, although I do feel at times it does get quite wordy and meander a bit.

How to enter a flow state

To enter a state of flow, there’s a fine line to tread between finding something that’s challenging enough that your brain wants to lock onto it as a problem that it wants to solve, but not so challenging that you feel defeated and have to give up mid-way. For me, the most common time I enter flow is when I get stuck into some code and can spend some number of hours on fixing a bug or programming a new feature without my mind wandering anywhere else.

The kind of activity you need to be doing to enter a flow-state is something that requires a skill. You don’t need to necessarily be skilled though - it’s as long as the activity is appropriate for your skill level. A natural example is a sport, or a hobby like art, or suprisingly even walking can get you in a flow state, if you use the time to observe the environment around you, or are working towards achieving some sort of goal (visiting landmarks, or walking a certain distance and so on).

Something that doesn’t require flow would be something like watching TV, where you are a more of a passive consumer. I could imagine that it is still possible to get into a flow state when watching TV though - maybe if you used the time to notice certain visual techniques that are being used, or if you watched something not in your native language as a way to improve your language skills.

Flow at work vs for leisure

It’s towards the end of the book where I feel the book finally gets to the good part, and introduces a rather interesting paradox - people tend to spend the majority of their time in “flow” while at work, and not in their leisure time. And although they may say that they wish they had to work less, they actually reported higher levels of satisfaction at work rather than in their free time, due to the amount of time they spent in flow.

You can imagine plopping onto your couch after a tiring day’s work and just switching on the TV to decompress. It can take your mind off things, but since there’s really no challenge in it, you don’t enter a state of flow and it might not quite be as satisfying.

The book’s answer to this is quite complicated and it would be a disservice to sum it up as “don’t be tired” but it is sort of like that a bit. Or at least be able to see the work at you do from a more positive angle, so then you still have the energy at the end of the day to do other things to keep you in a flow state (or find a new job).

Live your life in a state of flow

The book ends with suggesting that you strive to live your life always being in a state of flow. This is not an easy feat, since even if you find a satisfying job or multiple hobbies to help you enter flow states, jumping between these different activities will have you exit in and out of flow. And so you must find an overarching goal (basically your life’s purpose) such that all your sub-goals and the things you do are helping you proceed towards that main goal, which should help you be in a sense of flow all of the time.

Much easier said than done!

Goal-setting is such a personal activity that the book can’t really give you the answers on what they should be. This book doesn’t have a sequel, but if it did I feel like a natural follow-on would be find some sort of book on goal-setting. Or possibly Cal Newport’s book on “Deep Work” which is essentially about removing distractions so that you can spend extended periods of time focusing (and thus being in a flow state).

My thoughts

Overall, this was a book that leaves you with a lot of food for thought. Since it mostly makes reference to past studies done in the 60s and 70s, I would have loved a follow-up book or a revised edition, just to see what else has been learned from the science in the past couple of decades. But alas, the author passed away in 2021.

Another thing that wasn’t really covered in the book, but that in hindsight I would have liked clarified, is the difference between hyperfocus and flow. Although hyperfocus can have its merits, it’s also sometimes characterised as a negative thing, where you focus on something to the detriment of other parts of your life. In contrast, Csikszentmihalyi describes flow positively as being in a state of “optimal experience”.

If I get so stuck into a programming problem that I skip lunch and only stop when I realise it’s gotten dark outside, is that still flow, or is that hyperfocus? (Or both?) When I was younger, I can similarly remember getting hooked on video games in the same way. I suppose when you come up for air after a period of being locked in, the difference between flow and hyperfocus would be how you feel afterwards. Satisfied, or a sense of dismay at how you whiled the hours away?

I actually originally read this book a couple of years ago, but I felt like it was worth the re-read so I could more properly digest its contents (and write this book note on it). I actually bought a physical copy of it too. It’d been a long while since I’ve read a physical book (everything is on my Kindle these days) but man does it feel good! It’s unfortunate that living in my tiny Japanese apartment makes it hard to buy books, but I’d love to go back to having a proper physical library of books one day if I get a bigger place.