Finding your Flow

Think of your happiest memory. What did it feel like when you were experiencing that moment? What were you doing? At the time, did you feel like time slowed down, or sped up? Did you feel fully immersed in that one, happy moment?

Some of you may have experienced this state of full concentration and undivided attention - a state of flow.

Flow is experienced when what you are doing is challenging for you, given your skills and abilities. When you experience flow, there is a sense of effortlessness and ease in whatever it is you’re doing. You might feel that time is moving slower or faster than usual. Importantly, you are not motivated to do the task in order to get something external in return (such as money, praise, or prizes); instead, the nature of the task motivates you to do it well.

Experiencing flow can make you happier, as the state of flow has a lot to offer to you. 

A Sense of Control 

When you experience flow, you are likely to feel that you have strong control over what you’re doing. This helps you to make decisions without worrying about the outcome and achieve your goals more easily. 

No Negative Thoughts

When you are in a state of flow, your attention is fully focussed on the present moment. This means that you are more mindful and engrossed in what is happening right now. This frees your mind of negative thoughts, in turn making you happier.

Mastery and Accomplishment

When in flow, you enjoy the task for what it is - which motivates you to give your best. This state of dedicated concentration encourages you to do the task at hand well. This can help you experience a sense of mastery and accomplishment.

Greater Confidence

When you do well at a task, you are likely to experience a self-esteem boost and feel more confident about your abilities. While flow has several benefits, it can be quite hard to achieve. After all, in a world that demands you to be skilled at multi-tasking, it’s difficult to abandon other pursuits and solely focus on one task at a time, with single-minded persistence. Yet, you can take the following steps to achieve the state of flow:

Control Your Attention

Unless it is absolutely required, avoid multi-tasking as far as possible. Research shows that those who multi-task may get more done than those who don’t, but are unhappier in the long run. Instead, focus your attention solely and wholly on the task at hand, and reduce your distractions in order to do the task well.

Choose Challenging Tasks

When you choose a task that is too easy for your skills and abilities, you are likely to feel bored and disinterested. On the other hand, taking up tasks that are too demanding or challenging for you can be overwhelming, making you feel stressed and worried. Instead, choose a task that is challenging enough so you are motivated to put in effort and do it well. If your task is boring, think of ways in which you can make it complex and interesting. If your task is too difficult, ask others for help or think of ways to reduce the demands the task has on you.

Ask for Feedback

In order to do your task well, you might need some feedback from others so that you can improve your performance and better your output. Don’t hesitate to ask for feedback and to incorporate it - if you take the feedback in a constructive way, you will be further motivated to fully focus on what you’re doing.

Learn from Others

Do you know anybody who has experienced flow, or does so regularly? Others around you can offer a lot for you to learn. The way each person experiences and achieves flow may be different, but you can still ask others about their flow in order to help yourself get it.