The Four F’s of Flow

Flow is defined as being so immersed in one’s task or activity that you forget the passing of time. This famous book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” teaches us how to achieve flow in our work or any other activity, such as playing sports. The following are his Four F’s of Flow.

Focus

Enter flow at work by starting each task with a focus exercise to cultivate single-pointed attention. For example, close your eyes and pay attention to music or to your breathing for a minute. When you open your eyes, direct that focus to the task at hand. Think of your focus exercise like a warm-up routine before a workout. The purpose is to make the transition from scattered focus to single-pointed focus smoother.

“Flow-producing activities require an initial investment of attention before they begin to be enjoyable.” — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Freedom

Freedom means working without letting your inner critic say something about your work. Just work freely without judging your work yet, whether it’s satisfying or not.

A rock climber Csikszentmihalyi interviewed said, “You can get your ego mixed up with climbing in all sorts of ways…But when things become automatic, it’s like an egoless thing…Somehow the right thing is done without you ever thinking about it…”

To find the best way to activate an egoless, judgment-free state of mind, you can set permission timers. Throughout the day, start 10- to 30-minute countdowns and give yourself permission to work without editing your work or critiquing your ideas. Generate ideas freely and trust your ability to execute tasks on autopilot. The goal is to get into a Zen-like state and watch yourself produce results automatically and effortlessly.

Feedback

Chess players in flow have the clear objective of mating the opponent’s king before their own king is mated. The author says, “With each move, he can calculate whether he has come closer to this objective.”

To determine if your actions at work are moving you closer to your objective, you must give yourself feedback throughout the day. To do this, set an hourly alarm. When the alarm goes off, ask yourself, “What did I accomplish in the last hour?” and “What can I accomplish in the next hour?” This hourly check-in helps you clarify your goals and determine if your actions align with your goals.

 

Four Percent Challenge

If you’re playing chess, you should play against players who are rated just 4% higher than you. If you play a weaker player, you’ll win too easily and be bored. If you play a grandmaster like Magnus Carlsen, you’ll get crushed and find the experience frustrating and hopeless.

But if you compete against people who are just slightly better than you, rated 4% higher than you, you know you can win if you dig deep, dedicate your attention to the task at hand, and experience flow.

If you adjust the difficulty of work tasks to be slightly harder than what you can do comfortably, you might find flow. For example, if you can comfortably write 1,000 words in 25 minutes, push yourself to complete 1,000 words in 24 minutes. Or if you can comfortably clean the kitchen in 20 minutes, push yourself to do it 30 seconds faster.

You’ll know if your challenge is in the 4% zone if half the time you meet expectations and half the time you don’t.